Photos: Memorable York, Pa., pictures through its early decades

Cliff Satterthwaite documented hundreds of scenes around York County in the decades before, during and after the 1960s. Here he captured the structure built by Martin Eichelberger soon after York was surveyed in 1741. It's known as the Plough Tavern today. - Jim McClure

According to the York County Heritage Trust's Dan Roe, York College of Pennsylvania's Paul Doutrich has found that the building was possibly built in two phases. The half-timbered second story was added atop the first floor by 1745, at the latest.

'Greater York' said the Plough Tavern might be the oldest surviving structure in York. That might still be true of this structure. But you never know when another architectural wonder will be unveiled when centuries of siding come off.

1750s: York County's Centre Square Courthouse went up in the mid-1750s. It hosted the Continental Congress in 1777-78, as depicted here in this stained-glass window by J. Horace Rudy. At the time of Congress' visit, the courthouse did not have a tower and gables. Those were later additions. That snow? That was the same weather that dropped all that snow on Valley Forge, where George Washington's shivering troops were quartered.

York in the 1760s: Johannes Guckes built a house beside the Codorus Creek in 1761. It was at a remote spot in those days. Today, it's surrounded by greenery in an urban area. It's known as the Cookes House today and stands in Martin Luther King Jr. Park.

York in the 1760s: In 1762, William Willis, the prominent Quaker builder of the county courthouse, constructed a classic Georgia home with double English-style chimneys in an unsettled part of York. Today, the Willis House remains off-the-beaten track.

1770s: Alexander Graydon visited York in the early 1770s. He tells in his memoirs about one pleasant acquaintance made there - that of Shinah Ettig. This book and Graydon's impressions of early York can be found by searching his name on the Web.

York in the 1770s: Henry Laurens of South Carolina led the Continental Congress in that body's nine-month visit to York County in 1777-78. The events from that visit - highlighted by the adoption of the Articles of Confederation - are the most celebrated in York County in the 225-plus years after that visit.

York in the 1780s: This drawing by a British prisoner of war shows that Camp Security in present-day Springettsbury Township was not that secure. Prisoners escaped by standing on the shoulders of their fellow British soldiers. The British POW American Revolution camp operated between 1781 and 1783. In recent years, volunteer diggers have searched for the exact location of the stockade.

The 1780s/1790s; York Academy, later York County Academy, went up in 1787 and came down late in the 20th century when York's downtown was on a crusade for parking space. Suburban shopping was challenging York's longtime retail dominance. Today, its location remains a parking lot, across North Beaver Street from St. John's Episcopal Church.

1800/1810: James Smith, York County's signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a dominant force in legislative, military, legal and business matters for much of the 18th century. He passed away in the first decades of the 19th century, a moment that represented a changing of the guard in early York, Pa.

Thomas Hartley, York County's first congressman, was so well known that he attracted an American president to his West Market Street, York, home. George Washington spent the night in Hartley's home in the 1790s. Like Smith, Hartley died in the first decade of the 19th century - late in 1800, in fact.

1810-1810: William C. Goodridge was born this decade in Maryland, and he moved to York as a youth. His rise represents the rise in commerce in York, Pa. in the first half of the 1800s. Those accomplishments include the ownership of an emporium, left, and railcars, upper right.

William C. Goodridge was barber, among many other business enterprises. His hair specialties included cures for pattern balding - concerning men and women. This image was part of an advertisement in a York newspaper.

York 1800/1810: You could say that women ran York Town at the height of the American Revolution when the men were away fighting for the Continental Army and Continental Congress delegates flooded York. Their crucial community work continued as York transitioned in the post-war years and in the early 1800s into a busy place for commerce.

1800/1810: Not all York Town leaders in the American Revolution stayed in town after the war. General Henry Miller, as he was known, stayed for many years. In fact, he was York's first chief burgess in 1787. But Miller did not stick around to see York evolve into a place of commerce early in the 1800s. He moved to Perry County later in life and died there in 1824. Notice in this photo, by the way, that the York Rifles, men he led in the American Revolution, are firing on targets drawn on a barn.

1810-1820 - A group of York County businessmen studying the area's growth decides to establish a company in 1816 that would deliver water to homes and businesses. The plan was for the water to travel through bored logs -- 10,000 feet of logs. The holes were 3-4 inches in diameter, and each log was about 12-13 feet long. Today, the York Water Company draws on billions of gallons of reserve water from Lake Williams, built in 1912 and filled to capacity in 1913, and Lake Redman, completed in 1967 after a severe drought one year earlier.

1810-1820: Those wooden pipes are still visible around York, Pa. This pipe is emerges from the basement wall in the former York train station on East North Street in York in 2015.

1810-1820: The York Water Co.'s then-new reservoirs are shown on what became known as Reservoir Hill in 1899. The capacity of the basins: 22 million gallons each. Daily pumping capacity stood at 10 million gallons. An aerating fountain is shown in the foreground. Today, the fountain is gone and the still-functioning reservoirs are covered. The area around the reservoirs is a park. http://www.paconservationheritage.org/places.html

The originial York County Courthouse, standing tall in Centre Square since the mid-1750s, comes down in the 1841. While it stood as the central government office in York, it attracted a stream of visitors.Its successor went up on the site of the current York County Administrative Center on East Market Street.

Harriett Tubman, today America's best-known Underground Railroad operative, visited York County before the Civil War. She was one of many visitors to come to York County in that period. She was an escaped slave from Virginia, who returned south to bring back to freedom an estimated 200 slaves. Scott Mingus writes in his soon-to-be-published "The Ground Swallowed Them Up" that Tubman passed through York County on some of her trips back to the south.

Codorus Navigation made the creek navigable from York to the Susquehanna River. Artist William Wagner shows the navigation system in operation circa 1850 from the vantage point of North York hill. The next slide for a contemporary view.

A contemporary photograph of the view from the North York Hill looking southward across the Codorus Creek in 1966. Several of the old landmarks are discernible today.

York in 1840s: The Cottage Hill Academy stood tall on the north bank of the Codorus Creek in the vicinity of present-day Dorgan and Zuck's facility, 325 Cottage Hill Road.

Cliff Satterthwaite captured this scene from the 20th century that looks from the vicinity of Cottage Hill. The academy is long gone in this view. The round structure is a Columbia Gas storage unit. The smokestack for the old Met Ed power plant - which will become the new home for the York County History Center - can be seen at left.

Mary Sophia Cadwell Fisher came to York to teach women at York County Academy. She married a judge and lived a long life as a respected member of the community. An undated newspaper clipping described her as “... amiable and kindly ... many remember her kindly ministrations to others when in trouble and her many benefactions to the poor and needy ... .”

Mary Fisher served as a nurse in the Civil War. That work included duty in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg. Years later, she wrote about her eye-witness experiences for a Philadelphia newspaper. That made her a bit of war correspondent, too.

In the 1850s, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper taught school in York, Pa. She wrote about seeing escaped slaves from The South gain their freedom via the Underground Railroad.

Amanda Berry Smith's family lived just north of the Mason-Dixon Line in Shrewsbury. She wrote about how her family helped slaves seeking their freedom move to safe places in the North.

Isabel Cassatt Small helped organize the Ladies Aid Society to provide aid for wounded soldiers in the Civil War. She later was involved in the startup of the Children's Home of York. Her husband was leading York businessman Samuel Small.

Samuel Small, upper left, was credited for his community service on this Mural of York - or should we say former Mural of York. It has been replaced by a successor mural on the side of the Yorktowne Hotel.

Samuel Small - brother of P.A. Small and the "S." in the leading 1800s mercantile firm P.A. and S. Small - and his wife Isabel had no children. Both poured themselves into community activities, leaving a legacy that benefits York, Pa., today.

S. Morgan Smith was part of the startup of York Manufacturing Co. in 1874. Five other businesses that he started continue to operate today, making him arguably York County's greatest industrialist.