Chapter 12
Section 12 of A Guide Book of Art, Architecture, and Historic Interests in Pennsylvania, edited by Margaretta R. Shumbo. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Tatiana Cicilla. Cumberland County. Formed January 27, 1750, named for County of Cumberland, England, one of the two or three rich agricultural valleys in the United States. Early industries were iron furnaces and forges. First settlers, Scotch-Irish, men of stout heart and wonderful nerve, almost contemporaneous with their building forts and providing means of protection for themselves and families.
They established Presbyterian churches, the fine springs of the valley being selected as sites, namely Silver Springs Church, nine miles west of the Susquehanna. Trindle Spring, now a Lutheran church. Meeting House Spring, now First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle. Curious old carvings are in Meeting House Springs burial ground. Big Spring Church at Newville and Middle Spring Church above Shippensburg, a monument to revolutionary soldiers, is here. All continue an act of existence. The early pioneer countenance the institution of slavery at one period, as many as 307 Negroes were held as slaves in this county, the last of them in 1840. On November 1, 1780, an act was passed directing that all slaves and those held as such in Pennsylvania should be registered, but thereafter all should be free men and women.
Shippensburg, population 4,372, first permanent settlement in the county founded in 1730, was the only town on the line of the Great Road when it was laid out from John Harris's Ferry on the Susquehanna to the Potomac from 1735 to 44. This road was the first effort to connect the wilderness west of the Susquehanna with civilization in the earlier settlements. First bridge erected in the county was over La Tort Spring on East Main Street, Carlisle, about 1780, replaced in 1795 by a stone bridge. Several stone arch bridges are over the Yellow Breeches Creek. At the eastern end is Miller's Mill Bridge, over 100 years old, three-arch stone in good condition. Alexander's Bridge is one mile north of Carlisle on the Conodogwinnet Creek, colonial with wooden cover, one span, is very old.
County seat Carlisle, named for Shire Town of Cumberland County, England, population 10,916. The town is laid off at right angles with a large public square in center. Bel Air Park, on the banks of Conodogwinnet Creek, is one mile from center of town. Lindner Park faces Franklin and Lother Streets, five squares from center. Mount Holly and Boiling Springs Parks are outlying, reached by trolley. The courthouse faces Center Square. Corinthian, Bryant, and Witt architects built 1846. One of the portico columns shows marks and broken flutings of the shelling of Carlisle, captured by General Lee during the Civil War, contains portraits of judges of the local court. First Presbyterian Church also faces Center Square. Main Auditorium built in 1757. Greco-Roman.
Blue limestone with white marble linings, showing early bonding in stone masonry. Tower added and parish house built 1873. The Young Men's Christian Association, half square from center, on High Street. France Renaissance, built 1908. Architect M. I. Cast, Harrisburg. County jail, one square from center. Corner High and Bedford Streets, Tudor, built 1854. Brownstone, is a small copy of the Castle of Carlisle, England. Note the limestone arch and east wall of the yard. Architects Meyers and Guts Hall. Post Office, two squares from center, corner of Pitt and Lother Streets.
Classic Renaissance, built 1909. J. Knox Taylor, architect. Washington, D.C. Historical Society, corner of Pitt Street and Dickinson Avenue. Brick, built 1878-80. Architect George Rice, contains historical library, papers, and museum. Dickinson College, on campus of seven acres, with Law School, one square south. Conway Hall, one square west. At the Herman Bosler Biddle Memorial Athletic Field, with Colonial Gateway, made in 1909. Architect H. E. Yesler, three squares west. Main Building, Old West, built 1803.
Blue limestone, mellowed by time, with facade of fine proportions, arched doorways and windows. Architect Colonel Le Trobe, first government engineer and architect, brought from England. Auditorium contains portraits of John Dickinson, Dr. Nisbet, and others. The James W. Bosler Memorial Hall, Romanesque, built in 1885. George Rice, architect, contains portraits of notable alumni, including President James Buchanan and Dr. Benjamin Rush. Also marble bust of James Bosler, and fine copy of Salvatore Rosa's The Conspiracy of Catalina, original in the Petey Palace, Florence.
The J. Herman Bosler Memorial Library, architects Baldwin and Pennington, Baltimore. Classic, built 1899. White marble entrance vestibule, lighted by memorial window. Byrne Jones design, made by Maitland Armstrong and Company. Denny Memorial Recitation Hall, collegiate Gothic, built 1905. M.I. Cast, architect. St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church faces Center Square, has memorial altar, white marble, with caned stone reredos, and windows made by Maitland Armstrong and Company.
First Lutheran Church, one square east of Center, corner of High and Bedford Streets. Italian Renaissance, yellow brick, black and white trimmings, built 1900. J.A. Dempwulf, architect, York, Pennsylvania. The Second Presbyterian Church, corner of Hanover and Pomfret Streets, Gothic, built 1869, has memorial window over door. Moorish design and fine fretwork choir rail. St. Patrick's Catholic Church, East Pomfret Street, has rose window of Tiffany Glass and other windows from Munich. Also, memorial marble altar. Ashland Cemetery, York Street, nearly a mile east from Center, contains bronze statue, Angel and Child, made by Lamb and Company, in James W. Bosler's lot.
The Old Graveyard, three squares from Center, on East South Street, contains Molly Pitcher's grave and monument. Bronze portrait figure standing on granite pedestal, with bronze reliefs of battle scenes extended on both sides. Sculptor J.R. Schweitzer, Philadelphia. A Civil War cannon is in front. Old English and German carvings from the year 1700 are in the cemetery. At Mount Rock, five miles west of Carlisle, is the Ionic Monument in memory of Governor Britner from 1835 to 1939, erected by the state in 1902. Architect J.W. Ely, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
The Indian School, one mile northeast from Center, was formerly a military post. Buildings were destroyed by Fitzhugh Lee in 1863, accepting the Old Guard House, built by the Hessian prisoners during the Revolution in 1777. This was the original best point for the training of officers and artisans, and for the manufacture of arms and munitions. In 1776 and throughout the war, anthracite coal was taken down the Susquehanna River from the Wyoming mines to the Armory of Carlisle, said to have been the first shipment of anthracite coal in this country. There are now about 25 or 30 buildings, brick of varied architecture, on 25 acres of ground. Gateway, Georgian. M.I. Kast, Architect. Built 1910. Native Indian art is on exhibition in the Loop Studio.
George Washington joined the army of 15,000 men as commander in chief at Carlisle for suppression of the Whiskey Insurrection in 1794. He was the guest of Ephraim Blaine. The army was located on the opposite side of town from the military post. The Civic Club of Carlisle is placing classic art prints in the public school buildings. Interesting colonial houses. Residents of Ephraim Blaine built 1795, now law office and dwelling of Edward Stiles, built 1815. Of Stephen Duncan, built 1815, used by the fraternity of owls. And that of Isaac B. Parker, built 1820, the home of the Elks.
In 1762, Richard Peters of Philadelphia obtained a patent for 388 acres of land at Boiling Springs and executed a deed to John S. Rigby and Company for 29 acres on which they had already commenced the erection of a blast furnace. They bought two ore banks at the foot of South Mountain and soon after added 1,614 acres of land and called the property Carlisle Ironworks. It passed through several ownerships until in 1792, Michael Edge became sole owner. The furnace produced 12 to 15 tons of metal a week, mostly pig iron, but they also cast stoves, firebacks, and hollow ware. William Denning in 1776 made two wrought iron cannon in Mount Holly Gap, about six miles south of Carlisle, the first ever made.
One in use at the Battle of Brandywine was captured by the British and deposited finally in the Tower of London. The British government offered a large sum of money and an annuity to William Denning to instruct them how to make wrought iron cannon, but he refused. He died in 1830, age 93, at his home near Newville. His monument there, given by the state, shows a square marble base surmounted by a cannon. Pine Grove Furnace was built on Mountain Creek, halfway between Carlisle and Gettysburg. The recorded ownership dates from a proprietary grant in 1762 for 450 acres on Mountain Creek to Thomas Pope.
It is now part of the State Forestry Reservation. End of section 12.
