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Walking Tour of Historic York

The first-ever self-guided walking tour booklet for Historic Downtown York is available for sale at a variety of attractions, restaurants, shops and area visitors centers.  This user-friendly booklet features short historic narratives, exterior photos and an easy-to-use map indicating the location of the 34 landmark sites selected for the tour. each site is marked with a keystone-shaped "Historic York Walking Tour" pewtarex plaque.  The booklets sell for $1 and proceeds are earmarked for brochure reprinting and walking tour promotion.  Brochures can be ordered  through the mail by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope and $1 to Main Street York, 14 West Market Street, York, PA 17401.

Sample Virtual Tour

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Take a walk with General Pulaski through the main streets of York, looking for his silhouette on the keystone-shaped plaques marking the buildings on the Historic Walking
Tour.

A silhouette weathervane made in honor of Polish Count Casimir Pulaski, originally stood atop the cupola on the York County Court House until the building was torn down in 1841. Pulaski came to York as an American Revolutionary Brigadier General, enlisting troops from a recruiting station on George Street. Leaving York, he marched his new recruits to the South.

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Golden Plough
Tavern (1741)
157 West Market Street

The Oldest standing building in the City of York, this 1741 Medieval fashioned tavern utilizes half-timbering and log construction. Roman numerals carved in each wood section helped carpenters assemble timbers after cutting. The tavern served many generations of Yorkers and travelers well into the 1800s.

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Colonial Courthouse Replica (1976)
201 West market Street

Weathervane replica is located atop courthouse.

This replica of the 1754 court house kicked off York's celebration of the Nation's Bicentennial in 1976. The Continental Congress met in York's first courthouse from September 1777 until June of 1778, where they adopted the Articles of Confederation. The original courthouse was erected in Continental Square.

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Gate House
(1751)
157 West market Street

General Horation Gates,
board of War President,
lodged here while the Continental Congress met in York

In 1751, an Englishman built this stone and brick Georgian-style home. Tradition claims this as the site of the Conway Cabal, a treasonous gathering where loyal aide General Lafayette toasted General George Washington, foiling the plot to replace Washington as commander of the Continental Army.

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The Bon-Ton
Department store (1911)
100 West Market
Street

Hall & Sellers Press,
first printing press west
of the Susquehanna River, 
was used on this site to print Continental currency while Congress met in York, September, 1777 to June,
1778.

Noted local architect John A. Dempwolf designed this Chicago-style department store. This style was popular for department stores allowing large quantities of natural lighting from expansive windows. Restoration in 1992, as the York County Government Center, brought back much of the building's original splendor.

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Barnett Bobb House
(1811)
Rear 157 West Market Street

This log house constructed with a traditional Georgian floor plan, commands a central stair hall with flanking identical rooms. Infilling between the home's logs is called chinking and consists of wood and rocks as filler with whitewashed plaster covering. Preservationists moved this structure to its present site from three blocks away in order to save it from demolition.

 

 

 


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