Two centuries of stories. Tree-lined streets that remember.
A neighborhood that still feels like coming home.
National Register of Historic Places · Est. 1823
Before the tree-lined blocks between Duke and Queen, before the 1920s brick colonials and the gardens that bloom every April, there was a 400-acre estate where statesmen gathered, music played past midnight, and the cream was so thick you could churn butter with a spoon at the table. That estate became the neighborhood you can call home today.
A neighborhood doesn't get listed on the National Register by accident. Neither does it stay this beautiful.
Brick colonials, Tudor revivals, and craftsman-era homes built in the 1920s–40s with hardwood floors, plaster walls, and the kind of detail that doesn't get built anymore. Deep lots with room to breathe.
Mature canopy trees arch over every block, turning the streets into green cathedrals each summer. Wide sidewalks, front porches, and a pace of life that invites morning walks and evening conversation.
Minutes from WellSpan York Hospital, York College, Central Market, the Heritage Rail Trail, and downtown restaurants. Close to I-83 and everything you need — without any of the noise.
An orchestra, the story says, never stopped playing — no matter how late — until the last dancer left.A local historian's account of Springdale evenings, c. 1890s
From a ten-acre summer home to one of York's most sought-after neighborhoods — the story of five generations, one extraordinary piece of land, and the community it became.
Springdale begins in 1823, when Charles A. Barnitz — York-born attorney, Pennsylvania Senator, U.S. Congressman, and president of the York Bank — purchased ten acres on the east side of the York & Baltimore Turnpike for a summer home. He married the daughter of Col. David Greer, an officer of the Revolutionary Army. The home was completed for occupancy in 1828.
What later writers call "early Springdale" stretched from South George Street to roughly Duke Street, from Rathton Road to Hersh's Lane. Barnitz expanded eastward toward what is now Newlin Road, raising Durham cattle and growing sunflowers for lamp oil. The narrative also credits him with forming the York County Colonization Society, and records the tradition that Springdale's barns were "frequently a part" of the Underground Railroad.
Springdale's story reaches into the wider world through friendships. Barnitz maintained a bond with Lafayette — an original letter is said to exist in the York County Historical Society's files. James Buchanan was a regular guest. Tradition holds that Mrs. Barnitz named the property for seven springs on the grounds, at Buchanan's suggestion.
During Barnitz's term in Congress, Springdale hosted Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Davy Crockett in the early 1830s. A letter from Mrs. Barnitz to a niece in 1835 offers her frank impressions of both Webster and Clay.
The depression of the mid-1830s strained Barnitz's finances. His daughter Jane had married James Lewis of Philadelphia, and arrangements were made for Lewis to purchase Springdale. His diary marks the moment plainly: "On Monday, 20th of March 1837 we moved to Springdale."
Lewis was the son of Major Eli Lewis, founder of Lewisberry, and brother of Ellis Lewis, who became Chief Justice of Pennsylvania's Supreme Court. Lewis himself served as co-editor of the York Recorder, a director of York County's first public library attempt, and later president of the York Bank. The deeded transfer of roughly 25 acres followed in 1841.
Tragedy threaded itself through the ownership line. Margaret Jane, the Lewises' only child, was born in January 1840. Her mother Jane died six months later. Four years after that, James Lewis died too, leaving Springdale to a five-year-old girl.
Margaret Jane was raised by the Eli Lewis family at Springdale. In 1861 she married Samuel Spangler Hersh. In 1863, two milestone events: she purchased a 65-acre farm to the east, extending the property to what is now Queen Street, and gave birth to Grier Hersh.
That newly acquired farm carried its own older history. Long known as the Johnson farm, it was linked to Dr. Johnson — son-in-law of James Smith, the York attorney and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Smith's summer home on the property, Peacock Hall, was named for peacocks painted above a living room fireplace. During the Continental Congress's York session of 1777–78, Smith is said to have entertained members of Congress there.
Springdale's pattern repeated: shortly after Grier's birth, Margaret Hersh died in 1865, writing her will just a month before.
Samuel Spangler Hersh — a director of the First National Bank of York, first president of the YMCA, and a founder of the York & Chanceford Turnpike — added 38 acres in 1868, purchasing the George Gotwalt farm where York Hospital now stands. When Samuel died in 1876, Grier, only eleven, became a full orphan and sole owner.
Educated at Princeton, Grier Hersh married Julia Mayer in 1887 in what newspapers called "the most brilliant" wedding York had seen. A choir came from Reading. Hersh chartered a special train to Baltimore for the honeymoon.
Under Grier, Springdale was transformed: the mansion was upgraded, the carriage house built, and formal gardens, a coachman's house, and a swimming pool were added. He became president of the York Bank, the Maryland Trust Company, the Pennsylvania Bankers' Association, and the York County Gas Company. He chartered a private railroad car for winter trips to Palm Beach, where he helped found the Sailfish Club.
In 1894, Hersh built York County's first golf course right here at Springdale: nine holes, 2,281 yards, par 34. The period equipment included wooden-shaft clubs and gutta-percha balls, driven about 100 yards. The course mapped across roads and lanes that are now part of the neighborhood's street grid.
At its peak, Springdale Farms totaled roughly 400 acres, from Boundary Avenue south to Violet Hill. As the city grew, Hersh sold hundreds of parcels for residential building lots. In the mid-1920s, the development now known as Springdale was created — Springettsbury Avenue to Rathton Road, Duke Street to Queen Street — with homes built largely through the efforts of Harry S. Ebert and Augustus M. Hake.
These are the tree-lined blocks that stand today: homes of lasting craftsmanship, built on land that had seen two centuries of ambition, hospitality, and reinvention. Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Spanish Eclectic, Prairie, and Craftsman styles fill the district — meticulously planned, architect-designed, and built for families who intended to stay.
"Early Springdale" remained intact under Hersh until his death in 1941. In 1945 the estate was sold to Charles Pechenek, who remodeled the carriage house into a residence and, in 1954, demolished the mansion — a roughly forty-room home with a ballroom, billiard room, library, wine cellars, nursery, and a dining room paneled in soft red wood with a pinkish stone fireplace.
In 1997, WellSpan sold the remaining property to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York, which built a new sanctuary alongside the preserved Carriage House — a Grier Hersh original, c. 1888, still in use for community gatherings today.
A local historian's account preserves the feel of Springdale evenings: carriages arriving for dances in an octagonal ballroom, musicales and theatricals staged indoors and out, formal gardens illuminated for guests, a glassed-in porch turned conservatory, and croquet played after dark by candlelight. The orchestra, the account says, never stopped playing until the last dancer left.
And because old estates rarely travel into memory without a shadow at their heel, the record includes two pieces of folklore. One belongs to neighboring Brockie: on a moonless night along Spring Lane off Country Club Road, a headless "old Brawkie" is said to chase intruders from a spring near the roadway.
The other is set at Springdale itself: in the 1860s, a visiting relative allegedly saw her suitor's face on a wall and heard a farewell, only to learn the next morning that he had died in an accident the previous evening.
The estate is gone, but its legacy lives on every block. Wide sidewalks. Deep lots. Neighbors who know each other. A neighborhood that rewards the choice to slow down — and one of York's most desirable places to call home.
Springdale isn't a subdivision. There's no HOA, no gates, no uniformity. What there is: character. Brick homes with real craftsmanship, streets that feel like a park in summer, and a community that has stayed strong for a hundred years.
In 1977, residents formed the Springdale Neighborhood Association to preserve exactly this — the character, the appearance, and the quality of life. It's been working ever since.
The homes here were architect-designed in Colonial Revival, Tudor, Craftsman, and Spanish Eclectic styles. Many were built by Harry Yessler, one of York's most respected architects, who lived in the neighborhood himself — in a Spanish Eclectic he designed on one of the district's large lots.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. 199 contributing buildings across 55 acres of architectural significance.
WellSpan York Hospital, York College, York Country Day School, Apple Hill, the Heritage Rail Trail, and downtown dining — all minutes away.
The Springdale Neighborhood Association has been active since 1977 — organizing events, preserving character, and welcoming every new neighbor with a copy of the neighborhood history.
Hardwood floors, plaster walls, leaded windows, generous lots. These homes were built for families who intended to stay — and they still reward that commitment today.
Springdale is the kind of neighborhood people don't leave once they find it. If you're looking for a home with history, character, and a real sense of place — this is it.