Circa 1900

Old post cards shows that York’s one remaining cannon (#206) was originally placed where the Soldiers’ Monument now sits, on that ever-shrinking grass island in the middle of the town at the intersection of Route 1A and Long Sands Road. According to the Authorization For Expenditures (AFE) ledger kept by The Soldiers’ Monument committee, local house mover Frank Ellis was paid $25.00 in October of 1906 for moving the cannon and granite carriages to their current resting area on Gaol (Jail) Hill.     

This very early post card refers to that grassy island as “The Common” and as this example shows, we see our cannon pointing in a westerly direction toward Route 1 Long Sands Road (formerly the Old Post Road) is to the right and the stone wall is long gone. The children are on York Street and more or less in front of what is now The Ellis Agency building. That building had housed the N.G. Marshall hardware store in the past with the town’s post office on its western end.  

Old York Historic and Improvement Society was founded in 1899 with two missions: “to beautify the village and to preserve York’s past.” In furtherance of those ideals, nearly any grassy area in the village was thereafter called either “The Common’ or “The Village Green.” The triangular island where the Soldiers’ Monument sits and the grass strip in front of the town hall were both referred to as The Village Green, much to the confusion of those of us who always heard the area behind and between the town hall and the First Parish Church being called by either or both those same names.

The Post Road

The photographer took this picture while standing on York Street, just in front of what was the Methodist Church. The multi-branch tree to the left of the cannon’s concrete filled muzzle can be seen on other postcards of this era. That tree helps us site the cannon approximately where The Soldiers’ Monument would later be placed.

The Old Post Road is on the left and disappears into the center background heading to Long Sands Beach. That road is now known as Long Sands Road. Just off that road to the right and behind the multi-branch tree is a cylindrical granite watering trough.

Two children on the right can be seen standing on what has long been the shortcut road that connects York Street with what was then The Old Post Road. Not yet built, the former Cox Store was later rebuilt to house small businesses and would sit behind the children to the viewer’s right. The stone wall is long gone and the field behind it is now the municipal parking lot.

The Soldiers’ Monument and cannon

c. 1906

This is the most informative post card picture yet discovered because it shows York Villages’ first and second war monuments together on the same piece of ground at the same time.

The post card clearly shows that the cannon with the white concrete plug in its muzzle put there to thwart boys and firecrackers over the “glorious Fourth.” The cannon’s granite carriage sits beside No. 206 with the cylindrical, granite watering fixture on the road behind. The cannon and its carriage had been moved to the side of the triangular grass island near Old Post (now Long Sands) Road in preparation for the Soldiers’ Monument arrival in the spring of 1906. The photographer is on York Street and standing a bit more toward York Corner than in the previous picture as the angle of the trolley tracks indicate. The multi-branch tree previously cited is just to the left of the monument.  

Although the postmark on the card is March 12, 1908, the actual photograph for the card was taken in 1906, not long after the Soldiers’ Monument was set in place. Evidence of this is the bare soil around the monument that has been staked off to keep people away from the newly seeded grass. The grass would have been planted directly after the monument was set on the cannon’s modified foundation. Later that year, our cannon No. 206 was moved to the top of Gaol Hill.

Seeing both the cannon and the monument in the same picture shows us what the scene looked like during the May 30, 1906, Soldiers’ Monument dedication ceremony.

Old Wilcox Tavern, Church and Court House

An October 29, 1906, entry in the Soldiers Monument Authorization for Expenditures ledger indicates a $25.00 payment to local house mover Frank Ellis for “moving the gun to Jail Hill.” This postcard is dated July 13, 1908, and shows York’s cannon No. 206 where it now sits. This was before the WWI Memorial Tablet was placed to the cannon’s front right around the year 1921. When Ellis placed the cannon he pointed it due north, toward what was then the York County Court House and is now the York Town Hall.  The Old Wilcox Tavern (now the Emerson-Wilcox house lies across the lane and just to the left of the cannon with the First Parish Church between both buildings and to your left of the town hall. We can just see the clock in the steeple through the trees.