Memories of Lancaster past
As a child I spent summers in Lancaster visiting an aunt who live on College Avenue near Buchannan Park. I have many fond memories of riding the escalators in Watt and Shand. I remember the blind man who sat outside selling soft pretzels. At the time Lancaster was one of the few places where one could buy soft pretzels.
I used to ride the Conestoga Transit bus downtown to the theaters on Queen Street. As I recall there were three all on one block. I loved those old theaters especially the Hamilton with its long lobby and great marble pillars. I remember when the King Theater opened with its wonderful reclining seats and large screen.
I believe there was also a small neighborhood theater somewhere in the city where I saw a re-release of Pinnochio. I grew up in Shamokin, Pa. and as a child I thought of Lancaster as a big city. It was all quite wonderous to me then.
I live in Baltimore now and from time to time I go back to Lancaster to visit the Fulton. I saw my first live professional theater, a production of Auntie Mame, at the Fulton in the 1950s. I will return in a few weeks to see Spamalot. I will make it a point to visit the new Marriott on Penn Square. It will be a bitter sweet visit.
I shall miss that grand dowager Watt and Shand and will ache with nostalgia at the loss of the wonderful movie palaces of Queen Street.
“You can’t go home again.”
While the ‘powers that be’ in Lancaster would love to return to a time when lancaster had a decidedly different ‘face’ about it, those days are long gone. During the initial talks of the hotel/convention center, I had a conversation with our state representative who mentioned that an underlying hope of the project was to bring about new ownership of downtown investment and residential properties in the adjacent neighborhoods…to bring downtown Lancaster and the surrounding blocks back to the look, feel and atmosphere of the forties and fifties.
Interesting that this concept was never mentioned in the press or public discussion!!!!!