Recently in buildings Category

Lewis Miller drawing of York's square in 1799.

I recently posted a Lewis Miller illustration of "wicked boys" taking a wagon apart and reconstructing it on the roof of the market house in 1804. I was asked where that market was.

Click here to read that post.

It was in Center Square, right smack in the middle of downtown York. You can see the location in the Lewis Miller drawing illustrating that area in 1799.

See below for a brief history of markets in the center of York, drawn from Prowell's History of York County and Lewis Miller's Chronicles of York.

Sturdy old houses on Hope Ave. near Oak Lane.

The very detailed Atlas of the City of York by Frederick Roe (1903), as illustrated below, shows Baptist Alley stretching west, between Princess Street and College Avenue, from South Queen Street to the Codorus Creek. It picks up again just east of Penn Street and ends at Belvidere.

Look at a map today, and Hope Avenue follows much the same course, except for a break where William Penn Senior High School takes up the whole block between Beaver Street and Pershing Avenue.

Variety Iron Works from 1868-69 city directory at York County Heritage Trust

I am glad to see that some of the remaining buildings of the Smyser-Royer Variety Iron Works complex are part of York City’s Northwest Triangle redevelopment project.

One of my York Sunday News columns outlined the metamorphosis of the company from a small stove manufacturer to a huge fabricator of mill gears and turbines; garden benches, fountains, and statuary; cast iron buildings fronts; light posts; lacy iron railings, such as the famous ones in New Orleans; iron bridge parts; and much more. You can read that column below.

Then I just came across an article in an 1867 York Gazette that added even more variety to the company’s products.

Hartman Building Revealed March 2008
Miller View With Spectators in the Cupola

You can’t miss the news that the Hartman Building in the Square of York is going to get a drastic facelift. It has been reported in print, on TV and online. I also whipped out my camera when I walked by the other day, struck by the sight of the impressive stone keystone lintels and sturdy bricks that had been covered by metal siding all those years.

I read the news stories that the owner, commendably, plans to restore the building. But then I started to look at the various incarnations and wonder which one will be chosen. Six stories or seven? Cupola or no cupola?

The site has been drawn, photographed, and made into postcards as much as any in York County over the past 200 years. I picked six out of the many views available to share with you. See below for more.

Which Hartman building do you like best?

Rex and Laurel Fire Companies

You think traffic gets obstructed today by double parking and delivery vehicles? At least no one, as far as I know, has constructed a building smack dab on the street since 1908. How did the Rex Fire Truck end up residing there for two weeks?

Click here to read about one of the fires to which the Rex truck responded.

From the January 1, 1908 York Gazette:

1908 York County Prison

The former York County Jail has stood empty for many years. Every now and then someone suggests a new use for the striking five story brick building, but nothing seems to come of it.

The original stone castle-like prison, built in the 1850s had become crowded and inadequate.

Click here to read my previous post on the Christmas Prison Break from the old not-so-secure prison.

Construction on the monumental multi-story brick addition, which still stands, was in process during the winter of 1908. A fire, caused by construction equipment, caused the locked-up prisoners much anxiety.

The Gazette reports that during the 1908 fire:

Lewis Miller drawing of the new courthouse, 1839.

I recently wrote about a thief stealing the copper spouting off the York County courthouse in 1874. That was the York County’s second courthouse, completed in 1840.

Click here to read about the spouting heist.

York County residents, as always, had plenty of opinions where that new courthouse should be and kept a keen eye on the cost. The first courthouse, the one in which Continental Congress met, had to go, they said, because it sat in the middle of Center Square, and traffic was picking up.

I'll tell you more about the cost of the 1840 building itself in a future post, but for now, I’ll quote the Gazette editorial of February 13, 1838 when, after much wrangling, a site was finally chosen: