This longtime York Federal/Waypoint/Sovereign Bank Building on York, Pa.’s, South George Street is being transformed into York’s City Hall. The city’s choice of this visible venue presents an interesting cultural irony. The Colonial-style building promotes York City’s 18th-century past particularly the richness of its American Revolution history. But much of York’s renowned building and housing stock comes from the Victorian era and its aftermath, meaning 20 years on either side of 1900. This was the period of York’s greatest growth, with the building of all its red-brick factories and row homes for the workers who toiled in them. In that respect, the current West King Street City Hall, built in the 1940s, comes a bit closer. That building will become the city police station. York City offers a big tent of architectural styles but relatively few buildings from the American Revolution era. Despite its appearance, the new city hall is less than 50 years old. All this points to a problem York has experienced in marketing itself. It offers accomplishments from every historical era but not a marquee event or moment to tout. (Click on photograph to enlarge.) For a discussion on this marketing challenge, see: ‘Time for York to break shackles of Colonialism’.

Neat stuff from all over … .

It’s not too late to sign up for my four-week OLLI course “World War II: The Effect on York County.” It’s set for Wednesdays starting Feb. 15, and the second Wednesday we’ll tour the York County Heritage Trust’s “Front Porch to Front Line” exhibit.

The last Wednesday, WW II vet Charlie Slenker will tell of his war experiences for part of the class.

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