Results tagged “Theodore Roosevelt” from York Town Square

Theodore Roosevelt's1906 visit made York County news when The York Dispatch published a rare front-page photo. This marked one of the last times - if not the last time - the Dispatch would depart from a gray, eight-column front page without photos for the next 82 years. The image of another U.S. president, George Bush, prompted a front-page photo in 1988. Roosevelt, just back from dedicating the new capitol building in Harrisburg, rode in an open carriage from York's Centre Square to the fairgrounds where he touted York's growing prosperity. Background posts: Presidential visits listed, York-based historian shakes hands with 8 U.S. presidents and Presidents visit York, alive and via funeral trains

In the buildup to the inauguration of new U.S. President Barack Obama, I'll post numerous entries here about presidential links to York County.

We'll start with the well-attended visit by popular U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt... .

John F. Kennedy campaigns in 1960 for the presidency in York. (See list of known presidential visits below.) Background post: Ted Kennedy's visit to York comes almost 50 years after JFK's and Hillary Clinton's rally site in York, Pa., a little odd.

There is a telling story about President James Buchanan, who regularly passed through York County on his way to his home, Wheatland, in Lancaster County.

His practice was to leave his conveyance and walk across the mile-long covered bridge connecting York County and Lancaster. One trip in 1859, he slipped, fell, got up and, unfazed, continued his walk.

Some would say there was a certain poetic justice in his fall. His inability as president, and as a particularly weak president to boot, to hold the union together ultimately resulted in the Civil War and the rebel army's visit to York County in late June 1863. The very bridge itself slipped into the Susquehanna River after Union troops torched it to stop the Confederates from crossing.

After his fall, Buchanan returned through York "in excellent health and fine spirits," a newspaper reported. Too bad, many Americans then believed, that he didn't depart from office with his country in similar circumstances.

Buchanan's links to York made his excursions through the region public, even down to coverage of his slips. But it's impossible to pin down a complete list of prospective, actual or former presidents who visited York and Adams counties.

Here is a sampling of visits to York and Adams counties from those who occupied the White House: