wallpaper, candy, foodstuffs, false teeth, clothing,
iron and steel products, chemicals, and a host of
other articles.

Before World War I, such products were trans-
ported by railways and by horse-drawn drays, but
during 1917, Felix Bentzel pioneered in York by pro-
viding regular motor truck service to Philadelphia
and New York.



to Baltimore, but it was not until 1927 when the
states began to undertake programs of highway im-
provement that York's motor truck transportation
began to grow by leaps and bounds. Equipment was
added, terminals were built, additional drivers were




York is an important trucking center.

At the close of World War I, many trucks were
released for civilian use and service was extended
hired, and companies were incorporated.

At the present time, approximately forty common
carriers and several contract carriers operate from
York to all parts of the United States. Service on ex-
port, import, coastwise and intercoastal shipping is
maintained through connections with shipping lines
at the ports of Baltimore, Philadelphia, North Jersey
and New York.

No figures are available on the total amount of
inbound raw materials and outbound finished prod-
ucts transported to and from York, but one of the
larger trucking companies averages ten million
pounds weekly.

York's truck lines, by maintaining modern termi-
nals and equipment, through regular routes, joint
rates and daily service, provide efficient, speedy and
dependable transportation. With the introduction of







The Wrightsville-Columbia Bridge was financed by a $3,000,000 bond issue backed by York and Lancaster Counties.



cargo-carrying planes in the near future, truck lines
will form another integral link in the coordinated
truck-rail-water-and-air transportation of freight to
all parts of the world.

MOTOR TRUCK INDUSTRY STATISTICS, 1944
YORK AREA

Number of Trucks Registered 7,453

Capital Investment $1,980,000

Payroll Yearly $1,100,000

Employees 2,990

Gross Sales $6,400,000

YORK AIRPORT

Following World War I, a number of "barn storm-
ing" fliers visited York and used various cow pas-
tures as landing fields.

It was not until 1939, that York had its own Class I
Airport. Located at Thomasville, Pennsylvania, on
Route No. 30, and privately owned by Oscar L. Hos-
tetter, the York Airport operates five planes of its
own, and offers storage facilities for forty-five pri-
vate planes. The field has complete facilities for
major aircraft and engine repairs.

A C.A.A. approved flight school is maintained in
which a War Training Program was carried from
1940-1942, training one hundred private pilots and
twenty instructors. Ground school subjects are given
at the York Collegiate Institute.

Plans are under way for enlargement of the field
to provide for the accommodation of passenger and
cargo planes. The expansion of aviation in the near
future will require at least two or three additional
airports in the vicinity of York for the convenience
of private and commercial flying.

CIVIL AIR PATROL

The Civil Air Patrol in York made aviation history
during the early days of the war when it originated
the courier service, offering transportation for war
plant personnel and vital supplies. Underwritten
by the Manufacturers' Association, pilots stood by
awaiting emergency calls.

The Civil Air Patrol trained many Army Air Forces'
enlisted cadets as well as cadets in ground school
and military C.A.P. subjects. These boys became
better military pilots because of their background
and many were employed as instructors.

At present, the Civil Air Patrol holds weekly meet-
ings at the State Armory. Classes in such subjects
as physical training, navigation, meteorology, and
plane identification are conducted. Many of the stu-
dents enrolled in preflight classes at William Penn
Senior High School are members. Girls, as well as
boys, interested in aviation are welcome to join the
unit.

VALLEY AIR PARK

The Valley Air Park, located three miles east of
York on the Lincoln Highway, caters to the private
plane owner and his plane. The landing field is L-
shaped; the east and west runway being 2,100 feet
long and 300 feet wide; and the north and south
runway, 2,130 feet long and 300 feet wide. The pres-
ent office is 15 by 30 feet, and the hangar is 50 by
75 feet, but plans are under way for the building of
twenty private hangars and an overhaul shop 120
by 80 feet.



Aircraft is available for every phase of instruction
and planes are also rented to qualified pilots. A
complete overhaul service is maintained and a full
line of parts kept on hand.

BIG INCH PIPE LINE

The Big Inch is a 1,400-mile pipe line constructed
at a cost of $95,000,000 to carry crude oil from the
fields at Long View, Texas, to the refineries at Mar-
cus Hook, Pennsylvania, and Bayway, New Jersey.
It passes through eight States and has a daily ca-
pacity of 12,000,000 gallons of oil, equivalent to the
load of eighty-five tankers or 25,000 railway tank
cars. This oil is moved at the rate of 100 miles per
day by twenty-six pumping stations.

After the Big Inch crosses the Alleghenies, it enters
York County near East Berlin and leaves it at Vine-
gar Ferry, south of Accomac. Three-hundred-and-
sixty days were required to complete the entire con-
struction of the line. The construction through the
county was carried on between March and August,
1943. The forty-foot, two-ton sections of pipe were
laid under 237 streams and forty rivers, but the diffi-
culty of blasting a channel in the rock bottom of the
Susquehanna was second only to the laying of the
Big Inch under the Mississippi.

When the war is over, the Big Inch will insure
a constant supply and a decrease in the price of
fuel oil and gasoline to the residents of the Eastern
Seaboard.

"THE YORK DISPATCH" Evening Daily

"The York Dispatch" puts world news on the front
page, but probably most Yorkers glance first at the
local news on the back page.

It was through Frank Thomas, a printer out of
work, that "The York Dispatch" came into existence.
The year 1876 had been a dull one in the printing
trade and unemployed printers used to congregate
in the book store of Hiram Young, then located at
16 East Market Street. Mr. Young had been publish-
ing a weekly, but Mr. Thomas urged him to start a
daily paper. Accordingly, the first issue of "The York
Dispatch" appeared May 29, 1876. The paper was
published at 10 East Market Street until 1904, when
it moved to its present location at 15-17 East Phila-
delphia Street.

E. Norman Gunnison, a polished New Englander,
and a typical Bohemian, was first editor of "The Dis-
patch." He was gaining reputation as a poet but
was claimed by death.

Edward S. Young, son of the publisher, was for
more than a decade managing editor. He had lived
in the Far West and worked with such newspaper
men as Eugene Field and Bill Nye. He abhorred sen-
sationalism and faking and stood for strict accuracy
in reporting and clean journalism. Under these poli-
cies, the circulation of "the Dispatch" had grown
to 26,000.

E. B. Williamson has been managing editor since
1925.

"THE GAZETTE AND DAILY" Morning Daily

"The Gazette and Daily" is believed to be the
oldest newspaper in continuous publication in
Pennsylvania.

The York Gazette Company, publisher of "The
Gazette and Daily," this year is celebrating four



anniversaries which span 150 years of newspaper
publication.

This 150-year-old record of publishing weekly,
semi-weekly and daily newspapers makes "The Ga-
zette" the oldest newspaper in continuous publica-
tion in Pennsylvania and one of the oldest in the
country.

The quadruple celebration marks the 150th anni-
versary of the founding of the "York Gazette," a
German edition first published in December, 1795;
the 130th anniversary founding of the English edi-
tion in May, 1815; the 30th anniversary of the present
management, which took over on February 2, 1915,
and the 75th anniversary of the first publication of
the "York Daily."

The present paper resulted from a merger on June
24, 1918, of the "York Daily" and "The Gazette." The
first issue of the daily "York Gazette" appeared No-
vember 9, 1877, while the first issue of the "York
Daily" appeared seven years earlier, October 5,
1870.

The first issue of "The Gazette and Daily" in tab-
loid format appeared on April 1, 1943.

The paper pursues an active editorial policy and
keeps its readers conscious of community conditions
in need of improvement.

WORK NBC Network

The broadcasting studios of WORK are conven-
iently located in the heart of York at 13 South Beaver
Street. Visitors find much of interest "back-stage."
They see how the news comes in by teletype; they
watch operations in the control room and witness
actual broadcasts. They note how every program is
timed to the split second. Electrically synchronized
clocks in each room and studio keep everyone in-
formed of the time at all times.

The station broadcasts regularly 17 hours out of
every 24 and on many occasions, when there is news
of unusual interest, the station stays on the air for
the entire twenty-four hours.

More than a dozen times a day the news is given
over WORK, either by local announcers from ma-
terial furnished over the wire of United Press, or by
nationally-known commentators and analysts from
all parts of the globe.

Many local programs are given each day to sup-
plement the top shows presented by the National
Broadcasting Company and the Mutual Network.

WORK was York's first radio station and during
its thirteen years of existence it has given freely of
its air-time to civic organizations such as the Red
Cross, the Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts, the York
Ministerial Association, and the Farm Bureau. It has
also played an active part in War Bond Drives, Sal-
vage Campaigns, Recruiting Services, etc.



WORK'S one-thousand watt transmitter is lo-
cated five miles west of York on the Lincoln Highway.

WSBA

Built and operated to meet the needs of the dy-
namic community it serves, WSBA, York's newest
and most modern radio station, is located a short
distance north of the city along the Susquehanna
Trail. Developed under the personal supervision of
Louis J. Appell, the station went on the air Septem-
ber 1, 1942, and, in the relatively short time since
that date, has firmly established itself in the cultural
and business life of the area.

W S B A is a 1,000-watt station, at present operat-
ing from sun-up to sun-down on a regional channel
frequency of 900 kilocycles. Its studios, transmitter,
and offices, which are housed in a modern building
of Colonial architecture in keeping with the tradi-
tions of the community, form a unit unsurpassed in
plan, design, and equipment by any station of its
class in the East. It is affiliated with the Blue Network.

Since its initial broadcast, Radio Station WSBA
has consistently maintained a policy of public ser-
vice. In addition to the usual radio programming, it
pioneered an outstanding news service, which brings
to its listeners news practically every hour on the
hour. It gives to the farmers of York County a daily
program specially planned for them and brought to
them by a practical farmer. It initiated the WSBA
Radio Chapel, conducted daily by ministers of all
local churches, and every church in the community
is given the opportunity to broadcast its regular Sun-
day morning services free of charge. Produced in its
own studios, the WSBA Yankee Doodle Club Pro-
gram provides a unique opportunity for the younger
citizens of the community to participate in a produc-
tion of their own. Its facilities are at the service of
all governmental agencies, and every call from busi-
ness, educational, and philanthropic organizations
of the area have been answered with good-will and
cooperation.

The station's personnel, many of whom participate
actively in the cultural life of the community, con-
stantly exert every effort to create programs calcu-
lated to please the tastes of every section of the
population.

Looking to the future, the management intends to
improve and expand its present standard broadcast
facilities wherever possible and, in addition, has ap-
plied to the Federal Communications Commission for
permission to build and operate a High Frequency,
or FM, station. It is likewise following closely, devel-
opments in the field of television. WSBA will con-
tinue to give York nothing less than the best pro-
gramming and latest developments in the industry.



OO



INDUSTRIAL
AND COMMERCIAL








"The York," with Phineas Davis as engineer, chugged off in fine style, at a speed of thirty
miles per hour, on ifs test run be/ore the directors and engineers of (he Baltimore and Ohio

Railroad, August 4. 1832.



Industry and Commerce



YORK AS AN IDEAL INDUSTRIAL
COMMUNITY

York, as an industrial community, has experienced
a steady growth based upon solid and fine-tested
foundations.

Yorkers are home-loving people, who live well
but within their means. The population is 96% white
and native-born. Thrift and industry are traditional,
and workers are unusually loyal. Many have worked
in the same plants for years, and sometimes three
generations of the one family may be found in the
same shop. Many are highly skilled, through train-
ing received in industry or through the cooperative
industrial program of the Atreus Wanner Vocational
School. Most of York's industries are owned locally
and were the direct outgrowth of local inventive
genius.

Three railroads, splendid highways, nearness to
the markets of the great cities of the Eastern Sea-
board, the low tax rate, and a dependable supply
of skilled labor make it an ideal city in which to
locate an industry.

York's many beautiful churches, its broad recre-
ational program, varied educational facilities, its
coordinated health and social welfare agencies, its
good food and beautiful countryside, also make it a
city in which to live as well as to make a livelihood.

TYPES OF INDUSTRIES

Metal trades lead in York, clay glass and stone
products are next in volume, and paper, printing,
textiles and textile products, woodworking, chemicals
and allied products are also of importance. In 1944,
York County manufactured one-thirteenth of all the
cigars made in the United States.

York has a greater per cent of its population gain-
fully employed than any other city in the State.




Peace and plenty in the valley ot the Codorus.



Many women are employed in textile and knitting
mills, in clothing manufacture, food industries and
cigarmaking.

It ranks as the fourteenth city in the State in popu-
lation but is first in the State in diversification of in-
dustry. Yet it has nine of the world's largest indus-
trial plants of their kind manufacturing ice-making
and refrigerating machinery, bank safes and vaults,
water turbines, artificial teeth, wallpaper, roofing
paper, pretzels, auto tire chains and bakers' ma-
chinery. York is also noted for agricultural machin-
ery, pianos, hosiery, furniture, pottery, fertilizer, lime,
wire cloth, heating systems, candy, cement, garage
equipment, welding rods, metal stampings, and
many other widely-used products.

The following figures for 1943 show the industrial
strength of the community: Number of industries,
224; capitalization, $49,537,200; value of product,
$199,173,000; number of employees, 24,093; salaries
and wages, $52,723,000.

YORK PRODUCTS ARE USED THROUGH-
OUT THE WORLD

York products find their way to many foreign
shores. One York plant alone ships its products to
thirty-three countries. York companies have sales
offices in Canada, England, and France; and sales
representatives in every European, Central and
South American country and in South Africa, Aus-
tralia and the Orient.

In peacetime, a traveler might find York products,
shipped in paper cartons made in York, in almost
any part of the world. An office in Shanghai, a hotel
in London, a theatre in Rio de Janeiro are equipped
with York air conditioning. York-made cooling ma-
chines operate 1 '/4 miles underground in a gold mine
near Johanesburg, South Africa, and York ice ma-
chinery is used to cool drinks from Singapore to
Moscow. Hotel windows in Panama are screened
with wire cloth made in York. The drinking water in
Bogota is brought from the mountains over an aque-
duct equipped with York-built valves. Widely used
in South America are York chains. In Manila and
Sao Paulo, Brazil, electricity is generated by York
hydraulic turbines, and the same type of turbines
supplies power for the operation of copper mines
high in the Peruvian Andes. Ore-crushing machines
from York are used far north of the Arctic Circle in
Siberia and near the Equator in Ecuador. York farm
implements are used in Central and South America,
Europe, Africa and Australia.

There is no college, university or technical school
in the world which does not use technical books
printed in York, and it is also impossible for anyone
to obtain an engineering degree or a doctor's de-
gree without using books printed in York.

With the coming of the World War II, York prod-
ucts were used upon the high seas and in every
theatre of action, as may be seen by a careful read-



ing of the accounts of individual industries in the
industrial section of this book.

REAL ESTATE

York is a home-loving community. Approximately
55% of the city's families are homeowners. Several
fine decorators' shops and high-class furniture stores
supply furnishings for York's homes. Many proper-
ties are beautifully landscaped.

Homes are kept painted and in good repair. In
the downtown section many fine old residences,
built more than a hundred years ago, are still most
attractive and livable due to the care they have
received.

House cleaning is a ritual which traditionally oc-
cupies a full month both spring and fall. Attention
is given not only to the inside of the house but to
the outside as well. Windows, steps, sidewalks, and
even house fronts are washed regularly. "You can't
beat the Dutch as housekeepers" still goes in York
County.

During the past fifteen years, many attractive de-
velopments of medium and higher-priced houses
have sprung up overlooking the beautiful country-
side just out of York, where taxes are low. These
homes are sold to wage earners upon agreement of
sales. Architects, bankers and builders have co-op-
erated in creating these developments and are all
set to go ahead with more as soon as building con-
ditions permit.

For many people, York's bankers and builders
have fulfilled that dream of a beautiful modern, rea-
sonably-priced home in the country, with flowers,
shrubs, trees, a garden and a yard for the dog and
the children ... all within convenient commuting
distance of the city.

YORK AS A CONVENTION CITY

Ample hotel accommodations, central location, ex-
cellent transportation, beautiful countryside, agri-
cultural prosperity, good food, picturesque markets,
modern stores, historic interest, recreational facilities,
and the genuinely hospitable character of its inhabi-
tants make York the ideal convention city.

York has entertained conventions of many types.
As a city of beautiful churches, York attracts many
religious groups. Farmers have frequently selected
York for state and national meetings. The Standard
Bred Horse Show, formerly held at Madison Square
Gardens, took place last year at the York Interstate
Fair Grounds. Tobacco growers, bakers, representa-
tives of the metals industries and numerous other in-
dustrial associations have met in York because of
the many top-ranking industries located here. The
antique dealers, the D. A. R., and other patriotic or-
ganizations find York an interesting convention spot
because of its rich historic associations. York's un-
usual diversification presents something of interest
to almost any type of convention.

YORK'S HOTELS

The hotel business is one of York's oldest and most
important industries. When Continental Congress
was in session in York during those historic months
of 1777-78, the great men of the colonies slept, dined
and held many an epochal discussion at the old
Globe Hotel, located on Continental Square, where
the Schmidt Building now stands.



Today, York's hotels have all the conveniences
and comforts of the best hotels in the nation's largest
cities, such as, mail, phone, wire, valet, and garage
services, to mention but a few.

The growth of York's hotels parallels York's de-
velopment as an industrial center during the past
twenty-five years. During that period, York's hotel
accommodations have more than trebled. During
World War I, York could offer less than 250 hotel
rooms in buildings valued at $1,500,000. In World
War II, the city has 800 first-class hotel rooms, in
properties representing an investment of $4,000,000.

During 1944, York's hotels were host to more than
200,000 nightly guests. These guests spent $1,000,000
in hotels and approximately $3,000,000 elsewhere in
the city.

At least 150,000 of these guests were here in con-
nection with the war effort. York's hotels housed U. S.
Navy and Allied personnel attending classes in air
conditioning, refrigeration, gunnery, Diesel engines,
hydraulic engineering and other subjects in York's
industrial plants, and accommodated hundreds of
high-ranking officers, government expediters and in-
spectors. Meeting-rooms were also provided for
many war plant conferences.

York, as the hub of the southeastern Pennsylvania
and northern Maryland region, a rich trade area
with three-quarters of a million people within a
twenty-five-mile radius of York, is headquarters for
salesmen covering this area because of its fine
hotels.

Numerous post-war opportunities will be open to
returning veterans in York's hotels which normally
employ about 400 persons. Despite a 70% increase
in hotel occupancy, York's hotels have not been
overcrowded. Existing facilities are adequate to take
care of post-war needs.

DISTINGUISHED VISITORS TO YORK

During the nineteenth century, York's inns enter-
tained many distinguished visitors; among them,
Andrew Jackson, who visited the city in 1820; Gen-
eral William Henry Harrison, 1836; Martin Van
Buren, 1839; Zachary Taylor, 1849; Charles Dickens,
1842; and James Buchanan, 1861.

YORKTOWNE HOTEL

In recent years, the Yorktowne Hotel has enter-
tained Lauritz Melchior, Jessica Dragonette, Vivian
Delia Chiesa, Lily Pons, Lawrence Tibbett, Nelson
Eddy, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Linda Darnell,
Hedy Lamarr; Edna Ferber, Mrs. Roosevelt, and
many others.

During 1925, a group of businessmen raised $1,-
000,000 through a community campaign to build an
up-to-date hotel to be known as the Yorktowne,
owned by the Community Hotel Company, and oper-
ated under the direction of the American Hotels
Corporation. The Yorktowne is located but one block
from the juncture of the Susquehanna Trail and the
Lincoln Highway; "The Main Street of America." It
has 256 rooms; all with private baths adjoining;
cocktail lounge, seating 100; club room, seating 150;
a ballroom, accommodating 300; and banquet room,
accommodating 650. Its dining room and coffee shop
are noted for good food. The garage, belonging to
the hotel, accommodates 90 cars. The Yorktowne has
become known by the title bestowed upon it by its
guests: "One of Pennsylvania's better hotels."



York has several other up-to-date hotels such as
the Colonial Hotel, Continental Square; Penn Hotel,
George and Philadelphia Streets; and Brooks Hotel,
30 South George Street.

YE OLDE VALLEY INN

Ye Olde Valley Inn, built by lohn Greist in 1738,
purchased by Abraham Hiestand in 1792, and long
known as Hiestand Tavern, is still a landmark on
the Lincoln Highway three miles east of York. Here
were entertained some of the delegates to Conti-
nental Congress. In 1813, Conestoga wagons carry-
ing powder to Perry at Lake Erie stopped here.
When the York-Wrightsville Railroad was built in
1840, the engineers and workmen made Ye Olde
Valley Inn their headquarters. Immediately before
Gettysburg in June, 1863, General Gordon and two
of his officers stopped here for refreshment while
3,000 men in grey marched on to Wrightsville. Ye
Olde Valley Inn is now operated by S. C. Whitenak.

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

The American Federation of Labor is represented
in York by the following organzations: Allied Print-
ing Trades Council; Building and Construction Trades
Council; Labor Temple Association; Union Label
League; Asbestos Workers, International Association