The "The Story Of Cabbage Hill: Paul Gross And His Stein" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Checking out a photograph which displays a rather unique stein that boasts a coat of arms of Cabbage Hill.  Cabbage Hill is an area in the south-west part of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania that was first developed in the 1850s.  It was largely open country as late as the 1840s.  Some of the land was owned by the Bethel family who were rich Quakers who began selling lots in the 1700s.  It wasn't until the 1850s though that the core section of the area, bounded by Strawberry, West Vine, Poplar and Laurel Streets, was first developed.  Well, the story about the stein and its coat of arms goes back to the Gross family who grew up in Cabbage Hill.  Paul Gross created the coat of arms or crest as many might call it.  Paul was the youngest of 17 children who grew up on Cabbage Hill and painted the German crests that hang on the walls of Lancaster Leiderkranz ballroom.  

The crest of the Lancaster Leiderkranz

The Liederkranz in Lancaster was chartered on July 4, 1880 when they moved into quarters in the Schiller Haus located at 283 North Queen St. in downtown Lancaster.  In 1909 Frank Rieker, Lancaster's brew master, donated money to renovate a building on Prince and German Streets (now Prince and Farnum) with the addition of a concrete hall/ballroom and Rathskeller, which is a tavern, usually in the basement.  The following year the Leiderkranz moved into this facility.  I can remember working at the Acme Supermarket, which was located at the Manor Shopping Center, with a friend named Terry in the early to mid-1960s.  He lived in Cabbage Hill, though I no longer remember the exact location.  He somehow had a membership card that allowed the two of us to visit the Lancaster Leiderkranz after work to play tabletop shuffleboard and have a drink or two.  I remember from time to time that everyone would begin singing, but I could never understand the language or the songs they were singing.  Well, to answer my own question about what was the Liederkranz, it is a German Singing Society and Cultural Club that was established to promote and perpetuate German singing, dancing, music, language, foreign exchange and culture for its members and their guests (along with an excessive amount of alcohol as I remember).  It was the perfect place for the club, being that Cabbage Hill was founded by the many German families who moved to the neighborhood years ago.  The club eventually left the German neighborhood and moved to their present location at 722 South Chiques Road in Manheim (Salunga).  Getting back to Mr. Gross and his mug.....Paul painted the German regional crests that hung on the walls of the Liederkranz's ballroom at Prince and Farnum Streets as well as designing the coat of arms.  I never knew the man, but would have loved to have met him, since he played the accordion as I did during the first part of my life.  It was said that if you asked him to play as song which he didn't know, if you whistled the tune, he would pick it up from there.  

The stein designed by Paul Gross of Cabbage Hill

Well, Paul Gross died in 1977 and his coat of arms was reproduced on hundreds of steins.   The elements on the coat of arms signified:  the motto on the top translates as "Cabbage Hill over Everything."  The knockwurst spreading from the duck's right "hand" memorializes a pretzel bakery at High Street and Fairview Ave.  The flowing stein in the duck's left "hand" represents Rieker's brewery and all Cabbage Hill residents who brewed beer.  The cabbage head held by the two German Dachshunds pays tribute to the cabbage patch cultivated by the "Hebrank girls," and the sauerkraut cannery at Hazel and Water Streets.  Supporting it all is a "Lauren and Filbert" ribbon that provides "tracks" for the "Hill boat," otherwise known as the Lauren and Filbert trolley.  The stein and its coat of arms is a remarkable piece of Cabbage Hill history.  Something never to be forgotten!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.