The Morgantowner

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

I visited Carlisle, the county seat of Cumberland County, and several smaller places in the county September 4 and 5. I feel like I've been crazy busy and more-than-usually distracted since then. I stayed home today with the intent of working on my projects, including this one.

According to the algorithm I invented, Cumberland County was worth a 24-hour trip: it's less than 200 miles from Morgantown to Carlisle, and fewer than 450,000 people live in the county. Still, this is one of the larger and most historic counties near here, 192 miles away. I covered what I could in 24-hours.

It would have been easier if I had left home at 9, as I planned, but it was 10:20 when I finally left. I stopped for lunch at a semi-fast food noodle place that shares a footprint with a coffee place on the parking lot of the mall in Halfway, near Hagerstown, in Washington County, Maryland. Cumberland County is just across the Susquehanna river from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's state capital. Like Hagerstown, it lies along I-81.

The Usual Chain has an unusual branch in the center of Carlisle. I was there about 2:30 and parked on High Street, as in Morgantown, the major artery in town. The meters give you fifteen minutes free, after that you have to pay. There was an open-air market starting at three right in the center of town. I was there just before, and co-eds from Dickinson College, a few blocks away, were about to make pizza and sell veggie-flavored popsicles. Meanwhile it was 90 F. out, and I was exhausted. I checked into the hotel, and moved my car to a city garage behind the motel. With a sticker, I only had to pay $4.50 to park for a day.

After a nap, I dined at a café on High Street with signs welcoming everyone, specifically LGBT people. A nice touch. I had a decent sandwich, and continued on my way west to Dickinson College. The campus is lovely, wooded, with benches and hammocks scattered about. On a warm, windless night, lots of students were out, congregating in small groups around campus.

I learned that most of Carlisle is in a historic district, and that it was occupied by Confederate soldiers in 1863, who soon moved on to Gettysburg. I was jealous that High Street in Carlisle has a movie theater and an independent bookstore.

I overplanned Thursday. I was supposed to go home after visiting several places in the county, and taking a detour 90 miles to Owings Mills, Maryland, outside of Baltimore. It being Elul, the month before Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur on the Jewish calendar, I thought I would visit my parents at the Maryland Veteran's Cemetery. It occurred to me that this would be more than 300 miles driving, and that I wouldn't get home until 8 P.M. I considered stopping at my sister's in Maryland, then leaving for home the next morning. I decided not to risk morning and evening rush hour traffic around Washington and go ahead and bomb home.

I drove first to Shippensburg, at the southwestern end of the county. I missed the college there, but found Widow Piper's Tavern from 1735, and the Shippen House from 1750, added to and remodeled since then.

I headed south and east to Pine Grove Iron Works, in Dickinson Township. The furnace dates from around 1770. It is now in a park, and the Appalachian Trail runs through there on a rare flat stretch next to a stream. I walked a bit, and then drove back to Carlisle Barracks, just outside of Carlisle, and still a Federal installation after more than 200 years. I needed a pass to get in. They called
somewhere, copied my driver's license, and looked me up on a computer before they decided I was okay to visit. This was the site of the Indian School where Jim Thorpe was educated, probably why he is buried now in the northeast Pennsylvania town that bears his name. The Barracks is a sprawling post, and one can only take pictures along The Quad, the green space in the center of the installation.

I stopped for lunch in Mechanicsburg, more what I expect of a small town in Pennsylvania, pretty and historic, but not trendy or touristy. I had a pizza and diet cola (not bad) at a neighborhood place before heading to my last stop, Capital City Mall in Camp Hill, along the Susquehanna. I never did get to the river, but I was jealous that the mall has a gigantic branch of that (formerly) ubiquitous upscale department store. I walked a loop through the mall and headed out, eventually onto I-83 south, a poor excuse for a highway. I left the county at 2:20, about the time I entered the day before. I drove past York and into Maryland.

By 3:45, I was at the Maryland Veteran's Cemetery. I didn't have much to say to my parents this year. I took some pics of the grounds, and two groundskeepers stopped by and asked if they could do anything for me. I told them why I was there, and asked why my parents' stone was so much darker than many of the others. They said they had flooding this year, and there are geese who poop on the stones. Great. They offered to clean up the stone, and maybe they will. I don't expect to be back there until next year.

I left the cemetery about 4:30, hit lots of traffic on the Baltimore Beltway and I-70 west, thinking how close I was to where I grew up and to the schools I attended so many years ago. I know there were back roads I could have figured out that might have saved time. Still, I took the Interstates and got home close to eight P.M.

The Town Square, before 3 P.M.

Entrance to Dickinson College

City library, with a much larger modern addition not shown

Dickinson College Jewish Student Center

The square about 7 P.M.

On campus at dusk

Carlisle Theater, High Street. They have movies and live performances.

Modern building on Dickinson's campus

Old East, Dickinson College

Flyer for an LGBT group at Dickinson

Cumberland County Courthouse after dark

Widow Piper's Tavern, Shippensburg

Shippen House, Shippensburg

Pine Grove Furnace, Dickinson Township

Mountain Creek, Pine Grove Furnace State Park, adjacent to the Appalachian Trail

Hessian Powder Magazine, 1777, part of Carlisle Barracks, now a museum

Part of the former Indian School at Carlisle Barracks. The rear part is the gym where Jim Thorpe trained.

Part of Carlisle Barracks, now used as a residence

Downtown Mechanicsburg Historic Disrict

My parents' burial spot, with stones I left to show others that someone had visited

Maryland Veterans Cemetery, Owings Mills, Baltimore County

Monday, August 12, 2019

Culpeper County, Virginia

Culpeper County is in a fast-growing area seventy miles from Washington, now considered a reasonable commute if you want a house for under $300,000. I spent a few hours there Saturday, August 10. I was in Charlottesville the night before, and drove to Greenbelt, Maryland, to my sister Robin’s house, Saturday night. The last census showed less than 50,000 people in the county.

The county history includes hiring 17-year-old George Washington as a surveyor in the early days, being the last county in Virginia to integrate its public schools, and denying a permit to a mosque a few years ago. In the 2000 census, the county was about two-thirds white and a third African-American. Sixty per cent of the voters picked the current President in 2016. Based on what I saw, there are lots more people in the county since 2000, many new developments of ugly townhouses and bigger detached homes in a pseudo-colonial style with too many gables. I saw many people who appear to be Mexican in town.

I parked downtown and hit a farmers’ market, busy. I bought homemade tea and soap to take to my sister. The old train station has a tourist center, so I visited and picked up some maps. I had made a list of ten places on the National Register of Historic Places to visit and photograph.There are shopping centers, no malls, and the closest community college is just over the county line in Orange County. Facebook has a page for Jews in Culpeper. I don't think there was ever an organized Jewish community.

Downtown Culpeper is pretty and half gentrified. I visited the Burgandine House on Main Street near the intersection of U.S. 15 and U.S. 29, which meet in Culpepper. The house has been restored a few times. I spoke with the man and woman who staff the house to show to tourists. I got to hold a musket from the 1700s. The man told me there is some tension between the old-timers and the new Washington commuters, who, it seemed to him, have brought fancy restaurants the locals can’t afford (I didn’t mention the $4.00 tea and $5.00 bar of soap I bought at the Farmer’s Market).

I walked around and looked at all the historic places. It was cool in the morning but got hot later, so I drove to one of the shopping centers and had “New York” pizza (not really, but not bad) and a salad for lunch. There was a group of younger men (30-40) there, who at first looked like good-old boy types, but one asked another if the schools had enough money, so maybe he’s on the school board, and they were talking about the new Quentin Tarantino movie. Perhaps I was too quick to judge them.

I headed out to Brandy Station, a little community a few miles north of Culpeper, where the volunteer fire department was holding a carnival. There were rides I wouldn’t have the nerve to go on when I was a kid, let alone now, but I did score some great ice cream, locally made.

Greenwood, a late -18th century plantation house with later additions, hidden behind trees, south end of Culpeper

Saturday Farmers' Market, Culpeper

AMTRAK Station and tourist office, Culpeper

A.P. Hill Boyhood Home, 1820, greatly expanded 1860

Davis St., the main commercial street in Culpeper

Mandatory, it seems, Virginia Confederate soldier statue, Courthouse lawn, 1911

Culpeper County Courthouse, 1874

Slaughter-Hill House, 1775, enlarged twice.

Mural of young George Washington working as a surveyor

Pitts Theater, later State Theater, 1937-38, closed in 1992, reopened 2013, closed again 2016
The may have been some financial shenanigans with the restoration and the owner.

Republican County Headquarters, Main St., Culpeper. A man and woman were wheeling out a rack of t-shirts that said "Finally, a President with balls." Classy. I offered to pray for them.

Lord Culpeper Hotel, 1936

re-enactors at the restored 1749 Burgandine House

House in the South East Street Historic District

Hill Mansion, East St., 1857-58

mid-century modern building, Main St., now a café and a beauty salon, maybe a bank at one time

Culpeper National Cemetery, originally a burial ground for Union soldiers. The big monuments are from Maine, Ohio and Pennsylvania

Culpeper National Cemetery with the caretaker's house from the 1870s. The smaller markers are for those who could not be identified.

Mountain Run Lake Park, near Culpeper

Carnival put on by Brandy Station Volunteer Fire Department

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Crawford County, Pennsylvania

This is my second Crawford County, so I thought I would look up who Crawford was. There are counties named for Colonel William Crawford in Pennsylvania (this month) and Ohio (last month). He was born in 1722 in what is now West Virginia's Berkeley County, and had a history in both Virginia and Pennsylvania. Crawford was friends with George Washington, and learned surveying from him. He lived much of his life in Connellsville, now in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, not far from Morgantown. In March of 1782, 98 Christian Native Americans were massacred by American troops in Gnadenhutten, in eastern Ohio. Crawford was sent out to Ohio to deal with the natives, some of whom were allied with the British in the American Revolution. He was captured, tortured, and burned at the stake. American history is nothing if not gruesome in spots.

It's 159 miles, downtown to downtown, from Morgantown to Meadville, the county seat of Crawford County. From there, it's only forty more miles to Erie, on the lake of the same name. We think we are deep in the heartland here in West Virginia, but the border isn't all that far. We are shocked when we get "lake effect" snow, when there are no natural lakes in West Virginia, but of course, geography doesn't recognize the state lines, especially when they were imposed by Mason and Dixon and President Lincoln.

The population of Crawford County is somewhat under 90,000, so I thought I could drive up for lunch one day, stay over, and come back the next day. My schedule being what it is, I picked Saturday and Sunday to go. Joe has Torah study Saturday morning, and two widows at temple invited him for a late afternoon movie and dinner, so he was taken care of. I was home by four Sunday.

I left home after nine Saturday and drove, first to our Courthouse, then to Crawford County's Courthouse in Meadville. There's an oval urban park with a fountain, and a statue of a Civil War soldier. Despite the Confederate flags one sees occasionally in Western Pennsylvania today, the statue is of a Union soldier. Two tables were set up in the park, one touting medical marijuana, and the other, a table for the Gay Pride event going on. Dan, Sue and Alex were staffing the table. Dan is on the school board and running for County Commissioner. Sue is a writer, and I asked if they could be on my blog post, which I promised to have up more than a week ago. They said "Yes."

It was 1 P.M. when I had introduced myself to the Pride people, and I hadn't had lunch. Dan directed me to Chestnut Street at the south end of the block-long park. He recommended some places, but they weren't plain enough for me. I found a "street market" on Chestnut Street, the main commercial street of the town, with booths selling crafts, jewelry and baked goods. At the end of the block is a half-dead mall, smack in the middle of town. I ate at a restaurant called "The Bistro" in the mall, which is anchored by a Dollar General store. Welcome to America 2019.

I checked back in at the Pride event. There were a few more people, mostly mothers with kids drawing in chalk on the sidewalk. I took off on foot from there to find the historic places in town, most of which were in walking distance. The problem was that it was 90 F. and humid. I found most of them, and have pictures below. I picked up the car and drove to Terrace Street, at one time overlooking a river, now looking at factories. There were canals also before the railroad came through.

Allegheny College is at the north end of town and dates from 1815. I thought I had more pics from there, but only one survives, from Ruter Hall. I had an address for a Hillel chapter at Allegheny in a former synagogue building, but I only found a house with an American flag. Maybe I had the address wrong. I was way overheated and exhausted by the time I had walked through campus.

I was booked at The Usual Chain in Titusville, 28 miles east of Meadville. I checked in after four for my usual nap. An older woman (about my age) did the honors, and when I told her I was from Morgantown, she told me that her two children had gone there. One now works in Pennsylvania, the other in Ohio.

Titusville is where oil was first discovered in the ground, and it was a boomtown in the 1890s. Not so much, now. By dinnertime, I was ready to go out and explore. I drove a few blocks to Sheetz in the middle of town for gas, then parked at Lin's Chinese buffet. I was there Saturday at 6:30 P.M. and I was the only customer. A few more groups of people came in later. The food was good.

Titusville sits in a river plain, with a steep hill behind it. Downtown and the old city hall are on the National Register of Historic Places, and there is a branch of the University of Pittsburgh. The weather had cooled off, and it was comfortable to walk. Sunset was just before nine.It's a quiet and pretty town with lots of kids on bikes on the side streets, and old homes ranging from well-restored to falling down. On the way back to the car, I discovered a modern-looking senior citizens residence with a park next to it where older people were out barbecuing. I didn't get to the oil industry museum.

Sunday, I visited the next three largest places in the county: the borough of Cambridge Springs, and the CDPs (Census-Defined Places) Conneaut Lakeshore and Pymatuning Central. Cambridge Springs is a small town with a Main Street lined with churches. I stopped for a picture, and a woman dressed for church and carrying a cake yelled at me from across the street "Beautiful day, isn't it? Look at those clouds!" It was a beautiful day, cooler and dryer than the day before, and the clouds were, well, picturesque. I was tempted to go to church with her, and maybe score some cake.

Conneaut Lake is in the southwest part of the county. It's out from the towns. The lakeshore seems to be private, although there are some older motels and what looks like a derelict amusement park.

Pymatuning Lake is a state park in two states, on the border of Ohio (Ashtabula County). I may have visited the Ohio side of the park in March 2014. I stopped in the visitor center for the park, and walked down to the dam at the south end of the lake. There is a road over the dam, and a medieval-looking tower. The weather was sunny and just about perfect. I could have stayed longer, but I wanted to get lunch and head home. The Pymatuning Central community is on the east side of the lake, sprawled out and rural. I didn't see anyplace I wanted to eat, so I headed south on Route 58, to Greenville, in Mercer County, where I stopped for a pizza and salad before heading back to Morgantown.