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York Architecture Illustrated, York, PA (2026)

08/14/2026

Mark your calendars! On Saturday, August 22 at 1:00 PM, the Committee to Save Union Lutheran Church will hold a virtual Preservation Guide Page-Turn & Community Review. The virtual meeting is open to Committee members and anyone in the community who would like to participate. Link: https://meet.google.com/ogx-zvgq-ubf

We'll walk through the complete draft of the Preservation Guide, share what has been developed over the past several months, and provide an opportunity for questions, comments, and feedback before the document is finalized.

It has been a little while since our last update. Many of us have been pulled in different directions personally and professionally this summer, which has made regular communication difficult. However, work has continued behind the scenes - and we're excited to share that the first full draft of the Union Lutheran Church Preservation Guide is now complete!

By early summer, we had largely reached the limits of what additional research could accomplish. Since then, our focus has been on organizing the information collected, filling remaining gaps, and assembling the guide.

We also want to thank members of Union Lutheran Church leadership who have been in communication and provided information requested by the Committee. Their input has helped strengthen the document and fill important gaps in our research.

The draft is now being shared with independent reviewers, including local professionals and preservation experts. Following those reviews and the August 22 page-turn, we'll incorporate feedback and prepare the final Preservation Guide for release to Union Lutheran Church. We'll then move forward with the broader version discussed previously for other local congregations facing similar preservation and stewardship challenges.

After a relatively quiet summer, we've reached an important milestone - and we're looking forward to finally sharing the results of the Committee's work with everyone on August 22!

07/31/2026

Our journey around Continental Square concludes at the northwest corner, where nearly three centuries of York's commercial history unfolded on a single block. In 1741, this site was home to the Black Horse Tavern, built on the lot granted by the Penn family to surveyor Baltzer Spengler for helping to lay out the new town of York. Beside it stood a Federal-style brick home that would later become the birthplace of one of the city's most beloved businesses.

That home was purchased by Charles H. Bear in 1888, opening what began as a modest dry goods store before growing into Bear's Department Store, one of downtown York's premier shopping destinations. Expanded in 1911 with a striking Commercial-style building designed by John A. Dempwolf (utilizing the existing walls of the previous building), Bear's eventually occupied nearly half the block between Market and Philadelphia Streets. For generations of York Countians, visits to Bear's meant elegant display windows, white-gloved sales staff, elevator operators, and the famous sugar cakes and molasses cookies waiting near the cafeteria.

Bear's success also absorbed neighboring landmarks, including William Goodridge's remarkable Centre Hall. Constructed in 1847 by the formerly enslaved entrepreneur and abolitionist, the five-story building stood among the tallest in York and housed businesses, meeting rooms, and one of the city's earliest photography studios. Together, these buildings tell a story not only of commerce, but of ambition, entrepreneurship, and the remarkable individuals who shaped York's downtown.

Today, although the storefronts have changed once again, this corner remains one of the city's defining landmarks. Looking across all four corners of Continental Square, the illustration reveals how a handful of colonial taverns and homes gradually gave way to the civic, commercial, and architectural heart of York - a transformation that continues to define the city nearly 300 years after its founding.

07/24/2026

Our walk around Continental Square now brings us to the southwest corner, where the story shifts from architecture to the people and institutions that guided York through the Revolutionary era. Visible just south of the Square is the law office of James Smith, one of Pennsylvania's signers of the Declaration of Independence. From this modest building, Smith practiced law and helped shape York's political life, later serving in the Continental Congress while it met here from 1777 to 1778, when York briefly became the nation's capital. Much of what we know about Smith has been lost, as his home and library were destroyed by fire in 1805, making it difficult to fully reconstruct the life of one of York's most important Revolutionary leaders.

Occupying the corner itself is the engine house of the Sun Fire Brigade, organized in 1771 as York's first volunteer fire company. Home to the town's first fire engine, the company regularly held drills in the Square, where volunteers practiced responding to alarms. Every household was expected to keep leather fire buckets hanging in a readily accessible place, ready to form bucket brigades whenever the alarm was sounded. Renamed the Laurel Fire Company after the laurel wreaths painted on its fire wagons, the organization survives today as part of the Laurel-Rex Fire Company, continuing more than 250 years of public service.

On the site of the engine house later stood the Globe Inn, one of early 19th-century York's best-known taverns. During General Lafayette's celebrated return tour of the United States in 1826, he was welcomed here as a guest of the town. As York grew into a thriving commercial center, the inn gave way in 1892 to the Rupp Building, designed by John Dempwolf in the Romanesque Revival style. The following year, Dempwolf completed the neighboring Colonial Hotel in the French-inspired Chateauesque style, together creating one of York's most architecturally distinguished corners. Together, these landmarks illustrate how the southwest corner evolved from a center of Revolutionary leadership and civic duty into one of York's defining streetscapes.

07/17/2026

Our journey around Continental Square continues at the southeast corner, where this illustration captures a streetscape that had already begun to disappear by the early nineteenth century. Dominating the corner is the two-story log home of Ludwig Michael, one of eighteenth-century York's most accomplished metalworkers. Built during the colonial period, the house occupied this prominent corner until 1807, when Benjamin Hersch replaced it with the handsome Federal-style Golden Swan Tavern. That brick building still stands today, later serving as Samuel Weiser's dry goods store and numerous other businesses before undergoing a meticulous restoration in the early 1980s that returned its early nineteenth-century appearance using traditional construction techniques.

Rising in the background is the steeple of the Christ Lutheran Church, a reminder of York's earliest years. The congregation erected its first log church around the town's founding in 1741, replacing it with a stone sanctuary in 1753. That church (shown in this view) remained until 1811, when it was dismantled - steeple first - to make way for the present brick church and the landmark steeple that continues to define York's skyline. Although it stands beyond this corner, its presence reflects how York's religious, civic, and commercial life all developed together around Continental Square.

The southeast corner continued evolving long after the era depicted here. Gottlieb Ziegel's colonial tavern eventually gave way to the Hartman Building, whose remarkable height became a symbol of nineteenth-century York's commercial ambitions, and the racial prejudices that sometimes shaped the city's built environment. Beneath it lies York's forgotten Comfort Station, which served the public with baths, barber services, and restrooms for nearly eighty years. Viewed together, the buildings on this corner reveal that York is a living record of continual reinvention, where every generation has left its own imprint on the same familiar streets.

07/16/2026

Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Rotary Club of York about the story of York Architecture Illustrated, and how what began as a personal creative outlet has grown into something much bigger.

It was an incredibly welcoming and engaged group, and I especially appreciated the thoughtful questions and conversations that continued after the presentation. Thanks again to Rotary for the invitation and the warm reception - I truly enjoyed the opportunity to share my work and connect with everyone!

07/10/2026

As we begin our walk around Continental Square, the northeast corner provides an excellent introduction to how York's center has evolved over nearly three centuries. During the colonial era, this corner was occupied by substantial Georgian and later Federal-style homes, including the residence of Archibald McLean, the surveyor who helped establish the Mason-Dixon Line. During the Revolutionary War, McLean's home served as the Treasury for the Continental Congress, with congressional funds stored here while York briefly served as the nation's capital.

The earliest buildings reflected the Georgian style, the dominant architectural language of the English colonies from about 1700 to 1780. Defined by symmetry, proportion, and orderly composition, Georgian architecture shaped much of early York, including the original colonial courthouse that once stood at the center of the Square. Following the Revolution, the more refined Federal style emerged, retaining Georgian symmetry while introducing lighter proportions and more delicate classical ornament. Together, these styles defined the appearance of early York.

As York grew into a commercial center, this corner changed dramatically. The colonial homes were replaced by the M.B. Spahr Company, a shoe store housed in an ornate Second Empire building with its distinctive mansard roof. In 1924, that building gave way to the First National Bank, one of York's finest Beaux-Arts buildings. Nearby, the iconic Teapot Dome was built in the late 1880s as the dispatch station for York's electric streetcar network. After the trolleys disappeared in 1939, it continued serving the public in a variety of roles and remains one of York's most recognizable landmarks.

Taken together, this corner reveals how York's history can be read through its architecture. From Georgian and Federal homes of the colonial era, to Victorian commercial buildings, monumental banks, and the preserved Teapot Dome, each generation has left its mark on this intersection. As we continue around Continental Square, we'll discover that each corner tells a different chapter in York's remarkable story.

07/04/2026

250 years ago in 1776, York's Centre Square - now Continental Square - was a bustling center of colonial life. Shops, taverns, homes, and public buildings surrounded the colonial courthouse at its center, creating the civic and commercial heart of York. These illustrations offer a first-person view of what the architecture surrounding the courthouse may have looked like at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

When York was founded in 1741, Centre Square was laid out at the intersection of George Street and High Street (now Market Street). At its center stood York's colonial courthouse, the seat of local government and, for eight months during the Revolutionary War, the temporary home of the Second Continental Congress after it fled Philadelphia. It was here that the Articles of Confederation were adopted, creating the nation's first constitutional framework. During this period, York effectively served as the nation's temporary capital, while the Square remained its principal civic and commercial gathering place.

During York's first 35 years, the town was settled primarily by German and English colonists, with German-speaking residents forming the majority. Although much of York's architecture reflected English-influenced Georgian design - symmetrical brick and stone buildings with orderly façades and restrained ornamentation - the town also featured German log houses and half-timbered buildings, whose asymmetrical forms provided a striking contrast.

Only three panoramic photographs of Continental Square are known to have been taken over the past century - one in 1919, another in the 1960s, and a third in 2019 by local photographer Phil Doucette. Each included large crowds of York residents. The idea to recreate the Square as it appeared in 1776 came from Phil during one of my West Market Street walking tours, and I'm grateful to him for inspiring such a fascinating project.

Over the next several weeks, we'll explore each corner of the Square, examining the buildings that once stood there and the stories they tell about York during the Revolutionary era. Stay tuned!

06/19/2026

Had a great time this week hosting a West Market Street walking tour for the York Renaissance Society - one of my largest groups to date! It's always a pleasure to spend an evening yelling about architecture to a crowd of willing participants. Thanks to everyone who joined us to explore the stories, buildings, and history that make West Market Street one of York's most fascinating corridors.

05/29/2026

Several months late to the party, I finally picked up my copy of A Room With A Boo - an incredible children's book born from a collaboration between local creatives Rissa Miller () and Josh Johnson (). Rissa's engaging storytelling and Josh's distinctive artistic style come together to create something truly special, with a local focus that makes both the story and York itself feel a little more magical.

What struck me most is the book's engagement with one of York's most recognizable landmarks: the Yorktowne Hotel (). Through the interplay of story and illustration, the Yorktowne becomes more than just a setting - it becomes a character in its own right. Anyone who has spent time in the historic hotel will recognize details woven throughout the artwork, from the brass Cutler mail chutes that provide a convenient mode of transportation for one of the book's ghostly protagonists (ghost perks!) to the lore surrounding the hotel's famous taxidermied goat. Many of the Yorktowne's distinctive architectural features appear with only the lightest stylistic embellishment, allowing the building's character to help tell the story of a young girl and her spectral friend.

Truthfully, I'm finding myself genuinely curious about the backstories of Jane, Violet, and Eugene, and I absolutely love Ian the dog, who looks just enough like our Cosmo to charm me to bits.

This architectural history nerd is equally impressed, captivated, and proud of the creative talent we have here in York - people capable of creating such a sense of wonder from the places that surround us every day.

Just incredible work, you two.

I can't recommend this book enough. Pick up a copy through the IngramSpark website or major booksellers like Barnes and Noble, learn more through Josh's website and Instagram, visit his studio on East King Street, and join Rissa on one of her ghost tours through town. Perfect for spooky season - or any season.

York Architecture Illustrated

08/14/2026

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07/24/2026

07/17/2026

07/16/2026

07/10/2026

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05/29/2026

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