There are few Central Pennsylvania architects that have put their mark on the built environment more than John Augustus Dempwolf. His firm, which included both his brother Reinhardt and later, his son Frederick, employed many young architects who would later open their own successful practices. But the Dempwolf name stands above them all because of both the volume and quality of his designs.
Tragically, some of his greatest works, like the York Collegiate Institute, have fallen in the name of development. Others, like the 1898 York County Court House, were greatly altered during mid-20th century renovations. Fortunately, many grand buildings designed by Dempwolf, like Gettysburg College’s Glatfelter Hall and York’s Central Market House, still stand today.
Of the buildings that have met the wrong end of a wrecking ball, perhaps none is more missed than the York City Market, which stood on South Duke Street in downtown York from 1878 until 1963, when someone decided that the land was better suited for a gas station.
I recently obtained a print of Dempwolf’s rendering of the building, published in the September 28, 1878 issue of American Architect and Building News.
In a word: Wow!
The original building, which was expanded and altered in later years, was a study in High Victorian flair. While many of Dempwolf’s large public and ecclesiastical buildings incorporated Romanesque features as interpreted by prominent architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the York City Market employed Gothic features and Victorian ornamentation. A 140-foot clock tower stood high above the street below. To put its height into perspective, the top of the main Florentine dome on the York County Court House is 155-feet above street level – a mere 15 feet taller. Gargoyles projected from the corners and the tower was large enough to house both the market master’s office (first floor) and directors’ meeting room (second floor).
The building is polychromatic in appearance, a common feature of the High Victorian Gothic style, while the façade makes use of varying patterns and textures. The north-facing gable features decorative bargeboard, while the covered porch makes use of “gingerbread” – decorative woodwork. According to Dempwolf’s entry about the project in the publication, the façade comprised red brick, black mortar, and light drab-colored Amherst stone. A trefoil shape is prominent – both on the north and west gables as well as the windows inside triangular dormers. The massive roof was of slate quarried in Peach Bottom, York County and featured variegated red and green bands. The York City Market was a very eclectic building, yet undeniably picturesque.
In recent years I’ve had the opportunity to give presentations about local architecture, and the audiences frequently fixate on any old image or postcard of the York City Market. The older generation fondly recalls regular visits to market (original market days were Tuesday and Friday mornings, Wednesday and Saturday afternoons) while the younger generation asks, sometimes in disbelief, “You mean that building was in York?”
Baltimore shipbuilders were involved with the construction. When the building opened, it was said that the Georgia pine Gothic hammer-beam roof trusses were among the largest in the world. The cost to build the 225-foot by 80-foot structure was $27,000.
In John Gibson’s 1886 History of York County, Pennsylvania, the following is written about the market:
Descriptive writers have a fondness for exaggeration, a feature
entirely avoided in this work; but it can be truthfully be said that this
building is the most artistic and ornamental of
any one of its kind in the
State of Pennsylvania.
If you are wondering about the building pictured to the right of the market, it is the first York Collegiate Institute building, constructed in 1873 but destroyed by fire in 1885.
I was recently in Harrisburg for a meeting held not far from the Pennsylvania State Capitol building. As I walked to my car, I was buffeted by the winter winds coming across the Susquehanna River. And while the day had been bright when I went into my meeting, dark clouds had since moved in, dropping an occasional random snow flurry.
