The "As Long As You Don't Mind Hitting Your Knees On The Ceiling" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Thinking back to a few years ago when I wrote a story titled "Tiny Home Mania" and how a few places in Lancaster County had began making small, or tiny, homes.  I thought it just had to be a fad, but I guess I was wrong.  Tiny Estates was established in 2018 in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania on what at one time was a campground known as Ridge Run.  Seems that what started as a dozen or so acres of land devoted to small or tiny homes has blossomed into the largest tiny home community in the country.  Yep, you read that right...COUNTRY!  

The size of a tiny home can be seen here.
Click on image to enlarge.  This will enlarge
the image, but the tiny home will still be tiny.

As of now there are three dozen tiny homes on Ridge Run with close to another dozen projected to occupy a place by the end of the year.  All of the homes are anywhere from less than 200 square feet to close to 400 square feet in size.  By the time the property is at full residency, there will be about 100 homes.  Recently Tiny Estates partnered with Booking.com and comedian Kevin Hart to create a Hart-sized home in conjunction with his tour.  That home is now back in Elizabethtown and available to rent.  If you check out Tiny Estates on the Internet you will find they have both a web site as well as a Facebook page.  A few of the homes are featured with "Low Country" being one of them.  This home is 39 feet long and can sleep six people.  

The kitchen, bathroom and shower area.

Wow!  Then they have a tiny home that is known as "The Alfa."  It's name comes from the first letter of the Greek alphabet and was built for an HGTV charity auction.  The home was won by a man who never used it and it eventually found its way to Elizabethtown where it now resides.  It is 140 square feet in size and is 12 feet long and for a 6-foot-tall man who might weigh 185 pounds, The Alfa is shockingly small and making a 360-degree turn may be tough to do.  Inside the home is a couch, TV, sink, mini-fridge, toilet, shower, queen-sized bed (yep, you read that right), and a ladder to climb into the bed.  That 6-foot-tall man who weighs 185 pounds thought he could stay there and came with his tablet, book and guitar.  Wasn't long before he knew he shouldn't have brought the guitar.  

The bedroom area.

A tour of The Alfa was accomp- lished in one 360-degree turn.  Later in the evening that night his girlfriend came to visit and was able to sit on a folding chair that had been hung on the wall.  Being that The Alfa was too small for the guy and his girlfriend, she left and he decided it was time for bed.  The bed was comfortable and the rain hitting the ceiling a few inches above his head made for a relaxing atmosphere.  Tiny Estates has a lake stocked with fish and plenty of space for children to run around outside the tiny homes.  Check out the web site and Facebook page and see for yourself what is offered.  Maybe you might want to give it a try, but then again, maybe hitting your knees on the ceiling all night long may not be for you!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

One of the tiny homes.

The lake area showing a few of the tiny homes in the background.

The "The Train Stops Here! - Part I" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Paging through our local paper's "Schools" section that is published every Tuesday.  The section includes stories from just about every school in Lancaster County as well as schools in a few neighboring counties.  The final page of the section each week is titled "The Mini Page" and was begun 50 years ago.  The page features puzzles, children's cooks corner, special words to learn, Eco notes and a feature story geared toward education.  Easy to read since it is printed in what appears to be 14 point type and is condensed to make it interesting, but not boring.  My favorite kind of story!  Today's featured story was titled "Orphan Trains".  I read it through several times before I realized this actually happened in the United States, but not in my lifetime.  Wasn't long before I was on my MacBook Air reading more about what I had found in the newspaper.  Seems that the Orphan Train Movement was a supervised welfare program that transported orphaned and homeless children from crowded Eastern cities of the United States to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the Midwest.  The orphan trains operated between 1854 and 1929 and relocated close to 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, abused or homeless children during those 75 years.  Three institutions that existed at the time, Children's Village, Children's Aid Society and New York Founding Hospital, all endeavored to help these children.  The institutions themselves were all supported by wealthy donors and operated by professional staff members.  Many of the homeless, orphaned and abandoned children were from New York City.  It was estimated that in 1850 alone, almost 30,000 came from New York City.  The children were transported to their new homes on trains that were labeled "orphan trains" or "baby trains".  At the end of the 1920s organized foster care began in America which made the orphan trains no longer needed.  So how did these organizations begin years before.  

The Rev. Charles Loring Brace took the
first Orphan Train to Dowagiac, Michigan.

Seems the Children's Aid Society was founded in 1853 when Charles Loring Brace, a young minister,  became concerned with the plight of street children.  During the organizations first year they offered boys religious guidance as well as vocational an academic instruction.  The Society also established the nation's first runaway shelter known as the Newsboys' Lodging House where vagrant boys received inexpensive room and board and basic education.  Rev. Brace became overwhelmed in no time and thus began the idea of sending groups of children to rural area for adoption.  He believed the street children would have better lives by being raised by rural farm families.  His idea was the forerunner of modern foster care.  He dispatched children to farms in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and rural New York and then in 1854 began transporting them to the Midwest by railroad on cars known as the "Orphan Train".  

Children line the windows in the Orphan Train.

The Children's Aid Society referred to its mission as the Emigration Depart- ment, then as the Home-Finding Department and finally as the Department of Foster Care.  The terms "family placement" or "out-placement" were used to refer to orphan train passengers.  The decision as to where each child would be placed was based entirely on where spaces were available at the moment the child needed help.  The very first Orphan Train carried a group of 45 children to Dowagiac, Michigan on October 1, 1854.  

Posters would be posted in cities where the
Orphan Train was to arrive, hoping that
people would volunteer to take a child.

When the train reached Dowagiac a meeting was held where Mr. E.P. Smith, the adult who accompanied the children, told the audience, who gathered around, the farm work the boys could do and the housework the girls could perform.  To receive an orphan child an adult had to have a recommendation from their pastor and a justice of the peace.  Within five days 37 children had been placed.  Mr. Smith took the remaining children to Chicago where they were put on another train to Iowa City to be greeted by the Rev. C.C. Townsend who ran a local orphanage.  He helped find homes for these children.  The first expedition was such as success that three months later another expedition was sent to Pennsylvania.  This continued until 1929 when charities changed their child care support strategies and the need for orphan trains decreased.  Tomorrow I will tell you about a few children who rode on those Orphan Trains.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "The Tobacco Warehouse/Printing Company Comes Alive Once Again" Story

The Press Building at the corner of North Prince and West Lemon.

It was an ordinary day.  A bit windy and cold as I stood at the intersection of North Prince and West Lemon Streets in Lancaster, Pennsylvania taking photos of the newly finished luxury condominiums known as "The Press Building".  The five story building has been transformed into high-end condominiums after years of sitting empty.  

A fire in the early 20th century almost destroyed the building.

The building was built at the end of the the nineteenth century as a tobacco warehouse for the S.R. Moss & Company.  A fire, blamed on a weak electric pole, caused $800,000 to the warehouse and another $200,000 to the American Cigar Company which was located to the north of the warehouse.  Eventually the warehouse was purchased by P. Lorillard in 1920.  

The building as I remember it when it was Lancaster Press Company.
It was then purchased by R.R. Donnelly & Sons for their cartography div.

The five-story building was one of the most elaborate tobacco ware- houses in Lancaster County having recessed bays which were defined on the façade by rounded arches and on the side by corralled brick.  In the 1940s German prisoner's of war were used as workers in this building to process tobacco.  The building changed hands in the mid-1900s when the B.F. Good & Company Leaf Tobacco Company bought it to be their warehouse.  

The new entrance into the condos.

Then the building was changed into a printing company known as Lancaster Press for many years.  Eventually, in 1985 R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company purchased the building and used it as its cartography division which researched and made maps.  Printing operations filled the building for over 70 years.  Then in 2014 the vacant building was sold for $200,000 and was transformed into luxury condominiums.  Carol and I were going to make a visit to see what the upscale places looked like, but never got a chance before all the units were sold.  Photos of what the remodeling looked like were posted online.  I have posted a few to show you what an old, run-down building can look like after major renovations.  I'm sure that other cities have recycled unused buildings to create housing, but perhaps not as interesting as what has happened to the Lancaster Press Building.  I was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Entrance into their new restaurant.

View of Lancaster from a balcony.

Seating on the balconies.

Interior showing living and kitchen area. My wife loves the industrial look to the condo.

Bathroom redo.

Night-time view of the condos.