The Western one-third of Cumberland County contains a multitude of historic structures; approximately two thousand of these were surveyed from September 1984 to September 1985 as part of a project sponsored by the Cumberland County Historical Society and the Pennsylvania Bureau for Historic Preservation.
Oliver P. Williams, County Courthouses of Pennsylvania: A Guide. (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2001) xi, 244 pp, glossary, index, illustrated; paperback, $19.95 (ISBN 0-8117-2738-6)
In 1793 President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the United States Capitol. This event initiated the construction of a building which the statesmen and political leaders of the day hoped would be a grand monument to the democratic ideals of the young nation. To the extent that this first national government building in the Capital City achieved its lofty objective was due to the creativity and vision of Benjamin Latrobe. He served as architect of the United States Capitol from 1803 to 1813 and again from 1815 to 1817.
As many are probably aware, Carlisle was chosen to be the County seat of Cumberland County after much debate in 1751. The Penn family had plans for the town drawn up that same year. The Penn plan for Carlisle "consisted of 312 lots, each sixty feet by two hundred and forty feet. The original boundaries of the town were North, South, East and West Streets.
Interview of Fredrick Harle of Harle Architects in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania by Susan Meehan on February 4, 2015. The interview focuses on Harle's early life, his career as an architect, and architecture as an art.
On the evening of December 23, 1949, Floyd Rice's tractor-trailer engine broke down on the Camp Hill By-pass.It was a Friday, and traffic in the usual Christmas rush continued around the stranded vehicle. Not far from Rice's truck, a family gathered awaiting the arrival home of a husband and father. The table was set with the traditional Christmas dinner, and neatly wrapped presents lay beneath the decorated tree.