Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost The manufacture of bricks in Reading and surrounding Berks County dates to at least 1790, and several historians contend that the industry in the area predates the American Revolution. The region’s dense clay soil encouraged a proliferation of companies, which by the mid-1840s, numbered seventeen and produced nearly ten million bricks each year. By the close of the nineteenth century,...
read more

Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost In 1845, less than five years after entering politics, William Bigler (1814-1880) built a handsome Italianate-style residence in Clearfield. Before settling in the Clearfield County seat, he apprenticed with his brother John at The Centre De­mocrat, published in Bellefonte, Centre County. In Clearfield, he amassed a fortune in the lumber business. He served in the state senate from 1841 to...
read more

Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Rivaling the fabled “cottages” of Newport, Rhode Island, Whitemarsh Hall, built between 1916 and 1921 in Wyndmoor, Montgomery County, for banker Edward T. Stotesbury, contained one hundred and forty-seven rooms. The estate, totaling more than three hundred acres, was jointly conceived by prominent Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer and French landscape designer Jacques...
read more

Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost So much has changed since historian Brian A. Butko wrote The Lincoln Highway (1996) that Stackpole Books will publish a revised edition in 2002. Mid-twenti­eth-century businesses along the coast-to-coast highway, including gasoline stations and drive-in movie theaters, are rapidly being replaced by huge shopping plazas and sprawling housing developments. One of the most recent causalities...
read more

Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost The world’s first service station – build exclusively to dispense motor fuel and related automobile products – was opened by the Gulf Refining Company (now Gulf Oil) in December 1913 in Pittsburgh. Located at Baum Boulevard (known as “automobile row” because of its many dealerships) and St. Clair street, the drive-in station boasted thirteen pumps and offered...
read more

Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Pennsylvania Architecture: The Historic American Buildings Survey, 1933-1990, recently published by the Pennsylvania and Historical Museum Commission (see “Bookshelf” in the fall 2000 issue) contains a number of vintage images of buildings and structures that, regrettably, no longer grace the landscape. The Horace Coleman House in northwestern Pennsylvania is just one example....
read more

Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost For their country estates, many affluent Americans favored the Italianate style, which became es­pecially popular for suburban mansions by the mid-nineteenth century. Noted Philadelphia architect John Notman (1810-1865) designed Alverthorpe in Abington Township, Montgomery County, for Joshua Francis Fisher. One of the most distinctive features of the mansion, erected in 1850, was its...
read more

Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost In its heyday, about 1909, Willow Grove Park in Montgomery County attracted twenty-five thousand people daily, drawn by its fanciful carousel, two roller coasters, picnic groves, lake, promenades, an immense fountain, music pavilion, cafe, theater, and restaurant. Willow Park was opened in 1896 by the Union Traction Company (later the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company), primarily as the...
read more

Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Proving that it is as important as the buildings and structures it documents, Pennsylvania Architecture: The Historic American Buildings Survey, 1933-1990, recently released by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, boasts more than sixteen hundred entries. The 1787 Joseph Dorsey House near West Brownsville, Washington County, had long been recognized as a fine example of a...
read more

Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Completed in 1910, the Community Inn in Hershey, Dauphin County, originally housed the Hershey Store Company and the Hershey Inn. In 1920 the store moved out, and in 1936 Hershey architect D. Paul Witmer redesigned the structure, adding two floors. The newly named Community Inn provided tourist accommodations, a grill, and a very popular oyster bar. Refurbished in 1958, it was renamed the...
read more