Mechanicsburg

By Byron L. Reppert

Mechanicsburg, nestled in Cumberland County midway between Harrisburg, the state capital, and Carlisle, the county seat, was once known as Drytown, Pinchgut, and Stauffertown. Incorporated in 1828 and named for a settlement of mechanics that repaired Conestoga wagons, Mechanicsburg was raided by the Confederates and held for three days during the Civil War. Both the Cumberland Valley Railroad and the development of the inland Naval Support Activity Base influenced the rapid growth of this borough. Since 1924, Mechanicsburg has played host to Jubilee Day, Pennsylvania's largest one-day street fair.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jan 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781439639061

Byron L. Reppert

Author Byron L. Reppert, second mayor of Mechanicsburg (1978-1981), earned a Purple Heart while serving in the South Pacific with the 4th Marine Division. A graduate of Lehigh University, Reppert married Bertha Ottylie Peplau, and they settled in Mechanicsburg in 1960 and opened the Rosemary House. An avid history buff, Reppert compiled a slide presentation of his vintage postcard collection to share with the community. This collection of postcards, and some from E. Lee Ritter, his longtime neighbor, are featured in Mechanicsburg.

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INTRODUCTION

Mechanicsburg, like so many Pennsylvania towns, is laid out in a grid. Main Street (running east and west) intersects Market Street (north and south) at a right angle and creates the center of town. In the 1960s, farmland surrounded the town. It was (and still is) an easy seven-block walk along South Market Street from the edge of town to the center. Along the way, you could stop for hand-dipped ice cream at Rakestraw’s—just a nickel a scoop. Closer to the center of town, you could buy penny candy or get a haircut for $1. At Main and Market Streets, there were two banks opposite each other, as there are now. On Main Street, a cup of coffee or a cherry Coke cost a nickel at the fountain in Brunhouse’s Drugstore, Eckels Drug Store, or Diener’s. You could shop for dry goods at Ryan’s and Biddle’s, for hardware at Ritter’s and Weber’s, and just about anything else at Klair’s and Murphy’s five-and-dime stores. On Main Street, you could mail a letter at the post office, get your shoes repaired at Jumper’s, and visit Hunter’s photography studio or Mumma’s jewelry store. Also located on Main Street were Myers funeral parlor, the police station, several churches, and two firehouses. A movie theater called the Vallee once sat near the municipal building. The town was well served. I am amazed at what still exists today and how many of these same establishments are in the postcards collected in this book.

Of course, there have been changes. In the early 1960s, there were just a few red lights. There were four elementary schools (Filbert Street, Broad Street, Arch Street, and Northside), plus the junior high school on Simpson Street (now condominiums) and the senior high school on Elmwood Avenue. Mechanicsburg Area Public Library opened its doors in 1961. Some changes are slow: in the workshops of Eberly-Orris (at York and West Allen Streets), wooden wheels, once manufactured for wagons, buggies, and Civil War cannons, were still being made until 1968. A sleepy little town it was not.

In the 1960s, fall Friday nights meant football games. For the home games, the high school band marched from one end of town (Elmwood Avenue) to Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Park at the other end. The Little Theater of Mechanicsburg performed in the Kohlertown one-room schoolhouse, which they purchased for $10 in 1954. The town also turned out for the Halloween parade when Santa arrived in town on a fire truck and, of course, for Jubilee Day in June. Wives gave birth at Seidle Memorial Hospital while husbands paced the waiting room. And the line at Rakestraw’s for ice cream on a hot day was mighty long. These are some of my fond memories of Mechanicsburg when I first settled there in 1960.

Historically, Mechanicsburg was incorporated as a borough on April 28, 1828. Records show that by 1845 the town population reached 800, and the town comprised 133 dwellings, four churches (Union, Methodist, Lutheran, and Bethel), a schoolhouse, three taverns, three warehouses, one foundry and machine shop, and a number of mechanic shops and mercantile buildings. The town seems to have derived its name from a settlement of mechanics who repaired and made wagons in the early 1800s. At one time, the town had three spoke and wheel works. In 1837, a line of the Cumberland Valley Railroad to Mechanicsburg was completed. At one time, 25 trains passed through town daily. Grain and feed companies, a lumberyard, and numerous factories were built along the railroad tracks. By 1876, the town’s population increased to 3,081.

Old postcards inform us about the past in charming ways, and that is why I began collecting them. This collection of postcards links us to the past now, just as it did when I used them in slide presentations to local groups from the late 1970s to early 1990s. If you are familiar with Mechanicsburg now, you will recognize many of the existing buildings in this collection of postcards postmarked as far back as 1905. You can imagine how life in this small historic Pennsylvania town has changed. Some of the buildings are being used for the same purpose, while others no longer exist. Some have been repurposed, and, of course, others have been built.

The postcards are organized by chapter to show the town’s business district, churches, homes and neighborhoods, Irving Female College, Mechanicsburg High School, Jubilee Day, the fire companies that serve us, the railroads and industry contributing to local prosperity, and the two neighboring communities of Williams Grove and Boiling Springs.

Close to 10,000 people live in the borough of Mechanicsburg now, and much of the farmland surrounding the town has been developed. Today about four trains travel through the town daily. Some schools have been torn down and others built. The public library has expanded and moved to a new location. Two groups, the Historic Architectural Review Board and the Mechanicsburg Museum Association, actively preserve the architecture and history of the town. You can visit the Stationmaster’s House, Frankeberger Tavern, Freight Station Museum, and Washington Street Station. The town continues to celebrate Jubilee Day on the third Thursday of June. Other festivities include Earth Day, Art Walks, Streets of Treats, and the New Year’s Eve wrench drop in the center of town.

I hope you enjoy the postcards and memorabilia presented in this book. They are tiny peepholes into the town’s history, leaving much to discover. I hope you are enticed to visit Mechanicsburg’s