How will warehouse affect Willis House and Willis Run?
The proposed warehouse debate in Manchester Township adjoining the Prospect Hill Cemetery’s west campus is cause for attention. Residents in abutting communities concerned over traffic, truck exhaust, etc. have just cause requiring contemplation. The manner to which the land which was intended for cemetery future “expansion” has others in a lather to its chain of recent execution.
Two areas seem to be lost in the haze of the planning stage have not been addressed yet, so I note:
First, the matter that part of Willis Run stormwater is drawn from this forested reserve. How will the removal of fauna and other matter – to be built over and covered in impervious material affect this and the tributary which spills into the Codorus?
Second, and more to my attention, is the adverse impact to a noteworthy site east of proposed warehouse: The Willis House & Farm – a place on the National Register of Historic Places and saved from decay in the early 1980s by Historic York, this storied site has seen its adversities.
William Willis in the 1750s built this Georgian-styled homestead from brick made at nearby kilns also has importance to being the Builder of what was York’s “Colonial” Court House, then situated in Center (now Continental) Square – the place where Second Continental Congress bargained and penned the Articles of Confederation, forerunner to the US Constitution.
During the early to mid-19th Century, the Willis Farm was vibrant with Underground Railroad travel. Documentation from Historic York notes such events.
'Hallowed ground': Dozens protest possible warehouse near historic Prospect Hill Cemetery
In the 20th Century, it saw from its south portal the wastes of York, the land used as a dump. That was cleaned up in 1955 the Parkway Homes development was built over this wasteland. Then in 1966, a dramatic fire burned the limestone walled barn, lighting up the skies of York that June night. Soon to be eclipsed by such a horror was the race riots of the latter 1960s east of its boundary. And the property languished afterward.
Historic York picked up the mantle of preserving historic sites intact by the Willis House restoration. Today it’s a venue for weddings and other gatherings, the house maintained appropriately as are the grounds Willis once farmed & surveyed.
It seems syntax now on the Willis property’s western border the fated warehouse will blemish the topography. If smart growth is to occur in York, as is a respect for valued historical properties (of which Hoke House, Bloomingdale at Stony Brook and the DeBarth house along East Market St are fading very fast!), where are our officials in these discussions? Another sensitive use for this land, such as senior or special needs housing in a semi-rural setting is smart growth.
York County Planning Commission worked to create a historic survey of its assets. Now, such resources are being flayed for what will bring a higher price of usage. Like farmland, once it’s spoiled or removed, it’s gone. York can and must do better. The larger question is “why do I care?”
Terrence Downs lives in York.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: How will warehouse affect Willis House and Willis Run?
