Lebanon County Historical Society: Post Card History

Images from

Lebanon County: A Post Card History*

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Long's Livery provided omnibus service throughout the Annville area as shown on this post card, circa 1908.

Robert Habersham Coleman's mansion near the old plank road (now the Cornwall Road) was built adjacent to "The Cottage," his parents' home seen to the right. Recent research indicates that it was constructed between 1888 and 1891, never completed and never lived in. Designed by Philadelphia architects Geo. W. and Wm. D. Hewitt, "Cornwall Hall" had a limestone foundation, red sandstone superstructure and glazed brown Spanish tile roofing. Sandstone came from the Colebrook estate of the Colemans. Cornwall Hall, symbol of the rise, fame and decline of the "king" of Cornwall during America's Guilded Age, was demolished after 1914.

Eden Noll and his fiance Beulah Bedgar driving a 1912 model car. Mr. Noll, from the Mt. Zion area, came to work in a Kleinfeltersville cigar factory about 1910 and lived at the local hotel for several years before marrying the neighbor's daughter. During that time, he acquired photographer's equipment and developed many of his images on post card stock. Most of the Kleinfeltersville subjects and many of the Schaefferstown and Heidelberg Township shown in Lebanon County: A Post Card History, were produced by Eden Noll.

Painting by Jacob Maentel of "John and Caterina Bickel of Jonestown, Pennsylvania" owned by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. Painted between 1820 and 1825 by Maentel, who frequently traveled around the south central Pennsylvania countryside painting affluent farmers and small town citizens from his home base in Schaefferstown, he and his family departed for New Harmony, Indiana, about 1837. Maentel died in 1863 and is buried in Indiana near his friend Jacob Schnee, Lutheran pastor and publisher of the first newspaper (1807) in Lebanon. The Whitney Museum published this post card in 1980.

Crowds of people enjoyed a dip in Kauffman's Park pool in the late summer of 1926. Kauffman's park was the second of two amusement parks in Mt. Gretna. Opening in 1926, the park was a failure during the Great Depression and closed in the mid-1930's. Although the public referred to it as Kauffman's Park, Mr. Kauffman gave it the name of Laurel Park. Today, the park area has been developed as the Dennison estate, and the pool, a concreted pond amidst growing natural beauty.

Water wheel at the Union Water Works. Water wheels working force pumps were constructed near the foot of the nineteen locks along the Union Canal to supply water during dry spells and to make up for leakage. A feeder was built along the upper Swatara Creek some eight or nine miles to Weidman's Forge, near which point a dam was constructed, from which water would flow to the head races of these water wheels.

Dinosaur Rock, located less than a mile south of the triangle in Colebrook, is a rock formation from the Triassic Age in Geological time. Seemingly, it makes a majestic statement about the unique and rich mineral resources found in the mountains of southern Lebanon County formed through time immemorial.

	Long's Livery provided omnibus service throughout the Annville area as shown on this post card, circa 1908.
	Robert Habersham Coleman's mansion near the old plank road (now the Cornwall Road) was built adjacent to "The Cottage," his parents' home seen to the right. Recent research indicates that it was constructed between 1888 and 1891, never completed and never lived in. Designed by Philadelphia architects Geo. W. and Wm. D. Hewitt, "Cornwall Hall" had a limestone foundation, red sandstone superstructure and glazed brown Spanish tile roofing. Sandstone came from the Colebrook estate of the Colemans. Cornwall Hall, symbol of the rise, fame and decline of the "king" of Cornwall during America's Guilded Age, was demolished after 1914.
	Eden Noll and his fiance Beulah Bedgar driving a 1912 model car. Mr. Noll, from the Mt. Zion area, came to work in a Kleinfeltersville cigar factory about 1910 and lived at the local hotel for several years before marrying the neighbor's daughter. During that time, he acquired photographer's equipment and developed many of his images on post card stock. Most of the Kleinfeltersville subjects and many of the Schaefferstown and Heidelberg Township shown in Lebanon County: A Post Card History, were produced by Eden Noll.
	Painting by Jacob Maentel of "John and Caterina Bickel of Jonestown, Pennsylvania" owned by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. Painted between 1820 and 1825 by Maentel, who frequently traveled around the south central Pennsylvania countryside painting affluent farmers and small town citizens from his home base in Schaefferstown, he and his family departed for New Harmony, Indiana, about 1837. Maentel died in 1863 and is buried in Indiana near his friend Jacob Schnee, Lutheran pastor and publisher of the first newspaper (1807) in Lebanon. The Whitney Museum published this post card in 1980.
	Crowds of people enjoyed a dip in Kauffman's Park pool in the late summer of 1926. Kauffman's park was the second of two amusement parks in Mt. Gretna. Opening in 1926, the park was a failure during the Great Depression and closed in the mid-1930's. Although the public referred to it as Kauffman's Park, Mr. Kauffman gave it the name of Laurel Park. Today, the park area has been developed as the Dennison estate, and the pool, a concreted pond amidst growing natural beauty.
	Water wheel at the Union Water Works. Water wheels working force pumps were constructed near the foot of the nineteen locks along the Union Canal to supply water during dry spells and to make up for leakage. A feeder was built along the upper Swatara Creek some eight or nine miles to Weidman's Forge, near which point a dam was constructed, from which water would flow to the head races of these water wheels.
	Dinosaur Rock, located less than a mile south of the triangle in Colebrook, is a rock formation from the Triassic Age in Geological time. Seemingly, it makes a majestic statement about the unique and rich mineral resources found in the mountains of southern Lebanon County formed through time immemorial.

*These photos are from the book Lebanon County: A Post Card History, published by the Lebanon Historical Society in 1992, compiled and edited by Donald R. Brown (Chairman), Robert Heilman, and Henry C. Westenberger,

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Webmaster:fry@lvc.edu Last updated 10-27-97.