I'm going to start this week's post with something special. I had an email from John Robinson, longtime reader and occasional guest photographer of the blog, and he had a wonderful idea for something fun for my readers to do. Since I presume most of you are here because you enjoy and care about the PHMC marker program, I'd love to hear about your personal favorites!
Take a picture of your favorite marker, or one of your favorites if you just can't decide, and email it to me at markerquestblog@gmail.com along with a short explanation of why it's important to you. Maybe you had something to do with getting it added to the Pennsylvania Trails of History, or maybe it's related to your own family tree, or maybe it's a subject that's dear to your heart for some reason. Tell me about it, and for the blog's seventh birthday in May, I'll do a post sharing the stories I receive. I'll accept submissions until Sunday, May 18th (the blog's actual birthday) and put them in the post for Wednesday, May 21st. Let me hear from you! And thanks again, John, for the great idea!
Meanwhile, I have another bit of guest photography from Kaylee Lindenmuth of the Shenandoah Sentinel, since she managed to get out to York County and collect one of the markers I was missing. So let's dive in.
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| The marker stands at the intersection of Market and George Streets. Image courtesy of Kaylee Lindenmuth. |
Now, as you may remember (especially if you've ever attended one of my Zenkaikon presentations on the history of Lancaster), when the British were on their way to take over the city of Philadelphia near the beginning of the American Revolution, the guys we remember today as the Founding Fathers were kind of in fear for their lives, seeing as how they were technically guilty of treason. So they grabbed the Declaration of Independence and ran north, taking a roundabout path through part of New Jersey and what today are the counties of Northampton and Berks before stopping in the city of Lancaster. For one entire day - September 27, 1777 - Lancaster was the capital of the baby United States. However, the runaways then thought it would be prudent to put the fury of the Susquehanna River between them and anyone who might be chasing them, so they headed west to Yorktown, as it was called, and set up shop in the courthouse there.
York's courthouse was built in 1754, and modeled at least a little on the one in Lancaster. Various additions were made at later dates, but these all came long after the Continental Congress had returned to Philadelphia. The building in which the Founding Fathers finally settled down to affairs of state after months on the run was a smallish, almost square building with a cupola for a bell and a little front porch.
York likes to claim that it's the original capital city of the U.S., although it's my opinion that the title really belongs to Philadelphia. Your mileage may vary. I will admit, though, that they have some pretty good reasons for feeling as they do. For one thing, the phrase "the United States of America" was first used while the Continental Congress was operating in their city. For another, it was in York that the Articles of Confederation were drafted, although they weren't actually ratified until 1781. If it's been a while since you cracked a history book, the Articles of Confederation were basically the original U.S. Constitution, since they outlined the unification of the thirteen original colonies that were becoming states and forged a "league of friendship" between them.
It's been suggested, and not without cause, that the U.S. isn't so much one big country as it is fifty small countries standing on each other's shoulders and wearing a trenchcoat. That said, there's still a pretty good "league of friendship" keeping us united in our own weird way.
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| Image courtesy of Kaylee Lindenmuth. |
One Founding Father who was not present during this time was Benjamin Franklin. He had gone to France, where he was immensely popular, to try to drum up support for the American forces and also to encourage the various European nations to see the United States as a sovereign country rather than the property of the British. The French and British notoriously hated each other at this time, and 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend,' so it probably wasn't too hard for him to get the French to join us. Indeed, we know today how successful he was. At the time, though, it was very much up in the air, so every day the other members of the Continental Congress hoped they would get word from old Ben that help was coming. Eventually, of course, they did.
The British occupation of Philadelphia didn't last as long as they perhaps expected. Word reached York in June of 1778 that the British had abandoned the city and it was safe for them to return, so they resolved to adjourn their sessions in York and resume meeting in Philadelphia in July. As for the courthouse which had served them in their hour of need, it underwent a series of enlargements and adornments over the next several decades. Eventually, however, it became entirely too small for the growing needs of the county, and in 1838 a new and much larger courthouse was constructed in a different location. The provincial structure was demolished, its bell transferred to St. John's as the only surviving relic.
In the 1970s, as part of their celebration of the centennial of York's tenure as national capital, the city built a reconstruction of the provincial courthouse. It still stands today as part of York's Colonial Complex, where visitors can get a sense of what the Founding Fathers saw and experienced during their stay in the city. (I have a photo of the reconstruction on my other computer, which I'll add to this post when I get a chance, but you can see it by visiting the website for the Colonial Complex linked below.) Meanwhile, at the intersection of Market and George Streets, nothing hints that it ever stood in the middle of the square - except for this marker.
Sources and Further Reading:
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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