by Richard D. L. Fulton Gettysburg National Tower The Gettysburg National Tower was previously located near the current Evergreen Cemetery and Taneytown Road private property, adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park. Access to the site was attained via an access road that had branched off of Taneytown Road. The proposal to build the Gettysburg…

by Richard D. L. Fulton Emmitsburg Water Company The incorporation and first board of commissioners of the “Emmitsburgh (sic) Water Company” was initially approved by the Maryland General Assembly in 1816. The board consisted of Robert L. Annan, Patrick Reid, John Agnew, Lewis Motter, and Daniel M. Moore, according to waterworkshistory.us. A Private Corporation The…

by Richard D. L. Fulton Taneytown Garage The Taneytown Garage (also known as the Taneytown Garage Company) was established in 1914 on West Baltimore Street, selling Ford vehicles and Goodrich tires, according to Images of America, Taneytown. John J. Hockensmith (died 1955) had served as the manager of the company for 38 years until the…

by Richard D. L. Fulton Gettysburg’s Photoplay Theater Gettysburg’s Photoplay Theater was established in 1912, with the first theater advertisements appearing on January 15, 1912. According to the March 28, 1917, issue of The Gettysburgian, the Photoplay Theater, at that time, was located across Baltimore Street from the courthouse. Cinema Treasures’ website (cinematreasures.org) states that…

by Richard D. L. Fulton Monocacy Drive-In Theater The Monocacy Drive-in Theater opened on August 24, 1952, and was located on Route 140 (Taneytown-Emmitsburg Road), near Taneytown. The coming of a new drive-in theater was initially announced in the August 26, 1952, edition of The (Frederick) News, which had reported that John G. Miller, owner…

by Richard D. L. Fulton The CG&W Railway The Chambersburg, Greencastle & Waynesboro Street Railway (CG&W) was a rural trolley line that operated within the areas of its namesake, while adding on some additional communities during its development. According to an article “Memorable Experience: Trolley Service Kept County Connected in the Early 20th Century (by…

Gettysburg Electric Railway The “embattled” Gettysburg Electric Railway Company (GERC), a railway streetcar operation, became “official” in 1891, when, according to the July 29, 1891, issue of The Philadelphia Times newspaper, “A charter was issued today (July 28) to the Gettysburg Electric Railway Company.”  The newspaper noted that the “route lies from the central part…

by Richard D. L. Fulton Manahan’s General Store Charles F. Manahan, Sabillasville, operated the Sabillasville-located Charles F. Manahan & Son General Store, which dealt in general merchandise, feed, and coal. The store is now a residence, located at 17036 Sabillasville Road. The side of the building is situated parallel to the road and fronts the…

by Richard D. L. Fulton Waynesboro’s W.T. Grant Company The W.T. Grant stores, a chain of department stores, were established by William Thomas Grant when he opened his first store (dubbed as the W. T. Grant Co. 25 Cent Store) in 1906 in Lynn, Massachusetts. As the sole store evolved into a nationwide chain of…

The Thurmont (National) Bank The Thurmont Bank was located at 4 West Main Street, Thurmont, in a three-story brick building, with a basement, and was officially known as the Thurmont Bank Building (also known as the Thurmont National Bank Building). The Thurmont Bank was formed from the Thurmont National Bank in May 1914, when the…

by Richard D. L. Fulton Gettysburg Pennsylvania’s Fantasyland Fantasyland, the memorable amusement park of Gettysburg, was established in 1959 by Kenneth and Thelma Dick after essential acreage was purchased for $21,000 from LeRoy and Esther Apgar. Kenneth Dick reportedly stated that during the course of a local Kiwanis meeting, he had conceived the idea for…

by Richard D. L. Fulton Woodsboro Opera House The Woodsboro Opera House existed at 5 North Main Street in Woodsboro, located on the second floor of the building that had been constructed and occupied by the Woodsboro (Savings) Bank. The structure housing the opera house had replaced a pre-existing structure, which had served as the…

Taneytown’s Rainbow Roller Rink by Richard D. L. Fulton Taneytown’s Rainbow Roller Rink, located in Big Pipe Creek Park in Taneytown, was in operation from 1940 until eventually closing its doors sometime in the 1970s. The building that housed the rink was specifically located at 3939 Old Taneytown Road. The address of the site is…

Emmitsburg Shoe Factory by Richard D. L. Fulton The Emmitsburg Shoe Factory, formerly located on Chesapeake Avenue, served as a primary place of employment for the residents of Emmitsburg and surrounding areas for decades. Talk of the possibility of establishing a shoe factory surfaced during February 1946, when that topic became the subject of discussion…

Waynesboro’s Arcade Theater by Richard D. L. Fulton Waynesboro’s Arcade Theater was built in 1916, at 75 West Main Street (71-79 West Main Street, according to the Waynesboro Historical Society), Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and continued to be in operation into the early 1960s. Word began to spread in 1914 that a major theater project for Waynesboro…

The Monterey Tea House by Richard D. L. Fulton The Monterey Tea House operated for decades in Blue Bridge Summit.  An advertisement in the June 4, 1924, edition of The (Baltimore) Sun had announced the opening of the “New Monterey Gift-Shop Tea-House” at the Monterey Golf Course. The tea house was located at Tracy (also…

sugar’s underselling store by Richard D. L. Fulton Sugar’s Underselling Store, also known as Thurmont’s Underselling Store, was—for that particular time—a rather unusual business that operated in Thurmont from 1916 through 1918, one that ultimately accepted eggs in payment for goods purchased. Sugar’s Underselling Store was essentially a late-Victorian version of today’s Ollie’s or Big…

by Richard D. L. Fulton The Distelfink Drive-In The Distelfink Drive-in, which had been located at the intersection of Old Harrisburg Road and Shrivers Corner Road, just off Route 15 in Straban Township, near Gettysburg, thrived as basically a “roadside attraction” in the food category from 1954 until 2011. Distelfink takes its name from the…

T h u r m o n t ’ s D i x i e D i n e r by Richard D. L. Fulton Beginning in the late 1930s, and reaching a peak in the 1960s, seemingly every town or community across America served as home to a genre of eateries commonly referred to…

E m m i t s b u r g  B o w l i n g  L a n e s Emmitsburg Recreation Center, which once contained the Emmitsburg Lanes bowling alleys, was located across an alley from the existing laundromat on West Main Street and was in operation from the 1940s until 1965.…