Results tagged “Manchester Township” from York Town Square

This scene comes from one of York County, Pa.'s, best-known miniature golf courses, Putter's Paradise in Manchester Township. Putt-Putt golf courses have been around York County for decades and not all of them have been outdoors. Also of interest: Bucolic Outdoor Country Club started in busy York neighborhood and On Eisenhower's York County golf round: He turned in a 'commendable score' and Why is Hanover Country Club in Abbottstown?.

Reader Walter B. Ziegler has identified a miniature golf course that was here prior to the 1940s when York Township's Lil Duffer is known to have been operating.

But the putt-putt course that Walter Ziegler pointed out had a roof... .

A worker with Continental Signs cuts the weights off the familiar statue along Interstate 83 in 2002. The 13-foot-tall, 1,000-pound statue has signaled the York Barbell building since the 1960s. Wind disabled the motor that rotates the statue north of York, Pa., and once workers dug into that problem, they noticed other damage to the statue. (See additional photo below.) Background posts: Former Mr. America Jules S. Bacon passes away and John Grimek lifted up musclemen of York, Pa. and All York Barbell posts from the start.

Ask people outside York County if they've ever been there, and some will say:

"Yes, I've passed through. That's the place with the weightlifter."

That identifiable symbol of York and its iconic company York Barbell looks indestructible.

But even a 13-foot man with a steel frame skeleton covered with tough fiberglas has to withstand much.

Such as the wind... .

This view in Manchester Township is taken from a development, crosses farmland and runs into more development. Farmland preservation is taking hold, although non-farm use of land surpassed agricultural use 25 years ago. (See additional photo below.) Background posts: A York County story: Sprawl leaves problems in its wake and Demolished Red Lion Grange Hall still tells tale of changing York County and From Meadowbrook Mansion to York County farmhouse and All farm & fields posts from the start.

YorkCounts correctly believes farmland preservation is a key quality-of-life indicator in York County.

"York Countians value open space as a matter of principle and honor farmland in concert with our heritage," the coalition stated in its recent report. "Preserving farmland means protecting not only the agricultural sector of the economy, which is still vibrant in York County, but also the very look and feel of the place where we live."

Fortunately, YorkCounts' stats show a trend line of acres of York County farmland gaining protection faster than population is growing... .

Brian Brown, project supervisor of the newly opened Manchester Township's SPCA told the York Daily Record/Sunday News in 2006: 'These dogs are going to be living good.' York-area residents began organization of the SPCA in 1925. Background posts: Pets and animals in York County history and Perrydale's bovine: 'She's a wonderful, laid-back cow' and Landmark dog guards picket.

Dover's Sara Bretz is a retired teacher who wants to instruct others about the SPCA's story.

She's embarked on a project to learn the SPCA's history, spending hours in the York County Heritage Trust Archives. She hopes to compile her history into a publication.

She's found that organizing members of the group first met on March 31, 1925. Harry A. Harris brought the group together.

An annual report for 1931, issued by president Joseph H. Mosser, summarizes the SPCA's goals in those years:

The best place to start in researching York County (Pa.) Pfaltzgraff pottery is "Pfaltzgraff, America's Potter." The book tells the story of the former York County pottery makeer from its founding in the early 1800s through 1989, the date the book was published. It's available via the York County Library System, www.yorklibraries.org. Background posts: Who are York County's most influential citizens? - Part II and Pottery put the other Foustown - the one in Manchester Township - on the map and Original WSBA station hands mic to demolition team.

The Pfaltzgraff arm of Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff made pottery of all shapes and sizes for all kinds of uses for decades and decades.

Page through the book "America's Potters," and you'll see pottery used for Christmas ornaments, cookie jars, ash trays, laundry sprinklers and door stops.

But nothing in there about dragons, a point of query by Julie Patterson... .

This image, appearing on the Class of '66 White Oaks Reunion site, comes from an earlier era but shows the variety of ways that Manchester Township's White Oak Park was used in its heyday. The building here is playing host to a Blaw-Knox picnic. In the 1960s, rock groups played music for hundreds of teen dancers. Background posts: 'Dell rat' blogs about southside York hangout where owners put out welcome mat, York-area full of memory-spawning landmarks, Memories of 'The Oaks' pile - Part I and Other memories and nostalgia posts.

For whatever reason, photos of White Oak Park are rare.

Phil Schwartz found that out when trying to find photos of bands playing at this north York teen hangout in the 1960s. He is producing a compilation album.

Now Homewood Suites on Masonic Drive, whose new footprint covers part of the former Oaks grounds, is collecting photos and other information from the park during its heyday from the 1940s to 1960s. Hotel spokesmen are asking folks with such memories or memorabilia to call 717-434-1800.

In discussing this dearth of photos, some former Oakers mused that perhaps photos were rare because White Oak Park on band nights was a place where (unfortunately)boys were boys and documentation of certain activities might not have been preferable.

This is a rare photograph of White Oak Park courtesy of J. David Allen & Son Photography. This photo shows vehicles navigating the road to Emigsville near the Oaks' buildings. The traffic islands are there today, placing the Oaks at about the location of the present-day rental units lot where vehicles are stored. Background posts: 'Dell rat' blogs about southside hangout , The Oaks: 'I often look up there ... and think about how nice it was', and Memories about 'The Oaks' pile up.

John Allen is part of the generation that lived during the heyday of White Oak Park, a northside hangout where many local rock groups cut their teeth.

He graduated in York Catholic, class of 1966.

That's the year highlighted in an upcoming reunion at Sovereign Bank Stadium based on a White Oak Park theme.

For whatever reason, photographs of The Oaks are rare... .

On one festive occasion, the grandchildren of Roundtown's Helena and Lester Crone surprised their family by donning aprons and serving as dishwashers. Background posts: Emigsville's Web site tells tales of community's past and Two union churches vestiges of bygone era.

In probing Manchester's Township's past in the recent post Pottery put the other Foustown - the one in Manchester Township - on the map, Roundtown's name popped up. That's the village between Foustown and Emigsville, kind of.

Roundtown?

The first piece of pottery was produced by a Susquehanna-Pfaltzgraff forebear in the early 1800s. Here, Rick Heiner of North Codorus Township works on the last job fired in 2005 in the 200-foot tunnel kiln behind him. According to the York Daily Record/Sunday News, The kiln fired the vast majority of Pfaltzgraff products in recent decades. Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff sold the Pfaltzgraff brand name, intellectual property and retail stores to Lifetime Brands of New York in 2005. The new owner would outsource its pottery-making, and the Thomasville plant closed as a pottery-making operation. Background posts: Original WSBA station hands mic to demolition team and Hidden Loucks School reflects past way of York County life.

The recent York Town Square post Foustown now a ghost town: Raid there once netted 300 barrels of quality firewater told of a hamlet near Glen Rock that grew up around a distillery.

That settlement should not be confused with Foustown in Manchester Township that grew up around pottery... .

Paul Schenck, right, takes on a protester on this July 10, 1992, Life cover. The nationally known York County resident heads the National Pro-Life Action Center (NPLAC), an advocacy group in Washington, D.C. Background post: York County 1st Amendment case list grows.

Since 2005, York County has been the home of well-known pro-life advocate Paul Schenck.

Schenck moved his family from Washington, D.C., to less congested, less expensive Manchester Township.

He now lives in a county in which the primary pro-life organization, Human Life Services, has its headquarters in a former abortion clinic... .

John High removes a wooden peg from a barn in Manchester Township. His Lancaster County-based company is also dismantling the best-known of area barns - Star Barn in Dauphin County. Background posts: 'It's so sad to see such a great piece of architecture fall down' and York County boasts of agricultural prowess.

It looks like the Star Barn, that Dauphin County landmark so familiar to York countians traveling to Harrisburg International Airport, won't be re-located to York County.

The York Daily Record/Sunday News even urged in an editorial that the preservationist group that owns the Star Barn move the barn to the Horn Farm, site of a future ag museum.

The Horn Farm's barn burned some years ago, taking away a key asset at the proposed museum... .

This is all that remains of the former WSBA radio building along the Susquehanna Trail in Manchester Township. Susquehanna Real Estate, the building's owners plan to build a business center at the site. For more on the demolition, see story below. Background posts: 101 Ranch Boys hooked musician and Story on famed 101 Ranch Boys spawns memories.

The original home of WSBA Radio is no more, knocked down for commercial development.

The colonial-design building was the original home of York's second radio station, occupied upon its completion in 1942.

Some facts about WSBA, gleaned from Philip K. Eberly's "Susquehanna Radio, the First 50 Years:"

For an upcoming compilation album, Phil Schwartz has found 26 tracks from 11 bands that performed regularly at White Oak Park, better known as The Oaks. Here are the bands he has tracks for so far: The Del-Chords; El Dantes; The Exciting Invictas; The Tranells; The Crystalaires; The Ambassadors; Seven Dwarfs; G.L. and The Vesters; The Chateaus; The Magic Monorays and The Calientes. Chris Huber, concert organizer at the Oaks in the 1960s, attributes the venue's success to The Del-Chords, pictured here. The first night The Del-Chords played the Oaks, Huber told the York Daily Record, the line to get in lasted all night long.

It started out with a query for information about White Oak Park, and it has resulted in a number of posts here of the now-defunct Manchester Township hangout.

Phil Schwartz Sr. continues to look for Oaks memorabilia from the heyday of band battles in the 1960s. He is producing a compilation album of the regulars at the Oaks: "White Oak Park - Battle of the Bands." Contact him at pschwa7845@aol.com.

Meanwhile, York Daily Record writer Jason Cox wrote a story last week about the Oaks:

A provocative mark of change in York County surrounds the Rutter's convenience store on Lightner Road in Manchester Township.

That Rutter's spread is on company land, originally settled by Jacob Rutter and Nathaniel Lightner in 1747.

On the hill behind the store, several sprawling homes have served as the residences of family members... .

Paul Kuehnel of the York Daily Record/Sunday News has produced a video showing an operational old-time gas/electric Rutter's Daily milk truck.

That truck, seen nowadays at the York Fair, aided in milk delivery years ago. (See Paul's video below.)

More recently, the last-known milkman to make deliveries in the York area was a Rutter's route man, John Schwartz.

That came in 1994, after Schwartz had been making deliveries for 45 years.

Rutter's opened its first convenience stores in York in 1968, the beginning of the end for home deliveries... .