Lehigh Path, Drums, Luzerne County

My sister Lisa went hiking a couple of weeks ago, and while husband Kevin and I were collecting markers in Lebanon County on our way to have lunch with our fellow Sherlockians, she was up in Luzerne County sending me pictures of the Lehigh Path.

Anna Morris Holstein, King of Prussia, Montgomery County

It's a new first for the blog, the first quest in Montgomery County!

I went down to the King of Prussia Mall recently to have lunch with Christine, one of my friends from the old college days. Roughly half a million years ago, we were baby freshmen at Kutztown University, and we hadn't seen each other in quite a while so we had plenty of catching up to do. Christine's a food blogger (she's on my Quest Links page) and also an editor at MontCo Today, so she knows plenty about what goes on in Montgomery County. As a result, she was the one who had first alerted me to a marker dedication happening last fall. Specifically, she's the author of this article about it. Unfortunately, we both had something come up to prevent us from going to the ceremony.

Since we were eating so close to its location, though, I was able to head over there after our fabulous lunch at Maggiano's Little Italy. Christine had to get back to work, but we're talking about going together to get another MontCo marker sometime this summer, so she can see how I do this. (My work is probably less glamorous than anyone thinks. The number one rule: don't get hit by a car. I did that already, a long time ago, and I definitely do not recommend it.)

Much to my surprise, this marker hadn't yet been added to the Historical Marker Database, which my regular readers know I link in every post. I've created a page for it there, but as of this writing it hasn't gone live yet, so I'll have to come back and add the link once it does. Edited 5/20/2022: The page is now live and the link is in the sources section at the end of the post.

U.S. Sanitary Commission Great Central Fair, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

A friendly hello to the members of the Retro York group on Facebook! They very kindly welcomed me and took great interest in last week's post about York House. 

This week's quest brings us back to Philadelphia, for the second marker that I collected on my last visit. I'll admit this one had me scratching my head a little bit, because I'd never heard of either the organization in question nor the event they operated. But then again, I'm here to learn and then share what I learn.

"York House," York, York County

May the Fourth be with you! This post went up quite a bit later than I intended due to... well, it's hard to put this any other way, but due to a kitten emergency. We had a situation with abandoned two-week-old kittens at my mother's house. I'm happy to report that things have been resolved and the babies are in a good, safe home where they're being well fed and loved.

As the subscribers to the blog's monthly newsletter are aware, I'm running a giveaway over at the new Twitter account. Become a follower of the MarkerQuest Twitter by May 31st and you'll automatically be entered. One lucky winner will receive a $10 Amazon gift certificate, because that way nobody needs to give me their mailing address (which seems to have been a problem with the last giveaway). The winner will be announced in the post and newsletter on June 1st, since that's conveniently a Wednesday.

Meanwhile, let's head back to downtown York and have a look at one of their many exquisite historic houses.

James Buchanan's Birthday, Lancaster, Lancaster County

It's been quite some time since I did a 'special edition' post on this blog, but instead of covering a marker this week, I'd like to tell you all about something you could call marker-adjacent. This past Saturday, April 23rd, was the 231st birthday of James Buchanan - the only President of the United States who was born, died, and is buried in Pennsylvania. Traditionally, there is a ceremony at presidential tombs each year on their birthdays, at which wreaths of red, white, and blue flowers are presented in memory of their years in office. For the last few years, because of the pandemic, these ceremonies have been suspended. This year, Lancaster was able to hold theirs again, and my husband Kevin and I decided to make the trip down there and see what this entailed.

Moravian Community, Bethlehem, Northampton County

Before we dive into this week's quest, I'd just like to draw your attention to something new. As of a few days ago, the blog now has its own dedicated Twitter account! I'm using it to follow assorted historical organizations and news outlets and to help spread the word about events and discoveries in the commonwealth. Of course, I'm also using it to promote the blog itself. So if you've got a Twitter, please give MarkerQuest a follow.

For this week, we're going to mosey back to beautiful downtown Bethlehem and take a look at the Moravian community.

Fisher House, Oley Township, Berks County

I'm deeply pleased with all the attention my last two posts have received. Thaddeus Stevens is such a fascinating person and subject, and I'm so thankful to everyone who took the time to read what I had to say about him.

This week's quest is a much simpler one, at least on the surface. You can blame my weary eyes for it; to quote from a certain ridiculous commercial, "I have special eyes," and they've had to be tested a fair bit this week. So I decided to make the quest a bit easier on them than usual. We collected this marker on the way home from Zenkaikon last month - husband Kevin deliberately took a scenic route home just so I could grab some to keep me busy for a while.