The "Orange Street: The History" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking through a book titled "Orange Street" by Marion Wallace Reninger that I found amongst my mother's belongings.  Mom died a few months ago and with her went a multitude of stories about the history of Lancaster and the streets and buildings where she lived for many years.  When my dad died  a few years ago my brother and I decided that mom wouldn't be safe in their home in Grandview Heights anymore so we convinced her to stay at Moravian Manor in Lititz, PA where she had been rehabilitating from an injury and illness that began while she was helping take care of dad at their home.  When she became a permanent resident of the Manor, we put her house up for sale and I began the undaughting task of finding a new home for all the memories and belongings that remained in their home.  Mom helped with the distribution of furniture and goods to relatives and friends and I packed up boxes and boxes of memories and placed them in my basement.  It was in those boxes that the brightly colored orange book with black lettering was found.  I began reading it and decided I needed to take a trip back through history and document it with my camera so I headed to East Orange Street in downtown Lancaster, PA.  I touched upon just a few of the most historic houses and churches during my walk and have published the resulting photos below with some information I thought was interesting.  Hope you enjoy "Orange Street" as much as I did.

This house was occupied at one time by the Mayor of Lancaster, John Passmore.  It is on the corner of Shippen and Orange Street.  John Passmore became the first mayor of Lancaster in 1818. At his house you can still see the hitching post and the stone mounting step for boarding carriages. While seated in an upstairs room, residents could look at mirrors outside the windows to see who might be knocking at the front door. And a sundial was mounted on the outside wall of the house near the front door.

One of many churches along Orange Street is the First Presbyterian Church.  The church was given its first regular pastor in the person of the Rev. Dr. John D. Woodhull in 1769.  Funds had been collected for the church building since 1760, and in 1770 the congregation occupied the building.  Robert Fulton, father of the inventor, was the leader of the choir.  In Lancaster record books it is recorded that "In 1770 Governor Hamilton granted the lot of ground 64' by 245' on the south side of Orange Street to Edward Shippen, Robert Boyd, William White, Henry Helm, William Montgomery and their successors for a church of religious worship, a school and burying ground."  The lot to the north on Orange Street, which was purchased in 1825 for five hundred dollars, is where the present church stands.

This photo and the previous photo was the home of Edward Shippen who was the second mayor of Philadelphia. He was appointed to a one year term by William Penn in 1701. In 1702, he was elected to a second one year term, making him the first elected mayor of Philadelphia.  In 1752 he moved to Lancaster where he built this spacious home on the corner of Orange and Lime Streets.  Today it is home to the Lancaster YWCA.

This photo and the following two are what is now the Hamilton Club which is a private club named in honor of James Hamilton, a prominent political figure in Colonial America and planner of the City of Lancaster.  The Hamilton Club was founded in 1889 by 231 prominent citizens seeking a place to gather in the City of Lancaster.  This building at 106 East Orange Street was purchased in 1912 by the club members.  It originally was a private residence for Catherine Haldeman Long. 

The last of the properties I have posted today is the home of Christopher Marshall.    Marshall was born in Dublin and had a classical education in London.  He ran away from home and crossed the Atlantic to Philadelphia where he studied pharmacy and chemistry and founded a drug business supplying medicines to the Continental troops.  He moved to Lancaster on April 27, 1777 and lived in this residence on East Orange Street.

I hope you have enjoyed a photo tour of East Orange Street which carries quite a bit of political importance as well as historical importance in the annals of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  I have walked Orange Street many times as a young boy when I sang in the church choir at St. James Episcopal.  On days that we would have choir practice we would all arrive early and roam Orange Street as well as the cemetery of St. James playing games before choir practice.  Oh, the memories!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.