Lititz Record Express

              T H E R E S S
SER VING THE WAR WICK AREA FOR NEARLY A CENTUR Y
97th Year E s ta b lish e d A p ril, 1877, a s T h e Su nb eam
(Con so lidated w ith T h e L i t it z R e co rd , 1937) Lititz, Lancaster County, Penna. 17543, Thursday, May 31,1973 10 c en ts a Copy; 84.00 p e r y e a r b y m a ll
w ith in L a n c a s te r County 18 PAGES — No. 10
Yearbook Dedicated to Swisher
Awards Presented to
Warwick Students at
Special Assembly
The Warrian, Warwick High
School Yearbook, was
dedicated to Harold W. Swisher,
high school principal, during an
awards assembly at the school
last Friday morning. *
John Sukenik, high school
administrative assistant, was
master of ceremonies at thé
event.
The Community Service Award
from the New Holland Division of
Sperry Rand was presented to
Susan Hershey.
Mrs. Lugenia Rozman, home
economics instructor gave
awards for outstanding home
economics student to Ruth Wise
and the outstanding agriculture!
student to Mike Grube from the
Society of Farm Women 1. Mrs.
Rozman also presented the Lititz
Woman’s Club Sewing awards to
Joyce Martin, first ; Joyce Myer,,
second and Lois Martin, third.
Marie Mease received the Betty
Crocker Homemaker Award.
Mrs. Lila Rohrer, high school
guidance counselor, presented
the Keystone Girls State (camp)
award to Colleen Hacker,,
( Continued On Page 8) A check for $820.72 was
presented last Friday to
Galen Bellile, chairman of the
Lancaster County Bikeathon
for the benefit of retarded
children in Pennsylvania and
Lancaster County. Some 80
local people, in two groups,
participated in the ride which
was held on April 29. Each
rider had a sponsor who
contributed a certain amount
of money for each mile
covered. Dennis Bortz was
coordinator for the event in
I iit itz R e co rd E x p r e s s P h o to
the Lititz area. Bellile is
shown above receiving the
check from Georgia Rollin, a
rider in the Bikeathon. Other
riders shown, left to right,
are: Lisa Loercher, P. J.
Whiskyman and Patsy Eby.
Headmaster Seeks Old Records
Of Rare Couch at Linden Hall
L it it z R e co rd E x p r e s s JPhoto
Harold W. Swisher, Warwick High Sci x>l Principal, proudly
displays a plaque he received from the yearbook staff in
honor of the dedication of the 1973 Warrian Yearbook to
him. His wife, Connie, looks on.
Congressman Edwin D. Eshleman
Linden Hall Commencement Speaker
Completing its 227th te a r .
Linden Hall will observe its
traditional celebrations this w eek
end.
On Saturday, June 2, starting
with registration at 10 a.m. in
Honeycutt Hall, Alumnae Day
events will begin. A luncheon w ill
be held at noon for all alumnae
with members of the Class of 1978
as their guests. The Head­master’s
Banquet for the Seniors
had been held on Tuesdat. A
business meeting will follow the
Alumnae Luncheon with class
socials in the evening.'
The Lantern Walk will In- held
at 9:30 p.m. In this traditional
ritual, seniors pass on to the
juniors the responsibilities and
privileges of their rank.
At 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, June
3, the Baccalaureate will be held
in the Moravian Church.
Chorales will be played on
Church Square by the Trombone
Choir under the direction of John
Keehn.
This will be followed by the
processional of the staff, student
body and seniors.
In addition to the Headmaster,
John Morman, those taking part
in the service are Dr. Byron K.
Horne, Headmaster Emeritus,
Bobst to Speak
:unday at Salem
lurch Service
mer H. Bobst, retired
man of the board of Warner-ert,
Inc., will speak at 2
Sunday during the 150th
rsary celebration of Salem
m Church, Kissel Hill, to
at the church.
s the son of the late Rev.
Bobst, who served as
he church from 1890 to
ing service will be at
when Dr. Luke
i r f e r , p r e s id e n t
r Millersville State
i former member of
peak.
is are open to the
ixtra seating and
provided.
Edwin D. Eshleman
Congressman
and The Rt. Rev. A. W. Schatt-schneider,
Teacher of Bible.
The sermon will be delivered
by The Rev. Robert F.
Engelbrecht, pastor of the
Emmaus Moravian Church, and
until recently Chaplain at the
girls’ school at Green Pond,
Bethlehem.
At 2 p.m. Class Day events will
be held with Seniors presenting
their own honors and gifts. At 4
p.m. the Commencement
Program will be held in the
Moravian Church. Assisting in
the program will be Miss Bar­bara
Wise, Dean, and Dr. Horne.
Horne.
The speaker will be the
Honorable Edwin D. Eshleman,
Congressman from the 16th
District. Once a school teacher
himself, Mr. Eshleman’s ap-propriatness
for the occasion has
been his sincere effort to know
the will of young people and to
serve them as a vital part of his
constituency. Members of the
graduating class have answered
his questionnaires and have read
with interest the results.
The salutatory address will be
delivered by Bonnie A. Everett,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James
F. B. Everett, West End Avenue.
Mrs. Everett is head of the
science department. The
valedictory will be presented by
Ruth Ellen Morman, daughter of
the headmaster and Mrs. John F.
Morman. Both are four-year girls
at Linden Hall.
The rare historic day bed, a
“favored daughter” among
Linden Hall’s notable antique
collection, was reprieved from
the auction block and is now back
in place in the school’s parlor.
But its reprieve is only the
beginning of what Headmaster
John Morman says will be a long
search for pictures and papers to
document the piece’s history and
prove Linden Hall’s belief that it
dates back beyond 1876.
The eight-legged couch,
sometimes referred to as the
“ centipede” and the “ gout
couch,” was one of 19 of the
school’s antiques scheduled to go
up for auction in New York City
on May 19. However, Morman
withdrew it after representatives
of the New York firm handling
the sale questioned its authen­ticity,
and informed him that
they had lowered the original
$20,000-$25,000 value they had
placed on the piece to about
$2,000.
The sale was being handled by
Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., one
of the outstanding galleries in the
country, a worldwide auction
house that handles mainly an­tiques
being sold through estate
settlements.
According to Morman, a
representative of the firm
orginially estimated the value of
the rare couch at $20,000-$25,000.
Morman said other estimates had
been set informally at $50,000 by
representatives from Winterthur,
and $35,000 by. Joe Kendig, noted
York area antique authority.
Morman said that after the
couch had been shipped to the
New York galleries, he had in­formed
the Sotheby firm to put a
$20,000 minimum on the piece. At
that time, he said, the firm had
concurred with his minimum
price.
However, he said, several days
later a representative telephoned
him to say the firm had called in
“two experts” who said the couch
was not authentic, and recom­mended
that it be sold as a
reproduction, which could be
expected to bring about $2,000.
Morman said the firm told him
the piece was probably a
Philadelphia reproduction made
during the nation’s Centennial in
1876, at a time when many
reproductions were being made.
“Call it some kind of sixth
sense, but I felt something was
wrong,” Morman told the
Record-Express. He said he
immediately went to New York
and brought the piece back
himself, meanwhile starting a
search of Linden Hall archives to
locate documentation for it.
His belief in the couch’s
authenticity is substantiated
somewhat by an article that was
printed in the Lititz Express in
1895, which commented on the
parlor at Linden Hall and
mentioned a rare Queen Anne
couch “about 100 years old,”
believed to have been brought
from England.
He said his belief is also sub­stantiated
by the verbal
references to the couch that have
passed- down through the
generations by the various
headmasters at the school.
But while this helps to convince
him, Morman added, it is not the
kind of proof needed to authen­ticate
the couch.
What is needed now, he said, is
a full or better description of the
couch, anything from before 1873.
“That’s all the proof we need to
take it back before the Cen­tennial,”
he said.
One of the big problems, he
said, is that he knows of no indoor
pictures taken at the school
Developers List Plans
For 210-Unit Apartment
Complex in Lititz Boro
Developers are going ahead
with plans to build a 210-unit
apartment complex on a piece of
land near Kissel Hill School, and
will be resubmitting plans to the
borough this summer.
Frank J . Nash, regional
development director of U. S.
Home Communities Corporation,
told the Record-Express this
week that he plans to submit a
site plan, formerly rejected by
the borough, at the Planning
Commission’s July meeting. The
plans were originally submitted
by Soble Construction Company,
which merged about 18 months
ago with U. S. Homes, one of the
three largest building developers
in the country.
This month, U. S. Homes, in a
letter to the borough, requested
reservation for approximately
66,000 gallons per day of sewage
in the borough sewer treatment
plant, stating that it intended “to
proceed to obtain all approvals
necessary for the apartment
development.”
Nash told the Record-Express
that his company plans to erect
“ conventional garden apart­ments”
comparable to those at
the Village of Olde Hickory in
Lancaster. He said it definitely
would not be a low-cost housing
project, but that rentals would
run from about $180 a month for
one-bedroom apartments to
about $250 for three-bedroom
units.
Nash said U. S. Homes is using
no government funding for the
project. He also said plans still
call for 210 units, which he said
was somewhat less than
maximum density allowed by the
borough.
Nash declined to say when he
expected construction to start,
stating that the company is
trying to get the site plan ap-before
1865. The pictures taken
about that time were outdoor
shots, and in some cases, items
from the school had been moved
outdoors to be photographed.
Another hurdle is that
primitive records were kept in
German script, hard to recognize
and difficult to translate by even
trained scholars.
However, he said, he has come
across a bill of sale for the
school’s Tanenburg piano, dated
1801, and he feels it is possible
that there might also be a bill, or
some other record, of the couch.
If the day bed is authenticated,
Morman said, he doesn’t know
whether it will again be put up for
auction or kept at the school.
The whole point of selling the
antiques, he pointed out, was to
cash in some of the school’s
assets while Linden Hall was
facing financial problems.
“It was a matter of priority,”
he said. While the antiques were
prized highly by the school and
community, we felt they were not
as important as education, he
said, and the school intends to
carry on “high standards of
education.”
Not only did the antiques
constitute an untouched asset,
but the spirally insurance costs
on them were a burden.
He said the trustees had
considered the question
carefully, and finally arrived at
the decision to let some of the
antiques go. It was a difficult
decision, he said, but we did not
feel it was right to take money
away from our education for our
antiques.
Thus, he said, the trustees
decided to let go some of the
antiques that were not provincial,
or locally made. Those that had
come from this area, and the
(Continued On Page 7)
I iit itz R e co rd E x p r e s s Pho to
Irvin Miller, owner of the new Miller's Furniture Store, 47
S. Broad St. displays two popular items available, a roll-iop
desk from the unpainted furniture line, and an ornate high-backed
chair from the wicker line.
Unpainted Furniture
Featured at Miller's
Shown above is the rare chair-back
antique day bed, or couch, now back in the
parlor at Linden Hall after school officials
pulled it out of a recent sale of the school’s
antiques. The authenticity of the couch,
which the school believes was made prior
to 1876, was questioned by a New York
antique firm, and the school is now trying
to verify its date.
(Editor’s Note: This is the 71st
in a series of articles to acquaint
our readers with our local retail
merchants. The 72nd article will
appear next week.)
One of the newest stores to open
in Lititz is Miller’s Furniture
Store, 47 S. Broad St.,
specializing in unpainted and
wicker furniture.
Owned and operated by Irvin
Miller, Lititz RD3, the store is-a
haven for do-it-yourself buffs who
thrill to the touch of a paintbrush,
and to home decorators who want
a bit of the unusual in the Way of
wicker furniture.
The store is well equipped with
a. good variety of both wicker and
unpainted, with more stock ex­pected
in the near future. Also
available are a good line of
paints, varnishes, stains and
antique kits.
Now. in its second week of
operation, the store is offering a
number of get-acquainted
specials that include children’s
wicker chairs, unpainted drawer
chests, and a desk and chair ,
combination.
Miller’s line of unpainted
furniture includes both pine and
hardwood articles. Available are
nine types of desks, including a
roll-top desk, hutches, hutch tops
with glass doors, dry sinks,
deacon benches, dressers,
headboards, complete beds,
bookcases, and dropleaf tables
with coordinated captain and
mate chairs.
The line of wicker includes
many unusual items such as bird
cages, large round hassocks,
head boards for double and
queensized beds, a rattan crib,
and an interesting collection of
wall hangings, ranging from
roosters to musical instruments.
Also available are ornate and
plain wicker chairs, including
rocking chairs and folding chairs,
many baskets, tulip-shaped lamp
shades, picture and mirror
frames, corner shelves, chests
and dressers, hampers, waste
baskets shaped like frogs,
kangaroos and elephants, floor
mats, mail baskets, and
pocketbooks.
Also available are a group of
painted milk cans, done by
Miller’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Earl
Miller, Annville, and a small
collection of handmade candles
and ceramics.
Miller, who has been a
distributor for a national cookie
company for the past 16 years,
first had the idea to open an
unpainted furniture store when
he had trouble locating a par­ticular
piece of unpainted fur­niture
that he wanted. Feeling
there was a need for more
available unpainted items, he
moved into the location formerly
occupied by Michael’s TV, ad­ding
wicker furniture because of
the growing demand for these
items.
He is assisted in the store by his
daughter, Judy, and two of his
sons, Mike and Fred. The store is
open Monday through Wed­nesday,
and Saturday, from 9
a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday and
Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Miller is a native of the Lititz
area and a member of Hess
Mennonite Church. He and his
wife, the former Mabel Eberly,
have eight children, Richard,
Litits RDl, Patsy, a registered
nurse in volunteer service at
Montgomery, Ala., Sandy (Mrs.
Michal Layton) of State Line,
Pa., and Judy, Mike, Fred,
Barbara, and Sam, all at home.
NOTICE
$ The Lititz Retailer’s
i;j Association Will Meet $
Wednesday, June 6, at A
$ 7 :3 0 p.m. at the :$
General Sutter Inn.
$ ALL AREA BUSINESS- 8
$ MEN ARE INVITED 8
8 TO ATTEND. 8
proved before listing a con­struction
date.
The original plans that were
submitted by Soble Company
about two years ago called for a
240-unit low-cost development,
for which Soble Company was
seeking Federal funding. The
plans were rejected by the
borough, but the county court
subsequently ruled in favor of
Soble when the borough’s action
was appealed.
Another set of plans, calling for
a reduced 210-unit development,
were resubmitted to the borough
last winter, but these also were
rejected because they did not
meet all borough requirements.
If they aré submitted again in
July, it will be the third time the
developers have tried to get the
plans approved.
Boro Council Tuesday night
tabled the company’s request for
capacity in the borough sewer
plant, stating they will wait until
they learn whether the borough
will receive federal funding for a
proposed major expansion of the
treatment plant.
Council President Curi Amidon
stated that U. S. Homes has
already been informed that there
will be no reserve capacity until
1975, when expansion of the sewer
plant is expected.
Amidon said if the borough is
turned down on federal funding
for the expansion, the project will
be postponed a year and a
chemical expansion (ferric
cloride) Will be considered for the
plant.
The question of whether the
borough will receive federal
funding for the expansion also
played a big part in Council’s
tabling Tuesday night of a
request from Morgan Mills to
accept 125,000 gallons per day of
affluent above domestic strength.
Morgan Mills currently sprays
its affluent on a field in the
borough, but has been seeking
capacity in the borough plant.
However, Morgan Mills told the
borough it has not been able to
get the BOD content of the af­fluent
down to domestic strength
acceptable by the borough.
Boro Manager George Steedle
said two risks are involved at this
time. If the affluent is accepted,
it could overload the treatment
plant. If it is not accepted, and
Morgan Mills continues spraying,
it could endangér the borough
water supply, as the field lies in
the borough water shed area.
Councilmen Jim Yerger and
Bill York both told Council they
felt Morgan Mills was “dragging
its feet” on the issue because the
company doesn’t want to “go to
the expense” of putting in the
necessary equipment to bring
down the BOD content of the
affluent.
York said he thought it was
“impossible” that Morgan Mills
was unable to locate the source of
the high BOD, saying that they
(Morgan Mills) “want the
borough to spend the money.”
Steedle said the borough should
know by June 30 if its application
for federal funding is approved.
Sturgis Lane
In further business, Council
approved changing Sturgis Lane
to a one way street, with traffic
flowing north. The change will
become effective June 11, Steedle
said.
The action followed a request
from Lititz Improvement, Inc.,
which is planning to build a
shopping mall along Sturgis
Lane. The change in traffic flow
was also recommended by Police
Chief George Hicks.
Council unanimously approved
a motion that the two Planning
Commissions from the borough
and Warwick Township conduct a
joint study on PRD (Planned
Residential Development), which
local builders, Hurst j3rothgrs,
(Continued on Page 189
In This Issue
Business Directory 15
Church News 14
Classified Ads 16,17
Editorial Page 4
Sports Section 6
Women’s 12