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The Red Rose

While the White Rose of York has faded, the Red Rose of Lancaster looks pretty. So, hundreds of years later, the Wars of Roses have an apparent winner in the New World. Change is possible and can be fast.

I also visited Strasburg and Lititz, two small towns near Lancaster.

Lancaster

Lancaster is the seat for Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County just as York serves as the county seat of York County. Both cities have a rich history. While York was incorporated as a borough in 1787 and as a city in 1887, Lancaster was incorporated as a borough in 1742 and as a city in 1818. During the American Revolution, York became the capital of the United States after Philadelphia was captured by the British, and Lancaster had served as the capital for one day on September 27, 1777 before the revolutionary government moved to York.

York features numerous historic buildings, among which are the 1741 Golden Plough Tavern and the 1766 York Meetinghouse, and has been called an “architectural museum.” Lancaster also has many historically significant landmarks that include the estate of James Buchanan (the 15th President of the United States), the Fulton Opera House (named for Robert Fulton, a Lancaster native and a renaissance man who created the first fully functional steamboat), and the painter Charles Demuth’s former home (the Demuth Museum today).

The 2010 Census statistics were similar for the Roses. The median income for a household in Lancaster was $29,770, and the per capita income was $13,955. The median income for a household in York was $26,475, and the per capita income was $13,439. About 21.2% of the population in Lancaster were living below the poverty line, and 23.8% in York. 

In 2017, Lancaster had a population of 59.6k people with a median household income of $40,805. The population of Lancaster is 40.4% White Alone, 38.7% Hispanic or Latino, and 14.3% Black or African American Alone. York had a population of 44.1k people with a median household income of $29,834. The population of York was 38.4% White Alone, 31.7% Hispanic or Latino, and 23.8% Black or African American Alone. The Poverty rate was 26.5% in Lancaster, and 35.8% in York, while the national average was 13.4%. (data source: datausa.io)
Multiple layers of colors in the city of Lancaster.

Lancaster boasts an impressive gallery row where art galleries are lined up showcasing artists’ original work. A gallery owner told me that the gallery row started by a businessman, and the mayor actually reached out to her personally. (I heard similar stories about Frederick where high-end restaurants by the celebrity chef Voltaggio brothers had sparked a series of changes in the main street.)

The gallery owner is, however, worried today: her rent increased 35% just this year. Think about traffic in a city: high volume is likely an indicator of a booming economy and low volume a poor one, but constant traffic jams could drive people away. It’s all about balance, and it is a delicate one.

Top left: work at Artisans Gallery by Jane Wolf, a math major who ultimately finds joy in mixed media. Top right: watercolors by Cheryl Elmo at CityFolk Gallery, depicting subtle human interactions and complexities of relationships. Bottom left: bold colors at Christiane David Gallery. Bottom right: inside Stans Records, a music record store in the gallery row, where old music coming from old speakers on the wall and old pictures remind people of those good old days.

Strasburg

Strasburg is surrounded by Amish farms and remains a rural feel. It was founded in 1733, and much of the town is listed as a historic district by the National Register of Historic Places. In 2017, Strasburg had a population of 2.91k people with a median household income of $65,227 and a poverty rate of 5.21%. I suspect that farm production is an important factor contributing to the town’s low poverty rate. (On the top right: The Old Bank Building and now a mixed office space)
The rural landscape near the town of Strasburg is vibrant; you can take a buggy ride to see the Amish Country. It is delightful to just drive around, and you might suddenly run into a tractor on a back road with a boy in the driver’s seat. I will never forget a mother and a daughter who were putting out flowers in front of a small house on the roadside. The mother may look a little austere, but the daughter (probably about ten years old) looks so sweet in a typical Amish dress of dusty rose color with hair tightly combed in the front making a bun in the back. She quietly smiled at me when I stopped by and waved at me when I drove away. I don’t know what it means to grow up in an Amish community like this that is so different from the wild world outside and cannot help wondering what a stranger would do to a child’s mind.

Lititz

Lititz, funded by members of the Moravian Church in 1756, looks more urban than Strasburg. Its main street is crowded with cute shops and restaurants; in 2013 Lititz won Budget Travel’s America’s Coolest Small Towns competition. In 2017 the town had a population of 9.27k with a median household income of $58,375 and a poverty rate of 4.87%.

It can be fun to take a chocolate or pretzel walk tour here. Most of the Wilbur brand chocolate products are produced in Lititz. The town is the location of many pretzel factories and owns the first commercial pretzel bakery in America, the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery (founded in 1861). These production activities may provide a foundation for the town’s economy and are probably important for the town to maintain a low poverty rate as in Strasburg.

Lititz is also home to Linden Hall, the oldest girls’ boarding and day school in continuous operation in the US. (On the top left: The Framers National Bank building)
This trip turns out to be a hopeful one. While more research is needed to understand what drives positive change, it seems that visionary mayors and business leaders, or “right” coupling of the private and public sectors are critical to initiate change. I am convinced that a town may take advantage of its history to develop tourism or culture-based businesses, but for a town to prosper it needs some sort of production, be it solid production in the first sector or creativity in information and service sectors. It also needs synergy of multiple mutually supportive economic activities and across a larger metro area to sustain an economy. A vital economicscape should have multiple layers of colors just as a vibrant landscape or cityscape.

In Lancaster it’s confirmed once again that people’s friendliness is an good indicator of a town’s position in the despair-hope spectrum. The residents are quite mixed in Lancaster. Two black teenagers smiled at me and said hello to me on the streets. While I was photographing the city, somebody walked by and started a chat, “It is nice, eh?.” I can tell they all feel good about their town. That is the feeling people in every town should have.