Following are summaries of local news stories from the pages of the Intelligencer Journal and New Era. This column appears on page B1 of the printed newspaper each Monday. The items are researched and compiled by staff member Tim Buckwalter. Full versions are available on microfilm at the Lancaster County Library, 125 N. Duke St.
25 years ago
PPO PROTEST: Lancaster General Hospital’s plan for a “preferred provider organization” was a “grab for more patients” that would limit choices in health care, the medical staff president of St. Joseph Hospital charged. “It deprives our patients of choice of where they want to go and it deprives us of choice as to where we might want to take care of them,” said Dr. Ronald M. Legum. (Oct. 27, 1984)
‘BIG BOY’ STOLEN: A thief stole a 6-foot-tall “Big Boy” statue from the rear parking lot of Elby’s Big Boy Family Restaurant, 1683 Oregon Pike, during the Sunday lunch rush. It was one of two statues that had been taken down after the “Big Boy” trademark was relinquished. The restaurant was soon to be known only as “Elby’s,” and the statues were to be trucked to corporate headquarters in West Virginia. (Oct. 29, 1984)
REAGAN AT MU: An estimated 8,000 Lancaster County residents cheered Republican President Ronald Reagan at an election rally at Millersville University as he declared the successful rebirth of “the second American Revolution.” “America is back,” Reagan told enthusiastic supporters at the event, held a week before the election. “It’s powerful in its renewed spirit, its growing economy, its ability to defend itself and secure the peace, and its ability to build a better future.” The following week, Reagan won a second term by defeating Democrat Walter Mondale in a landslide. (Oct. 30, 1984)
50 years ago
CITY PLAN: The Lancaster City Planning Commission unveiled a plan to revitalize the downtown with $50 million in new buildings and improved parking facilities by 1980. The planners stressed that the city was paying for the plan, but the “cold cash” for the work had to come from downtown merchants, property owners, outside interests and federal urban-renewal funds. The plan proposed a traffic-free shopping mall for King Street, from Duke to Prince, and on Queen Street, from Vine to Chestnut; a new courthouse and municipal building; an executive office tower across from the Post Office on Chestnut Street, complete with top-floor restaurants overlooking the city; and a convention hall or civic center at the southwest corner of North Queen and Walnut streets. (Oct. 28, 1959)
BEATNIKS: A wave of junior beatniks — complete with mussed hair and scraggly beards — was preparing to cavort about Lancaster for Halloween. The beatnik motif was expected to be among the most popular holiday get-ups for the small fry and adults. Also popular were imitations of TV and comic-strip characters, including “Mavericks” and “Bat Mastersons.” (Oct. 28, 1959)
PRENTIS DIES: Henning W. Prentis Jr., chairman of the board of the Armstrong Cork Co. and a former president of the National Association of Manufacturers, died at Lancaster General Hospital at age 75. He had been stricken ill after returning from a horseback ride on his farm at Millersville. Prentis had been Armstrong chairman since 1950 and served as company president from 1934 to 1950. (Oct. 29, 1959)
LONG DISTANCE: Denver and Adamstown residents became the first in Lancaster County to be able to make direct-dial, long-distance telephone calls without going through an operator. By contrast, the Lancaster office of Bell Telephone had installed equipment to receive direct long-distance calls, but was still about three years away from having subscribers be able to dial directly themselves. (Oct. 29, 1959)
75 years ago
FREE MEAT: Railroad workers distributed meat salvaged from one of three freight cars that toppled into the Susquehanna River when two trains collided on the low-grade line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Most of the meat was under water and was given away to anyone who asked for some. (Oct. 29, 1934)
FLOOR COLLAPSE: Nineteen people at a Halloween party were hurt when the second floor of a garage in Columbia collapsed, dropping more than 50 people to the ground floor 12 feet below. The floor collapsed when many in the crowd of 200 merrymakers rushed to one side of the room to hear an announcement of costume-prize winners. (Oct. 29, 1934)
DIRTY POLITICS: James Shand, chairman of the local Citizens’ Republican Committee, decried as untrue and libelous a batch of unsigned campaign literature distributed door to door, under cover of darkness. The distributors of the brochures, which attacked GOP gubernatorial candidate William A. Schnader, had found a “subcellar” of “gutter politics,” Shand said. (Nov. 1, 1934)
100 years ago
BODY FOUND: The body of a newly born baby was placed on the steps of a vestibule car while a train was stopped in the Lancaster station on a Friday night. The identities of the infant and the person who placed it there were unknown. (Oct. 26, 1909)
BRIDGE PLAN: City officials and a representative of the Pennsylvania Railroad discussed the possibility of building a bridge over the tracks at the extension of College Avenue. No action was taken. The railroad official expressed a willingness to contribute to the building of a bridge, but noted that there were only two tracks when the city plan was laid out in 1872, and that number had grown to about a dozen. (Oct. 27, 1909).
CHICKEN THIEVES: Four rum-soaked men from Lancaster allegedly stole some chickens from a farmer’s coop at Centerville, then continued home toward the city by horse and wagon. Word was telephoned to Rohrerstown, and the suspects were tailed by a man on a bicycle. Three city police officers, meanwhile, took a Marietta Avenue trolley car out from town and nabbed the inebriated quartet. The officers found a bag of dead chickens nearby. (Nov. 1, 1909)
