Cataloging York's Architecture: A Publishing Odyssey
In 1991, I enrolled in an architectural appreciation class. The focus was modern architecture, but the term paper was open to any period in architecture. As the paper was worth 85% of the total grade, choosing the "perfect" topic was vital. I decided to catalog downtown York architecture - styles present, notable buildings, notable architects.
As it happened, at the time I was also studying photography - a hobby external from my collegiate studies in marketing. I was able to combine my newfound hobby with my interest in York's historic architecture. I walked up and down and up and down the streets of York taking countless photos. Of course, this was well before the digital revolution in photography, so it was an expensive project, paying for the film and all the processing.
I completed my paper over a month before the end of the semester, turned it in, and got an "A" - allowing me to coast through the final few weeks of my last semester. (And yes, I heard the jeers of "geek" from my fellow classmates, who were still scratching their heads as to what their term papers would be about.)
Many years went by, and I found myself on the marketing committee of the York County Convention & Visitors Bureau. An opportunity to write the visitors guide arose, and I dusted off my camera and began walking the streets of York. Again. But this time, I was taking photographs for potential publication in the York County Visitors Guide. But still, I was drawn to the architecture. The beautiful, historic architecture.
After working on the guide for several years, I decided to create a virtual tour of York, focusing on the buildings: www.virtualyork.com. I'm certainly not a Web designer, but know enough to get by. The Virtual York site was launched six years ago. In this world of Flash and Java and fancy Web sites that should be updated continually, the Virtual York Web site is somewhat of a dinosaur. Yet I'm still amazed by the traffic through the Web site. Over 535,000 people have visited the site, and roughly 1800 new visitors stop by every week. Well, the site is out-of-date, has some incorrect information, and generally needs a tune-up, which I started to do several years ago.
But the tune-up kept growing and growing, and suddenly I began thinking in different terms: "What if I made this into a book?"
All this time technology was changing and buildings were being renovated - so I again walked the streets of York with a camera - from 35mm to 4 MP digital to 8 MP digital - but I also began exploring the architecture of York County. I began "shopping" for a publisher for the architecture book.
The first stop was Arcadia Publishing. They immediately said "no" - it didn't fit with their publishing model; however, they were publisher of a popular postcard series, and asked me to create a book about York, viewed through historic postcards. It was an interesting project, and Postcard History Series: York was born. Of course, architecture features prominently throughout the book - many old postcards are of old buildings. The book came out, and I again turned my attention to the architecture book. But I soon found myself sidetracked again. One of my volunteer activities was co-creating the annual York Patriot Days event, and the Pennsylvania Civil War Trail was being launched. While York has a fascinating Civil War story, there aren't a lot of Civil War related attractions for visitors. This led to my writing and photographing a short new book, Civil War Walking Tour of York, Pennsylvania, which was published by the York County Heritage Trust.
And then my attention turned, once again, to the architecture book, and the quest for a publisher. As fate would have it, I was contacted by Schiffer Publishing, a Chester County publisher looking for opportunities in the local market. "Perfect," I thought, here's my chance. Unfortunately, they felt that the topic was perhaps too focused for their publishing model. But as we began talking, we did find some other areas of opportunity - this lead to my involvement with Dinah Roseberry to write Spooky York (which should be hitting bookstores any day now) as well as York: America's Historic Crossroads, a hard-cover, color, photo-intensive book that will be released later this year. All those photos of York were proving invaluable. And my relationship with Schiffer has continued - I'm finalizing a book about the Delaware coast as I post this.
But the architecture book has continued to be near and dear to my heart. I even began looking into self-publishing options. It's not ideal, and there is a lot of risk, but I really wanted to get this resource out there.
Then as fate would have it, I received an e-mail from the Lancaster-York Heritage Region. They had been contacted by a specialty publisher looking into the Lancaster market. I followed up with the publisher, History Press, and queried about their interest in a book for the York market. They were interested!
York's Historic Architecture would finally see the light of day. Of course, I had too much information. Too many building profiles, too many photos, too many sections. Years of collecting data and writing will do that. I dropped a chapter on local architectural styles as well as a visual dictionary of architectural terms. I also had to cut back on the building profiles - there were simply too many.
Inevitably, someone will look at the book and say, "Why didn't you include this building?" (It has already happened, and the book is just now being released.) Buildings were selected based upon (1) architectural merit (2) historical merit, and (3) uniqueness. I probably could have written an entire book about historic churches, but I selected the best examples for this book. When people think local historic churches, Christ Lutheran, First Presbyterian, and Trinity UCC in downtown York are typically at the top of the list. You'll find all three in the book; however, two more of my favorites are off-the-beaten-path: the eclectic Victorian Grace Reformed Church on North Hartley and stunning Richardson Romanesque Centre Presbyterian Church in New Park.
So is every historic building in the county featured? Absolutely not! There are over 10,000 buildings in York County listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Most are listed as contributing buildings within historic districts.) But I think that York's Historic Architecture gives a great overview of the most important examples of different styles. York, both the city and county, has such an amazing diversity of historic architecture; hopefully this book will help elevate the value and profile of these wonderful historic resources.
The moral of this publishing story? Don't give up! In some ways the book was 17 years in the making. The process led me down many different paths and introduced me to many different opportunities. When the first publisher said "no," I couldn't have dreamed that I'd be finalizing a photo book of the Delaware coast less than four years later, with two more books contracted. Sometimes, being told "no" is the best thing that can happen to you!
