Bellevue Park the First 100 Years: An Anniversary History by Its Residents

By Michael Barton and Jeannine Turgeon

This book is a history of a community, and, moreover, a history by that community. In January, 2007, Jeannine Turgeon began to recruit a committee of Bellevue Park neighbors, volunteers who would be willing to produce a book about their neighborhood in honor of its 100th anniversary. Initial members were Clark and Vickie Bucher, Dan Deibler and Elizabeth Johnson, Chris Dick, Frank Haas, Hannah Leavitt, Carol Lopus, Mo Lynn, Bonnie Mark, Debbie Nifong, Peggy and Dan Purdy, John Quimby, Sue Ellen Ramer, Olivia Susskind, Doris Ulsh, Phil and Mary Walsh, Mary Warner, and Gretchen Yarnall. Prof. Michael Barton of Penn State Harrisburg was invited to serve as a consultant and general editor for the project, and we selected Xlibris as our publisher.
In these early months, outlines were organized and re-organized, topics were proposed and discarded, and suggestions of all sorts were submitted and accepted or reluctantly retracted to fit within the publisher’s limits and the book’s budget.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 25, 2009
• ISBN: 9781477174128

Book preview

Copyright © 2009 by Jeannine Turgeon; Michael Barton. 538056

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

ISBN: Softcover    978-1-4415-0849-2

           Hardcover  978-1-4415-0850-8

          EBook        978-1-4771-7412-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009900961

Rev. date: 01/15/2020

CONTENTS

Foreword

Robin Karson, Library Of American Landscape History

Preface To A Community History

Michael Barton And Jeannine Turgeon

Blue Ribbon Supporters

BELLE VIEWS OF YESTERDAYS

Harrisburg As The Century Turned

Michael Barton

Developing Bellevue Park: The Early Years, 1907-1945

Dan Grove Deibler

A New Type Of Homes For Harrisburg

Union Real Estate Investment Co.

The Breeze Hill Story

J. Horace Mcfarland

History Of Bellevue Park, 1910-1985

Evan J. Miller

Memories Of The Founder

Herman Miller III

School Days Across The Street

Michael Barton

Moving Into Bellevue Park

Doris Neenan Ulsh

Holiday Magic

Clark Bucher

The Bellevue Park Tigers

Lawrence C. Fink

Growing Up Lately

Nathan Neher

Integrating Bellevue Park

Jackie Little

A Family For The Park

Winston A. Richards

Politics In The Park

Michael Barton

Around The Park With Dan

Dan Purdy

FRUITS FROM THE GRAPEVINE, 1937-2008

Compiled Sue Ellen Ramer And Kate Quimby

A WALK IN THE PARK

Jeannine Turgeon

BELLE VIEWS NOWADAYS

Sillybration

Frank Haas

History Of The Steppettes

Carol Lopus And Doris Neenan Ulsh

Oktoberfest!

Doris Neenan Ulsh

The Community Building

Dan Grove Deibler

The Architectural Review Committee

Clark Bucher

The Exercise Group

Carol Lopus

Happy Hours And The Welcome Committee

Maureen Mo Lynn

The Holiday Decorating Contest

Gretchen Yarnall

The Towering Trees Of Bellevue Park

John Quimby, Margie Thompson, And Jeannine Turgeon

Our Fine-Feathered And Fur-Bearing Friends

Deborah L. Musselman

Occupations And Hobbies In The Park

Compiled Jeannine Turgeon

Personalities And Powers In The Park

Frank Haas, Michael Barton And Jeannine Turgeon

Hollywood In The Park

Kathleen Richards

Why We Moved To Bellevue Park— What We Love About Our Neighborhood

Compiled Jeannine Turgeon

Celebrating The Centennial, May 19, 2007

The Big Night

The 100 Year Toast

A Welcome Home Reception, A Great Reunion

THE HOMES OF BELLEVUE PARK

Contributors: Clark Bucher, Dan Grove Deibler, Maureen Mo Lynn And Gretchen Yarnall

Architectural Design

Dan Grove Deibler

A BELLEVUE PARK TIME LINE, 1821-2009

Dan Grove Deibler

BELLEVUE PARK RESIDENTS – 2008

Jeannine Turgeon And Vickie Bucher

SOURCES

FOREWORD

By Robin Karson, Library of American Landscape History

Warren H. Manning (1860–1938) planned the community of Bellevue Park as part of a much larger endeavor—the beautification of all of Harrisburg, a city with which he remained intimately involved for much of his long career. Manning’s first Harrisburg project, the visionary park system, was also his most enduring for the city. That commission began in 1901 and stretched to 1937, the year before his death, when a great flood destroyed vegetation on the riverbank and city fathers once again sought his advice. The far-sighted park system, which Manning conceived in conjunction with J. Horace McFarland, involved acquiring new land, dredging the Susquehanna River, and laying out a range of parks and parkways designed for a variety of purposes. Owing to McFarland’s enthusiastic promotion, it became famous throughout the nation.

Immediately after securing the park project, Manning began receiving other landscape jobs in Harrisburg—private estates for John Y. Boyd, Henry McCormick, and Martin E. Olmsted, early cemetery work, and, in 1907, a commission from McFarland to plan a community—Bellevue Park—for the Union Real Estate Investment Company. Manning was also engaged to lay out the grounds of McFarland’s Breeze Hill, a mansion which had been built there a generation earlier. Over the years, Manning would go on to work for many other Harrisburg homeowners on estates large and small. He also created plans for the city high school, hospital, country club, capitol building, Hargest’s Island bathing house, and the grounds of the Harrisburg Light and Power Company. Altogether, he listed twenty-one Harrisburg commissions in his records.

In these projects, and others throughout his long career, Manning turned to nature as a guiding force in his designs. His Emersonian worldview was shaped by a childhood spent roaming the fields and woodlands of Reading, Massachusetts, and trekking across miles of wild lands with his father, Jacob Manning, collecting plants to propagate in the family nursery. In his approximately 1,600 commissions, Manning successfully merged an intimate view of nature with progressive planning methods that aimed to improve the quality of life for American citizens of every class.

In his plan for Bellevue Park, Manning drew attention to the varied topography of the site by laying out winding roads that responded to the dips and curves of the valley. He dammed the small stream that ran diagonally through the development to create two small pools, and planted these distinctively, one with spruce, the other with willow. Two other park-like reservations—one was named after Manning himself—continue the central open space. Trees abound, owing to planting covenants still in place today. A satellite view of Bellevue Park and its immediate environs dramatizes the impact of the tree canopy, revealing the 132-acre tract as a green oasis.

Characteristically, Manning had several different sets of concerns in mind when he planned the park-like neighborhood. He sought variety and surprise in laying out streets that curve and intersect in unexpected ways. He sought grandeur by preserving and introducing trees of imposing stature and horticultural beauty in the planting of the major boulevard, aptly named Magnolia Drive. He was also attuned to the social needs of the community that would soon move into the new neighborhood, made readily accessible via trolley lines. He provided places for public gatherings as well as scenes for private contemplation reminiscent of the rural countryside that Manning believed could renew citizens’ emotional and spiritual health. In this regard, he resembled his mentors Charles Eliot and Frederick Law Olmsted, the latter best known as the creator of Central Park in New York. The residents of Bellevue Park are indeed fortunate to have had Warren H. Manning—master landscape architect and planner—design the setting for their Harrisburg lives. Those of us at the Library of American Landscape History, which is home to a major research project on Manning’s accomplishments, congratulate the Bellevue Park Book Committee for putting together this neighborhood history.

6954.png

PREFACE TO A COMMUNITY HISTORY

By Michael Barton and Jeannine Turgeon

This book is a history of a community, and, moreover, a history by that community. In January, 2007, Jeannine Turgeon began to recruit a committee of Bellevue Park neighbors, volunteers who would be willing to produce a book about their neighborhood in honor of its 100th anniversary. Initial members were Clark and Vickie Bucher, Dan Deibler and Elizabeth Johnson, Chris Dick, Frank Haas, Hannah Leavitt, Carol Lopus, Mo Lynn, Bonnie Mark, Debbie Nifong, Peggy and Dan Purdy, John Quimby, Sue Ellen Ramer, Olivia Susskind, Doris Ulsh, Phil and Mary Walsh, Mary Warner, and Gretchen Yarnall. Prof. Michael Barton of Penn State Harrisburg was invited to serve as a consultant and general editor for the project, and we selected Xlibris as our publisher.

In these early months, outlines were organized and re-organized, topics were proposed and discarded, and suggestions of all sorts were submitted and accepted or reluctantly retracted to fit within the publisher’s limits and the book’s budget.

Soon, a list of additional contributors was assembled, including Dr. Bill Apollo, Kathryn Bard, Brenda Barrett, Gladys Brown, Lawrence C. Fink, Ken Frew, Jeff Jespersen, Ann Kitlinski, Sally Klein, Jackie Little, Herman Miller III, Bridget Montgomery, Deborah L. Musselman, Rick Pennell, Jack and Babs Phillips, Kate Quimby, Winston and Kathleen Richards, Jeb Stuart, Margie Thompson, Phillip E. Walsh, Jr., Nathan Neher, Mary Ann Maguire, and Donna Weldon.

The book could not have been produced without advance funding by our Blue Ribbon Committee. We thank them for their support of the book’s printing and for their trust in the Book Committee’s capability.

The committee has depended noticeably upon previous research by other Bellevue Park residents. The late Evan Miller, descendant of Bellevue Park’s founder, had taken scores of photographs of the neighborhood and written an initial history, and these materials have been important for the book. Indeed, there could not be a well-developed history of Bellevue Park without Evan Miller’s contributions. Mary Ann Maguire provided a wonderful supply of Evan Miller items and several editions of Bellevue Park maps over the past sixty years. Another important Bellevue Park resident, Dan Deibler, retired from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, has been assembling documents and researching a history of the Park for many years. He was especially generous in providing copy ready chapters. This book benefits greatly from his industrious devotion and his pointed professionalism. Various reporters for The Patriot-News, including Mary O. Bradley and Bellevue Park’s own Paul B. Beers, supplied vital information by simply doing their jobs. Bellevue Park’s website, www.bellevuepark.org, managed tirelessly and expertly by Chris Dick, has been another key resource for the book. Many of our residents themselves have been generous with their memories, including the history and details about their homes. The Hon. Joseph Kleinfelter let us consult his postcard collection.

The staff and resources of several institutions have been most helpful. The Historical Society of Dauphin County provided the Evan Miller photographs, the Historic Harrisburg Association produced the tour booklets, and the Pennsylvania State Archives offered photographs from the McFarland Collection and assisted in digital imaging. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry was helpful in identifying the neighborhood’s notable trees. The Harrisburg City Engineer’s Office provided early street maps and utility plans. The Dauphin County Bureau of Elections Office provided us access to century-old voter and election records. Mayor Stephen R. Reed has been supportive all along. Finally, we thank the many Park residents who answered and returned the committee’s questionnaires.

Massachusetts’ famous son, Tip O’Neil, proudly said that all politics is local. In the same spirit, it could be said that all history is local too. Local history is the story of the community. It has been an enjoyable, enlightening journey for us to collect and share Bellevue Park’s story here. We hope you enjoy the book and continue to treasure our unique, beautiful neighborhood and, most of all, its diverse and wonderful neighbors, past and present.

007_a_xxx.jpg008_a_xxx.jpg

BLUE RIBBON

BELLEVUE PARK SUPPORTERS

The individuals listed below provided the capital needed to publish our book.

They truly deserve to be recognized as Blue Ribbon supporters.

Thank you!

Michael Barton

Margaret Becht

Patricia M. Bowman

Catherine Brownlee

Clark & Vickie Bucher

C. Thomas Chamberlain & Charles D. Geiger

Eleanor & Louis Colon

Tom & Marion Connolly

Stella T. Danuinas

Charles & Gloria DeBrunner

Chris & Tanya Dick

Dan Deibler & Elizabeth Johnson

Gary & Deb Forsyth

Bobbie Glass

Morton & Martha Glise

Frank & Joan Haas

Franklin Hollinger

John & Mary Kay Howett

Jeffrey Hunsicker & Patricia Buckley

Thomas Jeffers & Minette Bauer

Helge & Flora Jespersen

Greg Kadel

Eileen Minnaugh Kief

Blair & Ann Kitlinski

Sally & Joseph Klein

Jack Krill & Hannah Leavitt

Margaret D. Leedom

Raymond F. & Jean R. Lewis

Milt & Carol Lopus

Kevin & Maureen Mo Lynn

Stephen MacDonald & Mary Warner

Carl Marshall & Michael Harper

Susan Martin & Angela Hlatky

Dr. & Mrs. W. Wayne McBride

Fredrika M. McKain

Luther E. Milspaw Jr. & Jeannine Turgeon

Thomas & Glenda Murray

Deborah L. Musselman

George Parr & Jessie Smith

Robert & Barbara Pennell

Jack & Babs Phillips

Daniel & Sue Ellen Ramer

Dr. Winston & Kathleen Richards

Timothy & Jo Ann Sevison

Sarah Shaffer

Scott & Debbie Shepler

Michael Spangler & Bridget Montgomery

Donald & Carol Spigner

Robert Stewart

Jeb & Robin Stuart

Jacob & Olivia Suskind

Rob & Doris Neenan Ulsh

Philip & Mary Walsh

William & Ellen Warren

John & Gretchen Yarnall

Lee & Kelly York

BELLE VIEWS OF YESTERDAYS

011_a_xxx.jpg

Looking at the new Capitol from the old 8th ward, ca. 1906

HARRISBURG AS THE CENTURY TURNED

By Michael Barton

To understand the creation of Bellevue Park, one should appreciate life in Harrisburg, the neighboring capital city, at the turn of the twentieth century. Discouraging signs of the city’s living conditions, from the trivial to the consequential, appeared in the Harrisburg Telegraph during the first six months of 1902. These conditions probably prompted some citizens to look for a better neighborhood.

The newspaper noted that rowdy city boys were spotted swimming among the small islands and rocks of the Susquehanna. Most of them seemed to be courting trouble for they wore nothing but exuberant smiles, smirked the journalist.

Chicken thieves are busy in the upper end of the city, wrote another reporter. It is said that some shot-guns have been prepared for the rascals.

The policemen kept loafers moving along and there were few gangs on the corners on Market and other streets yesterday, continued the Telegraph. A number of drunks were seen about the city.

Several churches on the same Sunday—Presbyterian, United Evangelical, United Brethren, Church of God, Methodist—preached sermons denouncing profanity, following a resolution passed by the Ministerial Association.

The Anti-Saloon League filed legal complaints objecting to the granting of liquor licenses to several small city hotels and saloons. The League alleged they were disorderly houses and did not conduct their places properly. Over one hundred witnesses pro and con were subpoenaed in License Court. The Telegraph predicted A Lively Time in court.

012_a_xxx.jpg

Looking east on Market Street, ca. 1910

The newspaper reported one Monday that There were several brawls yesterday, and the firing of revolvers alarmed people on their way to and from church.

City sanitary authorities declared the debris and ruins of the fire at Verbeke and Capitol streets to be a nuisance . . . odorous and unsightly, and said they must be removed. The fire destroying four houses had occurred several months ago.

A headline one day exclaimed that Tramps Must Get Out of Harrisburg. The story beneath claimed that The nomads have been infesting the city and their presence has not only become intolerable but menacing to health . . . . No more are they to be given a warm and dry place to sleep in the prison and a cup of hot coffee before starting out in the morning . . . . It is estimated that from 200 to 300 ‘hoboes’ visit this city daily and frequently from 50 to 125 have asked for lodging in a night.

A special column titled As Things Go in the City noted that The court house fountain is again without a drinking cup. There were a number of parched throats at the fountain to-day, but nothing to drink from.

Quite possibly it was the presence, not the absence, of such a communal cup that was the real problem. The newspaper reported that the city sanitary department had quarantined the houses at 1216 Seventh Street and 324 Strawberry Street for typhoid fever, and there was diphtheria at 22 Lochiel Row, warned the Telegraph in the spring of 1902.

013_c_xxx.jpg

Looking east on Market Street from 16th Street.

Despite those negative signs of the times, there were also progressive events underway in the city at the turn of the century that would signal the spirit that created Bellevue Park.

In 1900, Mira Lloyd Dock and J. Horace McFarland began crusading for urban improvements such as parks, paving, planning that would come to be called the nation-wide City Beautiful movement. A few years later McFarland would live out the vision of the verdant suburb by moving to his Breeze Hill mansion in Bellevue Park

013_b_xxx.jpg

Reservoir Park on a sunny day.

In 1902, young Vance C. McCormick was elected Mayor of Harrisburg after a vigorous reform campaign. While McCormick lived right downtown, it was his spirit of modern development that helped bring about Bellevue Park.

In the same year, a new water filtration plant began operations on Hargest’s (now City) Island. Now city residents would no longer need to depend on raw Susquehanna River water for

their needs.

013_a_xxx.jpg

In this rare image, we see that the Bellview Grapery occupied the hills just east of the Harrisburg city limits at the turn of the century. It’s Bellevue Park today.

In 1903, Milton Hershey began planning his chocolate factory and a town to go with it. Hershey became its own City Beautiful.

Harrisburg’s highly touted Technical High School for boys opened in 1904.

The city’s first skyscraper (the United Trust Company building) was built, and the area’s first motion picture theater opened in 1905.

In 1906, the monumental new state capitol building was dedicated. The great edifice would generate growth downtown, including the demolition of the Bloody 8th Ward adjacent to the new capitol.

In 1906, the Harrisburg Board of Trade announced that the city, Once sleepily contented, now awakened into intense activity . . . evidencing the sort of growth which is lasting . . . the safest of all foundations for investment.

In 1907, Catholic families commenced worshiping at the new St. Patrick’s Cathedral near the new capitol, and the community began reveling at the new Hersheypark just east of Harrisburg.

1907 was also the year that the Union Real Estate Investment Company, led by Herman P. Miller, began purchasing the land just beyond the city limits that would become the community of Bellevue Park. This new neighborhood would reflect the great movement toward improvements in metropolitan life across the eastern United States at the turn of the century. In a twist of history, the city of Harrisburg was looking not westward, but eastward, leaving behind working-class row houses and upper-class riverside mansions and heading instead