Results tagged “Highland Park” from York Town Square

The demolished building in foreground is the bath house for Springwood Park near Yoe in the aftermath of the Flood of 1933. According to the booklet 'Picture Memories, York Flood 1933,' Mill Creek's waters carried the structure 100 feet off its foundation, and it broke into two sections when it struck a telephone pole. Half of it is in the swimming pool, at left. Nothing is left of Springwood Park, but the still-standing house, right, helps locate it. The house is identifiable today by its distinctive second-story windows. Background posts: Old Ma & Pa Railroad trestle may again carry passengers - on bicyles - some day and 19th-century mines gave Ore Valley its name and One-room schools: 'That's when things were good'.

The pool's sloping sides and cold, cold water make it memorable.

That was the 125-foot by 75-foot Springwood Pool along the road by the same name in York Township, between Chapel Church Road and Yoe.

It operated from the 1920s until 1954... .

The area around the former Highland Park in West Manchester Township also has been called Smoketown, one of several such locales in York County. Highland Park was an electric park, designed to attract trolley riders on weekends. Background posts:
Carrie Nation in York: 'If you keep smoking those things ...', Growing off-peak trolley ridership in York County: Build a park and Pinchgut vs. The Gut.

How many Smoketowns are there in York County?

That question came to mind in putting together the recent post: This Smoketown now rests on York County lake floor.

I didn't know about that Smoketown.

I was aware that the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society's "Gazetteer of York and Adams Counties" lists two: ... .

These 160 steps from the lower level of Highland Park to the upper part were called "Fat Man's Misery." The park operated in the vicinity of Dogtown, on the north side of the Codorus Creek, south of Old Salem Road, between Highland Avenue and Hoke Street. Highland is described in "The Gazetter" as a "former recreational park in south eastern West Manchester Township . . . ." A large theater, dance hall, skating rink, merry-go-round, circular swing, penny arcade and numerous refreshment stands operated at the park. Highland Park, along with fellow recreational sites Cold Springs, near Manchester, and Brookside, near Dover, provided riders for trolleys during off-peak times -- evenings and weekends. Background post: Speeding trolleys drew criticism.

They were called electric parks because of their illumination by generous numbers of electric lights.

What they did was provide service for trolley companies during times when ridership was low. Many trolley users were going to and from work, often in York's many factories. What to do to promote use of weekends and evenings?

Thus began Brookside, Highland and Cold Springs parks in York County... .

Fairmont Park in Red Lion owes its existence to Highland Park in West Manchester Township, maybe 10 miles away.

The link was the trolley system that snaked throughout the county at the turn of the 20th century.

The Red Lion Centennial Commission's history said popular Sunday excursions to Highland Park sparked some ministers and churches to protest inappropriate activities on the solemn Sabbath... .