On 05/04/2011 we drove up to ODW Gettysburg Farm Resort near York, PA. During our stay on 05/07/2011 we visited the Colonial Complex in York, PA. The Colonial Complex is made of four buildings, which are Golden Plough Travern, Gates House, Colonial Court House, and the Bobb Log Cabin. The Golden Plough Tavern, built in 1741, is the second of the two major restorations in the heart of downtown York. It is situated at its original location — lot #120 in the plan of York as surveyed and laid out by Thomas Cookson in 1741. Built originally as a tavern, it contains much of the original construction which is representative of a type almost non-existent today. It is believed that the early appearance of the Plough Tavern, once a freestanding structure before the erection of the General Gates House next door was the same as the building today. Joseph Chambers, when he built the General Gates House, apparently meant to have all the cooking for the two buildings done in the kitchen of the Golden Plough Tavern. A door to the tavern was made in the General Gates House when it was originally built, while a door was cut through the northwest corner of the exterior wall of the Golden Plough Tavern to gain access to the General Gates House. The Golden Plough Tavern was probably run as a profitable business while its owner lived next door and the kitchen of the tavern served to sustain the life and activities of both buildings. The Golden Plough Tavern, which evidence suggests was originally not clap-boarded, was soon covered over with clapboard siding thus hiding its interesting structural features but preserving the fabric. A two-story building with a double attic, the tavern is typical of the medieval type structures built in predominantly German areas of Pennsylvania during the first half of the eighteenth century. The first story consists of horizontally laid logs that were mortised into huge upright corner timbers. Between the first and second floors at floor level is a sill log into which the angular braces and the uprights of the half-timbered walls for the remaining story and double attic are mortised. The picture is of Golden Plough Tavern and Gates House Back Yard.
America was born in York’s Colonial Courthouse. The original was constructed in what is known today as Continental Square. During the American Revolution the Second Continental Congress fled to York for safety and adopted the Articles of Confederation, in which the words “United States of America” first appeared. Congress worked at York’s Courthouse from September 30,1777 to June 27, 1778, adopting our nation’s first Constitution. Though the original building was torn down in 1841, it was rebuilt in 1976 by the York Bicentennial Commission and sits at the intersection of West Market and Codorus Creek. Like the original, the recreated building is designed in the English-style, Georgian architecture. It features a cupola, end chimneys and a gabled roof. The picture is of York Colonial Court House.
Learn about York County’s many contributions to agricultural and industrial progress on a visit to the Agricultural and Industrial Museum. Agricultural artifacts produced or used in the county over three centuries include locally made wagons, tractors, steam engines and farm tools. Working industrial exhibits include a 72-ton A-Frame ammonia compressor, once used to manufacture large blocks of ice, and three-story gristmill. Exhibits on pottery, casket manufacturing, dental supplies, piano and organ manufacturing, as well as York’s industrial contribution to World War II are also featured. The exhibit, Air, Land, & Water: Transporting People & Products, housed in the Trust’s 12,000 square-foot transportation wing, includes York manufactured automobiles, a Conestoga wagon, and a 1937 Aeronca K airplane. The museum is self-guided. Befitting its name and purpose, this museum is housed in the Old Eastern Market building. Built in 1889, it operated as a farmer’s market until 1947, when Sears and Roebuck turned it into a farm equipment warehouse. Today the Museum features some 20 unique exhibits in a 13,000 square foot display area. The picture is of the Entrance to the York Industrial Museum.
We visited the Will’s School House in Delroy, PA. Named for the original owner, the schoolhouse is situated on an elevated plot in Delroy, on Route 124, about 6 miles from the juncture of Route 83 (at Exit 18) and Mt. Rose Avenue, York. The Wills School was built in 1875. The last class to occupy this ‘little red schoolhouse’ left in 1955 when the modern Eastern Jointure Elementary School was completed. It was acquired in 1956 from Lower Windsor Township School Board by Millard Winter, who hoped that it might one day be preserved as a one-room schoolhouse memorial. The first teacher was Alice Beard–the last, Susan Herman. A total of 34 instructors served the school in the 80 years of community service. It was dedicated as a monument to educators of yesteryear in 1959. Original contents such as the desks, organ, inkwells, blackboards, water cooler, pot-bellied stove, and pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln remain. The original school bell is housed in the belfry from which it called thousands of neighborhood children to daily sessions. The picture is of Wills School House.
The picture is of the inside of School.
The picture is of Pam playing the Reed Organ in the one room schoolhouse.
The picture is of Abigail in her first-row school seat already to learn.
