Lebanon houses many “ghost signs” advertising businesses that are no longer in existence.
History
Posted inHistory
Pennsylvania’s 133-year-old Chautauqua brings the movement’s ‘four pillars’
The Chautauqua movement started in New York in 1874 and traveled to Lebanon County is 1892, when the Pennsylvania Chautauqua started in Mount Gretna.
Posted inHistory
Who Knew? Unsung Coleman benevolence
A newly uncovered letter reveals Lebanon industrialist G. Dawson Coleman’s generous response to Mary Todd Lincoln’s financial struggles following her husband’s death, though historical records suggest she may not have been as destitute as portrayed.
Posted inHistory
Reminders of Mt. Gretna’s past as home to PANG are still visible to those who look
Hidden remnants of Pennsylvania National Guard’s former Mount Gretna encampment, including combat trenches and concrete foundations, continue to intrigue historians and explorers in Lebanon County’s state game lands.
Posted inHistory
Not unheard of: The story of Lebanon tailor Walter Vincent Tobias
Walter Vincent Tobias, a deaf tailor who helped establish Lebanon’s first deaf community organizations in the 1890s, was a pioneering athlete who played football and baseball before becoming a respected craftsman in early 20th-century Lebanon.
Posted inHistory
Who Knew? “Bird” or “Burd”?
The naming of Cornwall Borough’s Bird Coleman Furnaces evolved from honoring Thomas Bird Coleman to being commonly spelled “Burd Coleman” after Bethlehem Steel’s acquisition in the early 1900s.
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How a Lebanon-Paris romance created one of France’s finest châteaux, Villandry
A Lebanon heiress’s 1899 marriage to a Spanish doctor led to the restoration of France’s Château de Villandry and its world-renowned gardens, which now attract 350,000 visitors annually.
Posted inHistory
Natural solution to Lebanon’s 1970s waste crisis became a success story
In the 1970s, the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority came up with a unique way to treat the liquids produced when trash decomposes–a system of lagoons and ponds planted with cattails, bulrushes and lily pads.
Posted inHistory
Who Knew? Anne Caroline Coleman, preserved in verse
Historical documents found at Elizabeth Furnace reveal a brother’s poetic tribute to Anne Caroline Coleman, whose death has long been linked to her broken engagement with James Buchanan.
Posted inHistory
Historic World War II newsletter bound community and troops in Campbelltown
The Old Barn Rifle Club’s Semi-Monthly News Letter, produced by volunteers in a makeshift newsroom, served as a vital link between World War II service members and their community in South Londonderry Township.
Posted inHistory
Highlights from Old Barn Rifle Club’s WWII era Semi-Monthly News Letter
LebTown has published selected highlights from two volumes of a recently digitized World War II community newsletter.
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Who was Governor Dick? Mystery of peak’s name traces to enslaved worker
The most popular explanation is that Governor Dick wasn’t a governor at all, but an enslaved worker who lived and worked on the hill as a collier, or charcoal burner.
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When did abolitionist Frederick Douglass make a speech in Lebanon, PA?
The famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass drew an overflow crowd to Lebanon County’s courthouse in 1867, where he spoke for two hours in a visit arranged by local businessman D.M. Karmany.
Posted inHistory
Who Knew? The case of the Coleman coachman
The story of Patrick Guare, an Irish immigrant who served as coachman to Lebanon’s wealthy Coleman family from 1859 to 1889, offers a glimpse into the social dynamics of Pennsylvania’s iron industry heyday.
Posted inHistory
Scrappy but spirited: Lebanon County’s garage bands of the 1960s
American youth were inspired by the rise of The Beatles in the 1960s to start their own garage bands — and Lebanon youth were no exception.
