This view, courtesy York County Heritage Trust, shows York looking south toward Webb's or Shenk's Hill in 1852. The Harrisburg road, now North George Street crosses the Codorus Creek Bridge on its way into Centre Square. Small Field lays to the left of the bridge bordering the creek. Hikers and bikers will get a better view of Small Field in the next few years when the 5.5-mile rail trail extension is completed between Manchester Township's Rudy Park and York's downtown.Background posts: When the bridge over the Codorus moved, WWII rocked towns across York County and There's oil in those New Salem hills.

Bob Riese of Spring Garden Township doesn't understand some things about York County.

So he wrote a letter to the editor published recently with the title "Things I don't understand."

Maybe others don't understand either. So I'll take a stab at his questions:

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This is a typical ration book ubiquitous in York County and America during World War II. The books were a common sight at York's former South Duke Street city hall, put in use for defense purposes. Background posts: The bomb: 'And yet it stopped the war',
Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge celebrates quiet birthday and 20 questions and answers to prove your York County WWII smarts

Over at Windows into York, fellow blogger Scott Butcher moves along the discussion about York's city halls.

In a previous York Town Square post, a reader had asked about where York's government met in the 1700s... .

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If the authority overseeing York's East Market Street garage is going to spend $3 million to renovate the 40-year-old structure, it should also preserve the York Fair mural on its side.

I make that point in my York Sunday News column (8/24/08).

Several of the 18 large-scale panels in the Murals of York series are deteriorating. They simply weren't made to last forever, but to see them fall apart within a decade of their painting seems a bit early.

The mural is only part of the reason the East Market Street garage is a useful artifact of history, as I suggest in the column, 'Market Street Garage a symbol of a changing city' :

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The restored cyclorama and a copy of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address will be the focus of the official grand opening of the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center, Sept. 26-28. Background posts: Q&A on new Gettysburg visitor center, old Electric Map, Gettysburg National Battlefield produces steady supply of news, Part II, Gettysburg Cyclorama, with new shape, ready for September opening.

The majority of York countians in the 1860s did not like Abe Lincoln's politics.

That's evidenced by their support of his opponents in 1860 and 1864.

And most did not like his famous speech... .

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This well-known image of Hellam Township tree house has greeted many postcard hunters over the years. Background postcard posts: Striking architecture lined York's South Duke Street, Can anyone locate this ballpark? and Postcards tell story of York County community.

Fellow blogger June Lloyd tells the story of Brook Leaf Tree House in her post: Hellam Tree House Makes the Movie News Reels.

The tree house has been gone for years, but is the tree still standing?... .

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This mansion and its neighborhood share the name Elmwood. This area is known for its diverse architecture. Scott Butcher writes about the mansion, the Spring Garden neighborhood and the Hobbit House in his recently published "York's Historic Architecture." (See interior view of mansion below.) Background posts: '... A shadowy figure of a hoop-skirted woman...',
Elmwood Mansion book more than history of a house and When mules moved a York County mansion.

A photograph and information about Elmwood's Hobbit House in my recent York Sunday News column drew a response from a former resident. (See Hobbit House photo at Author: 'York's streetscape features almost every style and era of American architecture'.

Ohioans Kate and Damian Kotecki lived in the architectually unique house, profiled in Scott Butcher's "York's Historic Architecture," from 1974 to 1989... .

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The stand with the lighthouse is the new home of Smittie's Soft Pretzels. It replaces the shack that was home of the York County delicacy for decades. The location is the same: Route 74, north of Dover. (See photo of shack below.) Background posts: York area full of memory-spawning landmarks, Interstate lined out Melvin's swan song and Before Geno's made news in Philly, Gino's headlined in York.

Smittie's Soft Pretzel's shack never offered the dramatic visual treat put forth by the Lincoln Highway's Shoe House, east of York, or the windmill restaurant, east of Lancaster.

But the old structure was an local icon, and its culinary offering delighted motorists along another old highway - Route 74 - for generations.

The shack is now gone, replaced by a small structure marked by a lighthouse.

Why a lighthouse in the landlocked Dover area?

Brent Burkey's York Daily Record/Sunday News story (8/17/08) explains:

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The 2,000-pound bell Conewago Chapel bell as contractor measures the church belfry. The steeple of the mother church for Roman Catholics in York and Adams counties is undergoing renovations. (See additional photo below). Background posts: People of varying religious groups founded York County, Abe, Gwyneth passed through Porters Sideling and In bucolic countryside, royal body sat in the sun.

York's Christ Lutheran is the mother church for worshippers in that Protestant denomination in York and Adams counties.

The Codorus Church of the Brethren near Loganville is the founding church of Brethren in York County.

But the hearth for York/Adams' United Churches of Christ, United Methodists and Roman Catholics Catholics came further west in present-day Adams County. Adams was part of York at the time these first churches were planted.

Here are some facts on those early, out-west churches, according to "Never to be Forgotten":

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Crispus Attucks' Cindy Leiphart is surrounded by a dirt room beneath the floor in the William C. Goodridge house in York. Fugitives may have used a trapdoor in the kitchen floor to hide in this room, part of the Underground Railroad. Background posts: Research needed to unearth Underground Railroad, Part II, 10 years ago, York's exclusive Lafayette Club became less exclusive, Part II , William C. Goodridge: From slavery to success story

Efforts to turn the home of William C. Goodridge into an Underground Railroad museum are sitting on a siding while sponsors are searching for funds.

But a recent York Daily Record/Sunday News story telling about these funding woes revealed that the site is listed with the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

That means that there has been some outside-the-county scrutiny of the home of Goodridge - a former slave who became a successful 19th-century York businessman -as an Underground Railroad site.

It appears to be the only site in York County to be so listed... .

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When builders dug the Howard Tunnel through a southern York County ridge in 1840, they left room for two tracks. The second track was added after the Civil War.This is one of many interesting facts collected by Scott Butcher and included in captions in "York's Historic Architecture." (Butcher is signing his new book at 2 p.m. Sunday, at the York Emporium.) Because of the tunnel builders' foresight, the rail trail is able to follow the path of one of the old tracks today. The other track is still there for rail use. Background posts: Thousands discover formerly unheralded York County rail trail's Howard Tunnel , No light at the end of this (abandoned) Pa.Turnpike tunnel and York County ... 'A smorgasbord of architectural styles'.

Scott Butcher's new book "York's Historic Architecture" is packed with photos.

But it's also loaded with dates, details and architectural information, including many interesting tidbits about many buildings, well known and not.

Here are five points that are certain to pique your interest:

Did you know ? ...

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