Carlisle, PA 17013

by Charlie Andrews

The Decline Again

Over time, most organizations, businesses or communities fall into a routine. There is no individual fault, yet we are all at fault as we become comfortable, and complacency creeps into our routine. This is a difficult thing to combat, but it is particularly disastrous for what is essentially a marketing effort. We need to continue finding ways of increasing our marketing to the outside world, and ways of funding it. Our efforts have stalled, because our current plan for addressing this is no longer effective.

The downtown’s new decline is now apparent and has begun a vicious cycle. As empty storefronts appear, they are not soon filled with new merchants. They remain empty, become trashy looking, weeds are beginning to grow and tree wells are not maintained.

Stores become harder to rent, and rents start dropping. This allows less-credible merchants in who do not maintain or improve their storefronts, sidewalks, window displays, etc. The gutting of the sign ordinance further enhanced this deterioration. These less-credible merchants don’t stay long, and we are left with either another empty and now further- deteriorated site, or another less-credible merchant who is not going to last either.
All this means fewer people on the sidewalks, so they become attractive to skateboarders and bicyclists. This is illegal, but because there are fewer merchants or shoppers to complain, even less attention is paid to the downtown. Even traffic and crosswalk enforcement declines for the same reasons.

An ominous indicator of the downtown’s decline is that this year (2004) a building owner applied for and received a zoning exemption to convert a storefront into a residential apartment. For the downtown, this is “the kiss of death.”

Go to Part IV

by Charlie Andrews

Carlisle’s Potential

Carlisle is already a destination for the local area, but it is the potential day-trippers within a two-hour driving radius who put a tremendous amount of disposable income within reach of our community. This means more people coming to Carlisle for all the right reasons, to shop, partake of our cultural events, to establish businesses and even to live in the proposed renovated areas of our downtown. For this to happen Carlisle must market itself.

Downtown Carlisle is a destination for:
• Antiques • Art • Crafts
• Specialty Shops • Fine Dining • Boutiques
• History • Architecture • Entertainment
• Cultural Events • Fine Hotels • Bed & Breakfasts
• Books • Baking/Desserts

Additionally, Carlisle’s fine lodging in its downtown allows visitors to take in not only Carlisle but surrounding historic and scenic areas. Some other attractions to people from outside our area are:

• Carlisle Car Shows • Area Civil War Sites
• Cumberland County Historical Society • Local/Area Museums • Dickinson College
• Famous Trout Streams
• US Army War College • Historic Colleges
• Dickinson School of Law

Some Allies of Carlisle
who also have a mutual interest in the health of our community are:
• Area Industries • Carlisle Productions
• Dickinson College
• Law School • US Army War College • Wal-Mart
• Lowes • Home Depot

Go to Part VI

The Molly Pitcher Frock

Like people, buildings have their history.  The 44 North Bedford, home to Bedford Street Antiques, is no different.  The northern, three-story section of Bedford Street Antiques was originally a church.  Completed by the First Lutheran Church in 1852 at a cost of $7,122.50, glimpses of the original architecture can be found throughout the three floors.  During the Confederate Invasion of Carlisle, the church was struck twice. One shell landed in the supports of the roof without exploding.   Attendance was down until the shell was removed!

When the congregation built its present church on the corner of E. High and S. Bedford at the turn of the 1900s, the John W. Plank Company renovated the church into a factory for the manufacturing of women’s and children’s garments.  On the cutting edge of ready-to-wear day clothing, one of the company’s most successful lines was the one-piece cotton dress known as the “Molly Pitcher Frock.”  Plank’s garment business eventually became the Carlisle Garment Company in 1913.  In 1956, a 10,000 square foot building on the adjoining southern property was added for storage and shipping.  In its peak year of 1962, the company produced and shipped 175,464 dozen dresses and pajamas – that’s 72,105,505 pieces!  Total employment was about 300 with a payroll in 1963 of $650,000.  The company operated until 1976.

Molly Pitcher’s Poem

All day the great guns barked;
All day the big balls screeched and soared;
All day, ‘mid the sweating gunners grim,
Who toiled in their smoke-shroud dense and dim,
Sweet Molly labored with courage high,
With steady hand and watchful eye,
Till the day was ours, and the sinking sun
Looked down on the field of Monmouth won,
And Molly standing beside her gun.

Laura E. Richards

You can read Carlisle’s poem to Molly Pitcher on a visit to the Molly Pitcher Monument located in Carlisle’s Old Graveyard on East South St.
FYI: The statue of is a composite likeness of the descendants of Mary Hays McCauley, Carlisle’s Molly Pitcher.

Compliments of
Carlisle Guided Tours
Walking tours of Historic Carlisle
(717) 249-2926  (Not sure if they are still in business)

References:
Thompson, D.W. and Schaumann, Merri Lou. “Goodbye, Molly Pitcher,” Cumberland County History, Vol. 6, Number 1, Carlisle, PA, Cumberland County Historical Society,1989.

Echman, Walter. Program script on the history of the Carlisle Carpet Co., 1964.

Hoffer, Ann Kramer. Twentieth Century Thoughts-Carlisle: The Past Hundred Years, Carlisle, PA, Cumberland County Historical Society, 2002.