The "More Farmland Bites The Dust" Story

Photo that appeared in the newspaper as well as Nat's book. This
is a view of Glen Moore on the left of the photo looking north.

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting in my recliner reading the Sunday News when I came across a photo published in their "Lancaster That Was" section.  Photo had a title under it that read: Glen Moore: "From vacant land to tree-lined community."  

This is another view of Glen Moore looking south.  The
circular roads were done in the late 1920s.  The white
arrow at the top of the photo is Brecht Elementary School
where I went to school as a child.

Recognized the photo right away since I used the same photo in Nat Netscher's "From The Beginning."  "From The Beginning" was a history of Manheim Township and Nat asked me to do the layouts and design for the book.  While working on the chapter called Neighborhoods, I used the exact photo that was in the Sunday News today.  

This is a current map of Glen Moore to the left of Lititz Pike.
The farmland that is will be called Belmont is upper left.

Photo showed an area just north of the city of Lancaster, PA which was called Glen Moore.  It was in the 1920s that attorney Sylvester Moore bought 160 acres of prime farmland that was bordered by the Lititz Pike (SR 501) and the Fruitville Pike (SR 72) and planned to develop the land into a community.  Nat wrote in his book that Sylvester and his brother A.Z. built the first two homes on the property and by 1928 had recorded with the township a plan that showed the streets in the unnamed development.  

All this farmland will carry homes and shops.

All the streets were named and when the develop- ment began it contained all the streets but the one named on the plan as "Belmont Drive." A newspaper ad called the new development as "one of the most beautiful developments in the state of Pennsylvania."  16,000 new trees were planted along with new shrubs.  

One of the current houses in the Glen Moore development.

Electric service was established, water service from the city of Lancaster was established and transpor- tation by trolley car service to Lancaster city for $.07 was set.  Eventually, by the 60s most homes had been built except for a section to the north in the development which remained farmland.  

Developer's sign offering building sites for commercial use.

That was then bordered by a new US Rt. 30 which ran east to west so the community, or the homes and farmland, were contained in a triangular area.  It remained that way until recently when a developer proposed more homes and shops for the farmland and decided to call it Belmont after the unused road name.  On either side of this triangle sits shopping centers.  Traffic already is horrendous at certain times of the day.  So what does Manheim Township zoning board do but approve the new development called Belmont.  The photos I have posted today will soon look much different, and I'm sorry to say they won't look better.  What a shame that more of our farmland will be gone.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.