“Corn, vegetables and even cotton were raised on this farm, located next to a dump yard that in the 1950s was redeveloped into Parkway Homes,” Downs wrote in an unpublished collection of memories.ĭowns reflected on two memories about his father: the quiet comfort of the Willis barn and house as viewed from the family’s front door in Parkway Homes and deep respect for Perry Harris. His grandfather, Charles T., and father, Charles A., helped farm the Willis Tract, sharecropping in the early to mid-1920s. When posted in the Retro York Facebook group, the story attracted more than 1,200 views, likes and comments.ĭowns’ interest in the Willis House goes beyond that of a historian. Willis House holds interestĮarlier this year, historian Terry Downs wrote a guest column in the York Sunday News questioning the use of this space for a warehouse so close to the storied Willis House. Residents in York city and Manchester Township neighborhoods near Prospect Hill Cemetery are protesting this use of a green and wooden area just south of the cemetery’s Pennsylvania Avenue entrance. And the beaten path might come nearer this privately owned place if plans to build a warehouse nearby are carried out. At first glance, one might conclude that not much has changed in that glen since the schoolgirl recorded her thoughts.Īctually, a lot has gone on and around Manchester Township’s Willis Tract over the centuries. Today, the Willis House stands about as much off the beaten path as any house could be in or near York. The frontier house's position next to a hill, later known as Prospect Hill, sheltered it a bit from the elements. No doubt the springs that fed the nearby stream later named after Willis attracted him to the spot. When William Willis erected this 2 1/2-story Georgian structure in 1762, it was on the edge of the village in a town that was on the edge of beyond. That schoolgirl saw the woods around the Willis House as remote and inviting just decades after the house was built. rich with the breath of pine trees, where the school girls have spent long lovely days.” “There to the left is Willis's woods, how delightfully cool it looks this afternoon with the cloud shadows passing over it,” she wrote. A 19th-century girl looked out of the window from her seat at York County Academy on York’s North Beaver Street.
0 kommentar(er)
