Drive through New Cumberland

Can you Identify and Businesses or Landmarks? Comment below! New Cumberland, a great little town along the Susquehanna River. Home of many business such as Nick's 114, Semoff's Barbershop, Weist Hardware Store, New Cumberland Army Depot (home of DLA) and many more. https://newcumberlandborough.com/ New Cumberland Borough lies at the confluence of the Yellow Breeches Creek and the Susquehanna River. Over the years, the town has had many names: Shawneetown (so named in 1689 for the original inhabitants, native American Susquehannock Indians of the Shawnee Tribe), Chartiers Landing (named for Peter Chartier who opened a trading post on the west bank of the Susquehanna River in 1725), Lowther Manor (named Manor of Lowther by members of the William Penn family in 1750 in honor of Thomas Penn’s Aunt Margaret who was married to Sir Anthony Lowther of Cumberland County England), Haldeman’s Town (after Jacob Haldeman in 1814, owner of Cumberland Forge, a local iron furnace), and Cumberland (recorded at the County after the Cumberland Forge). In 1827, the United States Post Office changed the official designation to New Cumberland to avoid confusion with Cumberland, Maryland. New Cumberland was incorporated as a Borough in 1831. The shelving shore line of the river and the nearby creek provided a useful harbor for landing lumber rafts. This led to the location of saw mills in the new town. Although it grew slowly in the first decade, the construction of a grain mill and depot made the town a shipping point for grain, iron, and other products destined for Baltimore and Philadelphia. By 1845, the town numbered forty dwellings, four stores, two churches, one tavern, two saw mills, a pump factory, a flour mill, and more than three hundred residents. A turnpike enlivened the place; teamsters sometimes enlivened it too much for the local constable. Charles Dickens, traveling on a mail coach through town, enjoyed the river scenery but left no Dickensian description of New Cumberland. The lumber business boomed. A harbor master supervised river bank traffic. Ultimately, seven firms engaged in the lumbering trade but after the Civil War this dwindled. The opening of the York and Cumberland Railroad in 1851 ended the era of freight wagons and coaches. The most prominent New Cumberland resident was John White Geary, governor of Pennsylvania 1867 – 1873. He was a colorful and adventurous soldier-politician. Major Marcus Reno, a controversial figure in the Custer Massacre, owned a farm which is now part of the Borough. Both men are remembered by avenues named for them, and by Geary’s home site on Market Square. In the late 19th century new enterprises replaced the lumber trade. A woolen mill, carding mill, nail and carpet factories, and additional retail stores provided work. Some men crossed the river by rowboat or ferry to work in mills at Steelton. People endured periodic floods and fires. The Borough Council busied itself with such matters as providing a farmers market, repairing the turnpike, regulating burials in the town cemetery, offering bounties for Civil War volunteers, changing from gas to electric street lights, and coping with crimes from chicken stealing to housebreaking. Politically, the town became a republican stronghold.