Boyds Bear Country

Let me ask you a question, when I say Gettysburg, PA, what are the first things that pop into your head? The battlefield, museums, The Outlets? How 'bout a barn? But not just any barn, what about a 5-story barn? Do you have an idea of what I'm talking about? This article is not like my usual articles. Typically, I write articles about places that I have never been to but have researched high and low about their history. This place, though, I was actually there when it was in business and it was a barn like no other. So hang on tight, because we're going to do a little bit of time traveling.

Picture this, you turn into a driveway with big painted paw prints on it. To your right and left is nothing but land for as far as you can see. The place you are about to come upon is a place that you would not believe is a store, but instead every little kid's dream. There is a beautiful mural on the side of the barn with a Boyds Bear leaning up against a board fence and smoke from an airplane that says, "Welcome". As you walk towards the front of the barn there is a big silo that says, "Home of the World Famous Bears and Hares You Can Trust!" with a Boyds Bear painted like he, himself, painted the sign on the tall structure. Boyds teddy bears and figurines cover everything as you enter this wonderland! Sounds pretty awesome, huh?! Yeah, I thought so too! Let's continue on in our journey...

There was a space where they decorated Boyds Bears with the season. Whether it was Easter or Christmas, you were going to find a scene of some kind sitting there and delighting every kid who walked by in awe. Speaking of Christmas, Boyds Bear had a very special thing they did around the time you would see Ole' Saint Nicholas. I can't remember exactly if it was stairs or a ladder but you would climb up to tell Santa what you wanted for Christmas. To make the visit even more memorable, after you sat on Santa's lap you went down a tall slide and landed in a big pile of stuffed Boyds bears! It was so great and one of my favorite memories! As you exited an elevator to what was like the basement of Boyds, you could smell a wonderful aroma of cookies and pastries with a hint of coffee that came from the cafe.You also had escalators running all day long to take visitors to the next level of teddy bear world. There was a nursery, just like what you find in the maternity wing of hospitals, but each bassinet had a boy or girl teddy bear swaddled in a baby blanket waiting to be adopted. As you continued on you could hear screams, but not of terror- of excitement and fun! This enthusiasm came from no other place than the small jungle gym that was always filled with children. On another level, you had your Boyds Bear version of Build-A-Bear. You got to pick out what bear you wanted and filled it at different stations with certain colored beans that represent your bear's personality. At the end you picked out what outfit you wanted to put on your bear and get a picture with your brand new furry friend to take home. As you went up the different levels there was more bears and many different things to see in this gigantic barn. I can remember there being a restaurant you could sit down and enjoy a nice meal after your long but nice adventures. There were big windows with an incredible view. A huge field and a line of pine trees- not another building in sight!

Boyds Bear Country opened its doors and it's big, furry arms to the public on September 27th, 2002. It was owned by, of course, Boyds Collection Ltd. Their goal was to build a place not only for kids, but for fellow Boyds collectors and adults too! To give you some statistics on how big this barn really was and how rural its location, the barn was 130,000 square feet and it sat on 123 acres in Gettysburg, PA. 

Fun fact: The Boyds Bear Country in Gettysburg was actually not the only one of its kind. There was actually a twin Boyds Bear Country located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It opened on November 5th, 2004 but closed its doors in 2007. The Tennessee location was 110,000 square feet. The reason why I am stoked about sharing that is because it shows there is so much more to our little towns. While we had Boyds Bear Country in Gettysburg, Boyds Bears was headquartered at one point in time in McSherrystown, PA near Hanover. And you thought this article was just about my memories of the store!? 

As time went on Boyds Bear Country accomplished eight years of business before announcing they were going to be shutting down the barn for good. Everybody counted down the days till the world of bears faced it's ending. When you look up Boyds Bear on Wikipedia and read in the section about their stores it says, "The public reason for closing the stores was to put more "emphasis on supporting independent retailers versus our own superstores"." Is that the true reason or not? We will never know but that still didn't change the fact in January 2011 the doors were going to shut and never be opened again. 

It was a big event about the closing. They started working on how they were going to shut everything down. In true Boyds fashion, they did it with class. The sad part about time and how long you wait to do things like writing about a place you were actually at is time itself did not forget these places but sometimes technology does. I cannot find any videos or pictures of the events they did as everything was coming to a close. I can remember articles popping up on my Facebook newsfeed regarding everything. Their mascots did a goodbye in front of the public. First, it was the main teddy bear's friends packing up their stuff, giving hugs to each other, and getting on a bus to leave. Then on one of the final days, the main teddy bear waved goodbye to everyone and walked through the open field away from the barn. In a matter of time, the outline of a furry bear disappeared into the line of pine trees symbolizing not only jobs being lost, but of an era ending. January 31st, 2011 was the very last day of Boyd's Bear Country. Later, an auction was held, everything was sold and the property was put up for sale. 

A cafe never to make another cookie or brew another cup of coffee. A restaurant to not hold anymore conversations about the latest and greatest happenings in a family's life. A jungle gym to never hear another laugh. A Make-and-Take factory that will never see the smile on a kid's face again. A nursery that will never enjoy a child cuddling their newborn teddy bear. A driveway with fading paw prints of it's past and a chain to keep all public out from what used to be open to them. Many levels and rooms will never get to see the light of day till who knows when. Constantly being shown to rich investors and let down again and again. A beautiful barn will slowly decay as it's outside falls to pieces and it's inside gathers spiderwebs. A gorgeous field will be taken back by Mother Nature herself and left to wonder what it's next life will be. 

There has been no more news regarding the former Boyds Bear Country but the barn looks abandoned while the fields are used for planting crops. People still do take visits to see how the building is holding up but you will always be stopped by the chain that keeps all visitors at a far distance as you look at the faded Boyd's Bear mural that was once bright and vibrant in color just like the store once was.        

References:

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/archives/bear-heaven/article_fabe565c-a581-5ec2-9fbe-664f5b382521.html 

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2004/10/20/317324/65857/en/Second-Boyds-Collection-Ltd-Retail-Store-Means-Big-Business-to-Smoky-Mountain-Region.html 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyds_Bears 

http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/news/article_edcbec9c-0deb-11e0-8c15-001cc4c002e0.html 

Exact Date for Boyds Bear's closing- https://www.theboydsbearsstore.com/apps/webstore/products/show/4009326 

   

Want more Boyds Bear Country photos??? I made an album dedicated to all of Boyds Bear Country! It has photos both from this post and photos that didn't make the cut along with a video of the barn and how it looks now. Link is down below! Check it out! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9pZPwoEJdktxYkVB9 

Adams County Fairgrounds

Hello Everyone,

Long time, no see! It's been forever since my last post and I thought I would bring a bright light to your Friday the 13th by putting up a new post. So, this post is not exactly an article. The reason why is because of lack of information. It's fun to look at pictures of old places and it's fun (at least for me) to read info about old places and what all transpired to bring them to the destination they're at. What you may not know is how much really goes into all of it This post is to show that we may want to know about certain places but we may not get that wish. Or for me, it was a place still standing and you pass quite a bit but nobody, besides people who were there, know anything about it. This is my post I put up on Facebook regarding a project I have been working on for (I'm not kidding when I say this) years. This was my dream project, to put together an article about a place in my own backyard. But I had no luck in finding anything, and to make matters worse, the place that started the whole thing was all crumbling down, literally. This was a day of frustration over living with this beautiful piece of wooded art just disappearing before my eyes, and there was nothing I could do about it but just watch it all happen while knowing little to nothing about somebody else's pride and joy that brought others happiness and memories. So here it is! My post/close to an article of the Adams County Fairgrounds. *Update: There are 3 buildings left. I went by the property the same day I wrote the post. 2 long buildings and the barn. Hopefully the owners will spare their lives. 



I've always seen the top of Facebook that says, "What's on your mind?" I've always ignored it until today. Recently what has been on my mind has been a journey that started back in 2013 that has come to an end recently.

People who've known me as far back as high school when I was in a journalism class at co-op and did local history articles know that I am a history freak. I absolutely love local history! Anything that I can go to some kind of coordinates and know that something extravagant such as a defunct amusement park or drive past an old movie theater I will be absolutely obsessed trying to figure out it's history and what it used to be in it's previous life.

In 2013 I went on a journey after a newspaper article popped up that a tractor fire went on across from a location called, "The Adams County Fairgrounds". I started asking so many questions to my mom about what is this place that they are talking about because I knew nothing about a fairgrounds nearby in East Berlin. My mom started telling me some things such as where it's at and what all she knows. My grandpa and my dad can actually tell me more because they were there. My grandpa told me about when he was a kid he got to see a guy wrestle a gorilla. My dad got to tell me about when he was a kid he got to go and watch the tractor pulls that they would do down the gravel driveway. Of course after hearing these stories I had to know the history, how it got started, how many years did it run, what stuff did they have to entertain the crowd, EVERYTHING!

I was still running a blog for my articles so this was my project as my next article. I didn't know how big this project was going to be so I lined up another article to do, Boyds Bear Country in Gettysburg (never did finish that one). The project was so big the search went on for years! Surely it's not that hard to find history on a defunct fairgrounds, including one that's still standing! Well, strangest thing, no matter how far I searched it's like the fairgrounds never existed. It's just these random buildings that were just...there. All I could find were old newspapers on Google that listed all the fairs going on in the area. That's something right!? Sort of. I kept looking and looking and nothing. Years went on and I had taken a break from driving myself crazy about the fairgrounds with no history. My mom showed me a listing on eBay for a program...but not just any program...THE program from the Adams County Fair!!! I bought it and it came. I was in love with this program (scary, huh.). It had opened a new world to me! Picture the York Fair minus the rides and concerts and that was the Adams County Fair! They had competitions for best produce, best veggies, best animals such as cows, pigs, and sheep. They had the rewards for winning, which makes all of us look filthy rich. It was great and history was in the palms of my hands! But it still didn't answer all my questions. My mom asked on a Hanover history group and they had sort of the same answers as my mom, dad, and grandpa. Finally, I started giving up.

I hope I have not bore anybody to tears yet...

Early this year I heard somebody had bought the fairgrounds. My hopes and dreams of maybe somebody bringing this dark, gloomy, lifeless piece of property that has been waiting to be awakened again will do just that. They started clearing out the brush and stuff that wrapped itself around the buildings and clenched on for so many years. Once it was all gone it was like a breath of fresh air and an opening of a door for the public eye to see such beautiful structures that have been sitting, waiting to see the light of day again. There was a barn that I can just picture having some of the animal shows in. There was a stage that you can only just imagine how many kids jumped up there and danced or older folks got their guitars to play a song or two. There was a smaller building that might've been filled with fruits and veggies to be judged for all the people to see who has the best in all of Adams County. I could go on and on. It was gorgeous to me because I thought I would never see this. I couldn't wait to see what happens next. Unfortunately, maybe I should've waited.

My family and I were out for a drive, and this was probably a couple weeks to a month or two after they cleared everything out. The fairgrounds didn't look right. IT LOOKED EMPTY BECAUSE IT WAS! I will never know why but...they tore the buildings down. I don't know if they were in rough shape or what but everything was torn down except for the big barn. Some of the buildings were being loaded up onto a trailer. The stage was in a big pile of wood. And a barn was the only thing left, standing it's ground, of the Adams County Fair. I was devastated. My hopes and dreams, other people's childhood memories, a piece of Adams County history and a special part of ole' town East Berlin is lost and sitting in a pile of rubble.

As this has been weighing on my mind today, I thought I would try to look for history one last time. It still astonishes me how I can find tons of history on defunct amusement parks, old businesses that are long gone, and others that there is nothing showing it was here but this property that had buildings on it for years I can not find even the tiniest info. Even the article that got me started on this wild goose chase is gone! I found one thing left that my mom told me about a month ago and I just forgot. South Mountain Fair near Biglerville has a post on their website about their history. What do I find on there? Once piece of Adams County left. It's not much, but I call it a win.

Here's to you, Adams County Fairgrounds. 

Abandon houses...Is it just just a piece of trash on the outside, or is it a story waiting to be unveiled on the inside?

Hey Everyone,

Well, as you can see I have failed to get that Boyds Bear Country article posted at the time I said I would. I am very sorry about that, but I have not forgotten about it. Instead I have been looking at abandon places such as: hospitals, amusement parks, malls, and houses. I look at that kind of stuff because, first, I enjoy it. There is something about looking at abandon places that it gives you an adrenaline rush and makes you wonder what it used to be. Then you read it's story and start imagining what it was like back in it's day. The second reason I have been looking at the stuff is because, since it's been a year or two since I wrote my last article, I'm a little rusty and need to be reminded how to write my articles all over again. Such as, what kind of pictures I need to show you guys so you know what I'm writing about, and also constant research through Google, inside and out, so I don't miss one piece of information for my article. There is a lot that goes into an article.

There is one article that popped up in my newsfeed on Facebook. Anything that has the word 'abandoned' has got my radar going and I want to check it out, and this was something I definitely wanted to check out. It was about this guy who is a book writer. He is writing this book called, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children". Now, I think this is a horror book, so I don't know how you guys feel about that. I'm not very into horror books, but he wanted to base the book off of real life places for his book trailer. So, he set out to Europe to look at abandoned houses that sort of look like what he describes the house in his book. What he saw wasn't what he was expecting! He was expecting houses that were trashed inside and out, but what he found was some houses were they look like they just got stopped in time. Nothing moved, only dust covering what it used to be. Take a Look at this article and video and you'll see what I'm talking about. It is very interesting and cool to watch! :)

http://jcluinspire.com/man-explores-abandoned-untouched-homes-in-europe/?s=jclu

New article coming soon!

Hey guys!

I am so sorry I haven't put up any new articles in a long time. That's my fault. There has been a lot going on lately, but I am hoping to get a new article going soon. So, if any of you guys were wondering if I fell off the face of the earth. No, I did not fall off, yet. Haha! So, I am hoping to get an article out onto the blog soon, but it might take me a little bit. I sort of need to get back into practice of writing articles again. But, I do have a little surprise for you guys! Since I have made you guys wait so long for another Peek Into The Past article I will give you guys a sneak peek at the subject of my next article! The sneak peek is down below this page! Can you guess what my next article is going to be about?

 

This picture was found on 10rem.net.

Hanover Shoe Farms

Have you ever taken the time to go to the Hanover Shoe Farms? Maybe it could be an activity for you to do with your family this summer.  The Hanover Shoe Farms is the most popular and recognized breeding nursery in North America.  There have been many articles and books written on the farm.  A good book that was written in celebration of the Hanover Shoe Farms’ 75^th anniversary in 2001 titled, “The Quest for Excellence”, talks about the farm’s history. 

This popular farm’s story starts in 1899, with a floundering shoe business.  Harper D. Sheppard and Clinton N. Myers had bought the shoe business and named it the “Hanover Shoe”. In 1901 the Hanover Shoe opened their first store in downtown York.  Throughout the week, Sheppard and Myers worked in their manufacturing building in Hanover. On Saturday afternoons they had to travel York to work in their store for the rest of the day.  They found “horse power” to be their preferred means of transportation to travel back and forth between the two towns.  Thus started their first stable of horses, which led to racing those horses at fairs and other events. 

Lawrence B. Sheppard joined his father and Myers in the shoe business while finishing up school.   He soon developed an interest in the horse stable and became very involved with its operation.  A story of particular interest recounts when Harper Sheppard and Clinton Myers went off on a business trip and left the stable in Lawrence’s care.  When they came back Lawrence had sold all the horses in the stable. However, all wasn’t lost; Lawrence talked the men into getting a better stock of horses.  In 1926, Lawrence Sheppard purchased an entire herd from A. B. Coxe who at the time was a very popular breeder.  He bought the herd for $150,000.  These horses would become the foundation of the Hanover Shoe Farms.  Two of the horses from the Coxe herd was a stallion named Dillion Axworthy who was known for his speed, and a mare out of 27 named Miss Bertha Dillion.  Most of Hanover Shoe Farms’ horses today and the champions you see in harness racing from the Hanover Shoe Farms all have bloodlines that tie back to the horses that were bought from the Coxe herd. 

In 1964, Lawrence Sheppard had to step down from managing the Hanover Shoe Farms and let John Simpson takeover because Lawrence’s health was failing. On February 26, 1968, Lawrence Sheppard died at Hanover-General Hospital of congestive heart failure and emphysema. He was 70 years old. 

Today, the Hanover Shoe Farms is still well-known for producing champion trotters but more recently has made headlines for helping others.  An April article published in the Evening Sun talks about the Hanover Shoe Farms taking in 23 horses that were seized from a Mount Airy, Maryland farm.  The owner had called the Hanover Shoe Farms, because she thought her horses had value, but they did not…at all.  The horses were covered in dirt, their ribs were showing, their feet were not trimmed, and it seemed like they had never been out of their stalls. Hanover Shoe Farms doesn’t normally get involved in rescues, but they didn’t want to turn their backs on these horses that needed help.  So, they brought all the horses back to Hanover Shoe Farms and gave them veterinary care and food.  The Hanover Shoe Farms are trying to give these horses a new home, but nothing has come up yet.   However, they are not giving up hope on these horses. 

So, next time your parents are trying to find something to do with the whole family, take a trip to the Hanover Shoe Farms to see the mares and foals.  You’ll get to see some beautiful animals, and just maybe, one of them will grow up to be the next Triple Crown winner!

                                                                                                                                     

 

   

Picture was found on Google at this link: http://www.esc.rutgers.edu/VIPGala/Hanover_blueorange_logo_webpage.jpg

The Hanover Theater

 

If you drove past the Hanover Theater today, you would see a building that’s a shadow of its former self.  Once regal and stately, it is now broken and in disrepair.  But that’s not the end of the story. 

It all started back on September 21, 1928, the day the Hanover Theater opened, which at that time the Hanover Theater was known as the State Theater.  The theater was owned by Appell Amusement Enterprises and Fred Bitner.  The building used to be the Wirt Mansion, but it was demolished to make the theater.  The State Theater was going to be the biggest event in Hanover.  There was going to be a lot of plans for the theater such as: special lighting, heating and air conditioning, and lighting in the aisles. They also got a Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ, which cost twenty-thousand dollars at that time.  The theater was able to have silent movies and stage shows.  They had the famous Arthur Brounet decorate the theater.  He also had his very own studio in New York.  It is believed that there are only three theaters left that Arthur Brounet decorated including the Hanover Theater. The architect of the theater was Thomas Lamb who was also very famous for his work.    At the time the State Theater was in business there were no concession stands.  The State Theater had its own candy store in a store front on the left side of the building.  The most expensive theater ticket was forty cents. 

        In the 1940’s the Wurlitzer pipe organ was taken out of the theater and put into a church called Fairview Baptist Church in Alabama.  Unfortunately, the organ was damaged by a restoration gone wrong and water damage from a leaking roof in the church.  The church then donated the organ to the Birmingham chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society.  It has also been said that the society is thinking about giving the organ back to Hanover.  In 1960 the theater got a little renovation. They had to put sound padding on the walls and replace the seats.  They had also put in a ticket booth from the Park Theater.  The Park Theater used to be the Hanover Opera House.  At the same time the renovation was being done the theater name was changed to the Hanover Theater.  In the 1980’s the Fox Brothers movie chain took over the Hanover Theater.  In 1986 the Fox Brothers sold the theater to a couple who were antique dealers.  They were planning on turning the theater into an antique shop.  They started on the renovations which meant everything needed to be taken out.  There is known to be only one seat left that didn’t get trashed from the renovations.  The owners got into a little bit of financial trouble and the renovations had to be stopped.  They then used the theater as storage for their antiques.   In June of 2007 a group of people who restored old buildings asked the owners if they would consider selling them the theater so they could restore it.  They said, “Ok”.  A few years have gone by and the restoration still hasn’t happened.  The restoration kept getting postponed which was a definite bad thing, because any more complications of getting the theater restored and they were going to lose the theater.  Finally, on January 17, 2012 the Evening Sun posted an article saying that the Hanover Theater was added to the Preservation Risk-List.  That means the theater will not be harmed, but also will be restored back to its original condition.   

     

The Hanover Theater in 1931 when it was known as The State Theater.  This photo is courtesy of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Found on this website on Google: http://dclucky.blogspot.com/2011/07/theater-mansionand-delays.html   

The Hanover Theater 2008. The theater looks the same today as it did in 2008. Nothing has really changed.  Picture was done by: Cinema Treasures.  Here is their link: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/14285  

If you want to see more photos and other info here is the Hanover Theater's website: http://www.hanovertheater.info/

 

The Musical Wire Company

When you go past the New York Wire Company you see a regular factory, but when you go there on Christmas Eve you hear a musical instrument that’s not even an instrument at all.  This musical history started back in 1925 with a York music teacher named Karl Alex Smyser.  Nobody knows why he was in the factory.  All they know is that he was making music with a…steam whistle?!  Yes, you heard me right, a steam whistle.  Little did anyone guess that just playing with that whistle would start a York tradition. 

Thirty years after this tradition started, Karl Smyser stepped down from the position to let Marlin L. Ryan and his son Donald E. Ryan takeover.  Thirty-five years later Marlin Ryan retired and Donald Ryan took over the job along with his children.  They have been performing the concerts ever since.  

In 2010, the factory switched from using steam to compressed air for the concerts.  The switch lowered the cost for the event with no noticeable effect on the performance.  Their bills for the steam used to be $15,000 dollars, but since they switched to compressed air their bills went down to $1,200 dollars. That is some BIG savings!

There has been only two times in the past years that they’ve had to cancel concerts, both occasions due to boiler problems.  On Christmas Eve of 2010 everyone thought it was going to be the York Factory Whistle Concert’s last year to ever play until Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area signed an agreement to make a York Factory Whistle Concert Fund. Now, the concerts will keep going on for generations.  If you want a new tradition for your family on Christmas Eve, I would recommend going to the New York Wire Company’s Whistle Concerts.  The concert starts at 12:15 am on December 25^th.  

Here are two videos on the New York Wire Company.  The first video is done by The York Dispatch. It gives you a behind the scenes on the Wire Company's concert.  The second video is the New York Wire Company playing Frosty the Snowman. Hope you guys like them!:)