Looking Good at Pen-Mar Park – circa 1910

A recent reference to Pen-Mar Park in the Retro York group sent me searching through a packet of postcard photographs.

I remembered seeing memorabilia from Pen-Mar in a lot of paper I purchased in Columbia, PA.

Pen-Mar Park was built on the Maryland side of the Mason-Dixon Line, although the town of Pen-Mar straddles the two states (as the name suggests).

Begun in 1877 as a resort area by the Western Maryland Railroad Company, the park soon gained numerous attractions including a roller coaster, carousel, miniature train and railroad station, a dining hall seating 450 people, and a dance pavilion.

With the building of numerous hotels and boarding houses, Pen-Mar Park became one of the largest resort destinations in the east.

Daily attendance reached 20,000 people during the summer.

Rail connections enabled many citizens of York County to visit the park, although Pen-Mar lies just outside of York County.

Sometime around the turn of the twentieth century, a stylish couple had their photograph taken at the park.

Alas, no thoughtful soul inscribed a name or date, so we can only imagine the experience of these young people and the circumstances surrounding their visit to the park.