Part II: Penn Park town character Squire Braxton and other freedmen should be memorialized

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Jim McClure

Charles Granger, widely known as ‘Squire Braxton‘ around York County in the 1800s, lived in an old Penn Park shanty he built of bricks, stones, mud, metal signs and bottles, among other things. He wheeled a push cart used to clean water closets – toilets – for a small fee. Edwin A. Greiman wrote about the former slave in his memoirs, which carried this illustration. Also of interest: Part I: York, Pa., town character Squire Braxton’s shack: Home to mongrel dogs, a long-barreled gun.

A York, Pa., Daily Record/Sunday News story about pending improvements to York’s historic Penn Park gained the attention of former York County community leader Wm. Lee Smallwood, living in New Orleans.

Or rather a Penn Park timeline by yours truly accompanying the story brought this email from Lee, an interested student of York County’s history even in retirement.

He wrote:

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Part II: What were the houses of famed architects John and Reinhardt Dempwolf like?

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Jim McClure

Keystone Human Services is renovating the former  Reinhardt Dempwolf home overlooking South Queen Street in York Township. The home, a group shelter, is known to thousands of motorists daily. It is set apart from other homes on the hill near Queensgate Shopping Center. Renovations will be completed in March.  Part I: What was the house of famed architect John Dempwolf like? and Old Man Winter graces side of John Dempwolf house.

The York-based Dempwolf brothers, John and Reinhardt, designed hundreds of homes and buildings in York County and beyond before and after the turn of the 20th century.

So, what was the design of their own homes?

A York, Pa., Daily Record story tells about one of Reinhardt Dempwolf’s homes, now undergoing renovations.

See interior photographs of that home below, plus another Reinhardt home and photos of John’s home along South George Street in York: Continue reading →

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Old plow aids in planting of new Glen Rock museum: Linked in with neat history stuff, Feb. 1, 2012

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Jim McClure

Here’s the history of the recently opened historical museum in southern York County’s Glen Rock, according to borough historian John Huffnagel: ‘During the Sesquicentennial, Harold Fritz brought a plow made in Glen Rock in the 1880s into Sesquicentennial Headquarters for display. After the celebration was over, Fritz said he “would donate the plow if we had a room to display it.” ‘ That lit the fire to officially organize a museum committee.’ So the 150th anniversary of the borough in 2010 spawned the idea that formed the Glen Rock Historic Preservation Society’s museum. For more on the museum, check out this York, Pa., Daily Record/Sunday News story.  (See additional photo below.) Also of interest: Check out this photograph of the Glen Rock Museum‘s exterior.

Neat stuff from all over …

Those old York Safe & Lock/AMF/Harley-Davidson buildings in Springettsbury Township?

Many of no more, as that site is being prepared for development:

This update, courtesy of the York Daily Record/Sunday News:

“All that’s left of the largest building that once stood on Harley-Davidson’s West Campus is a concrete pad, said spokesman Michael DiMauro.

“By the end of January, all demolition will be complete on the company’s site, and the western portion will be handed over to the York County Industrial Development Authority, he said.

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Pierceville, York County, Pa. Where is that?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Jim McClure


The Mummert farm rests along Fair School Road in the Pierceville Run District in southwestern York County. A caption with this photograph, from the York, Pa., Daily Record/Sunday News, states: ‘The buildings, fields, tree lines and wood lots tell the story of the people who farmed the area in the past.’ This area is part of the proposed  Pierceville Run Historic Agricultural District, which would illustrate how farming began and how it changed over time. Also of interest:  Is mystery railroad the old Shrewsbury narrow gauge?

Pierceville has been in the news.

Pierceville, Codorus Township, is a locale in a remote part of southwestern York County. Indeed, in one of the most remote parts of the county, near the Maryland Line. That region, down Sticks way, is primarily beautiful farms and rolling countryside. The map shows Pierceville is around the intersection of Route 216 and, well, Pierceville Road.

Spoutwood Farm in that region sometimes makes the news because of its May Day Fairie Festival.

A York Daily Record/Sunday News story tells how a piece of that region, Pierceville Run, is under consideration for nomination for the National Register of Historic Places.

All this proves that even in an area of York County in which nothing appears to be happening, something is happening.

Here’s that story (11/13/11) telling about Pierceville Run:

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Check out these iconic YDR photos fit for Facebook timeline: Linked in with neat history stuff, Jan. 30, 2012

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Jim McClure

Tractor’s square dance, yes square dance, at a recent Pennsylvania Farm Show. This photo, one of several available by the York, Pa., Daily Record/Sunday News, is available for posting on Facebook’s new timeline feature. If you’re not a fan of Facebook, you might just enjoy the dozen or so photographs at Facebook timeline. (See additional photo below.) While on the topic of photographs, see this poster image of Joe Paterno, published in the York Sunday News on Jan. 29. Also of interest: Crowdsourcing an effective way to gather York County news.

 

Neat stuff from all over …. .

Yorktownsquare.com posts and newspaper articles about the long-closed Boring Furniture Co. continue to spark letters of inquiry.

The most recent one comes from Elizabeth (Libby) Wilson Sellen of Woodbury, N.J. She grew up in York and still has close relatives here.

She wrote:

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Part II: Brook Leaf Love Nest tree house known as Hellam honeymoon spot

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Jim McClure

This is an unusual view of the Brook Leaf Love Nest, courtesy of York resident Dick Wilson. The honeymoon site, shown here in 1945, was constructed on the Howard Emig Farm in Hellam Township along Kreutz Creek. Two boys mugging for the photographer can be seen at the far left of the platform. (See another Love Nest view below.) Part I: Brook Leaf Love Nest… .

The Brook Leaf Love Nest in eastern York County never ceases to amaze.

That honeymooners would choose to spend their honeymoon in a tree is not something that many people would choose today.

But this is a day of wedding trips to faraway beaches.

In less affluent times – like in times of war – honeymoon trips were less ambitious.

Or perhaps people just preferred that venue, and then they would have a honeymoon story to talk about for years.

All this taken into consideration, I wanted to know more when a longtime contact, Dick Wilson, pointed out that he knows someone who honeymooned there before its demise via fire in the mid-1940s.

This seemed like a story York Sunday News columnist Mike Argento would have fun with… .

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York County towns loaded with colorful art treasures: Linked in with neat history stuff, Jan. 28, 2012

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Jim McClure

York County, Pa., residents enjoy works of art in virtually every town. They are on display in accessible public view. The artwork – stained-glass windows – are mountedin the churches that make Church Street such a common name in the county. Congregations built many churches between 1900 or earlier and 1930. In those days, stained glass windows represented a staple of such buildings. In fact, as in a museum, the artwork has labels. The windows often are dedicated to families or contributed to the life of the congregation or monetarily to the windows. This photograph is from one such church along Main Street in Windsor. Power for Freedom ministry recently purchased the church. See more photos by York Daily Record/Sunday News photographer Jason Plotkin of the building’s interior. Also of interest: Windsor: Home of “stately old houses that may appear to be miniature castles” and Terry Downs’ series on the 31 J. Horace Rudy stained-glass windows in York’s First Moravian Church.

Neat stuff from all over … .

Blake Stough continues to do good work over at Preserving York.

He tells, for example, about a house in eastern York County where six sets of twins were born in 11 years: ‘House of the Twelve Twins.’

And he also wrote about a Scout Fair – yes a Scout Fair – in 1963 at the old Alcazar Ballroom, topic of my recent post about a billiard demonstration there, today known as Cobblestones.

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Black Widow shoots old Alcazar Ballroom into the news: Linked in with neat history stuff, Jan. 27, 2012

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Jim McClure

A packed crowd at Cobblestone’s watched Pro billiards player Jeanette Lee’s game as part of the American Poolplayers Association’s Black Widow Tour. The evening was hardly historical, but it gives us a chance to spotlight the interior of the old Alcazar Ballroom. For years, the South George Street venue served as a south side dance, band and entertainment venue to the Valencia Ballroom’s offering on North George Street. Both venues today remain open today as restored gathering sites. We can thank the Black Widow, formerly the world’s No.1 female billiards player, for giving York Daily Record/Sunday News photographer Kate Penn a reason to show us the old Alcazar’s inside. (See neat photo below of bands at Beaver Stadium below.) Also of interest: ‘The 1950s, 1960s: The greatest time to grow up in York, Pa.‘

Neat stuff from all over … .

The York Water Company is pounding in some historical stakes.

A news story in the York Daily Record/Sunday News states:

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A hot York County news cycle that will live long in memory

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Jim McClure

Patrick Dahlheimer, Chad Gracey, and Chad Taylor, right, members of the band Live, are seen with York City Councilman Michael Helfrich in the former Maple Press/Bi-Comp building in York this week. The trio, performing as Gracious Few, purchased the old building on York Street. That day, many events around York touched on people or companies with national renown. Also of interest: Check out this list ready for induction in a York County Arts & Entertainment Hall of Fame.

Thomas Freidman has written that the world is flat, that what happens in one place can impact a locale far away, maybe half a world away. And vice versa.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that a slew of events earlier this week over a 24- to 48-hour period involved York County links or players or companies with national or international ties:

Here goes the news that demanded attention in and around Tuesday:

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Congressional Aisle Hogs and the mysteries of the purloined pens

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Jim McClure

This screen photograph shows President Obama greeting U.S. Rep. Todd Platts before last night’s State of the Union Address. That was Platts’ last address as a congressman. Depending how he performs at the polls in November, this could be Obama’s last. Obama also waved at the gallery where Platts’ two sons were seated, and they had the opportunity to meet the president after the speech. The president asked the Platts boys about school. Also of interest: 10 stories capture lives and times of past U.S. congressmen from York County, Pa. and 9 fun things history will tie to Todd Platts.

Retiring U.S. Congressman Todd Platts has been named by Salon to its list of Aisle Hogs.

Those are the U.S. reps who are known to hug the aisle to shake hands 0r get autographs from U.S. presidents on their way to or from delivering their State of the Union addresses.

Salon reported Tuesday: “A moderate Republican now serving his sixth term, Platts is an accomplished Aisle Hog, a fact that was brought to our attention by his local newspaper, the York Daily Record, after our 2011 list appeared. Platts actually wasn’t on the aisle last year, but a review of the C-Span archive finds that he was there just about every year before then.”

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