It was an ordinary day. Beautiful day for a ride so my wife, Carol, and I decided to take a ride to the nearby town of Columbia, Pennsylvania which sits on the eastern bank of the mighty Susquehanna River, about 30 miles west from my home in Lancaster. Just before our drive, I pulled up a sketch on my computer desktop of an elegant Second Empire style mansion which at one time was the home of John Fendrich, a Columbia tobacco and cigar merchant whose business operation then stood at the north corner of the intersection of Locust and Front Streets in Columbia. Sitting behind the mansion was a carriage house which was just as beautiful as the mansion. I thought Carol and I might be able to locate the mansion and carriage house so I could take a photograph to go with my story. Well, we never found the mansion and therefore never found the carriage house. Sure, there were gorgeous mansions on just about every street, but none that matched the sketch I had. So, I stopped at an antique store that was a block long and asked for help. Showed my sketch to a few clerks and not a single one knew where the house was located. I even told them it was supposed to be at the corner of Locust and Front streets, but that didn't help. Now, a few notes that came with the sketch of the mansion said the property had seen many changes in the past. The mansion later became the State Police Barracks and then became an Oldsmobile dealer. It eventually became a gas station and then the Columbia Diner. It later became another gas station and then a Subway sandwich shop. How a mansion would become a gas station and Police Barracks over its lifetime and no would could remember was a mystery to me. So, I gave up! We drove around looking at all the beautiful buildings that still remain in the city before we found our way home once again.
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