Lancastrians traveled to DC for Catholic rally in 1924; X-rated film fracas in 1974 [Lancaster That Was]

Excerpts and summaries of news stories from the former Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster New Era and Sunday News that focus on the events in the county's past that are noteworthy, newsworthy or just strange.

A long-vacant retail space was about to be filled, as a new Lowe's store was announced in September 1999.

The store, which would eventually reshape the area around the intersection of Columbia Avenue and Rohrerstown Road, was set to occupy the former Jamesway building in the Lincoln Plaza shopping center.

The Lowe's would be the county's largest home improvement store, bigger than the Home Depot which opened in Red Rose Commons the previous year.

The plan, which still had to go before East Hempfield Township officials, would involve razing the vacant western portion of the center to make way for Lowe's, while leaving tenants in the eastern side - Weis Markets, Cloth World and Fashion Bug - in place. Rookie's Restaurant and Sports Pub, which at the time occupied a free-standing building in the former Jamesway parking lot, Would be relocated.

In the headlines:

Fast start for NBC's 'West Wing' presidential drama

Seat belts for school buses not advised

Aerosmith, Clapton and Queen lead list of Rock Hall nominees

Check out the Sept. 22, 1999, Lancaster New Era here.

In September 1974, a new chapter opened in the saga of a controversial Manheim movie theater.

Ever since 1972, when Louis Weinstock purchased the long-shuttered Manheim Theater and began showing X-rated films there, the place was the focus of citizen protests. Weinstock, who had been running a successful X-rated theater in Columbia before being shut down, moved his operation to Manheim only to find the same result: After less than a year, he was shut down again.

A new manager briefly attempted to operate the theater as a Spanish-language cinema; after that, yet another manager presented a mix of film and live musical acts, but citizen protests - this time about rowdy patrons - shuttered that operation as well.

Finally, in 1974, Ray Fauber reopened the theater with ambitious plans to renovate and remodel, bringing back the grandeur of old movie houses, with touches such as screen curtains and lobby chandeliers.

Of course, he would need to show something to pay the bills until he could convince distributors that first-run Hollywood films could be profitable in little Manheim.

What would he show? Pornography, naturally.

In the headlines:

Hurricane death toll at 4,000 and soaring

Atom power plants probed for leaks

Mariner photos detail Mercury

Check out the Sept. 22, 1974, Sunday News here.

A four-year-old city boy found an unusual way to pass the time in September 1949. A passing Lancastrian found the child pumping coins into parking meters.

It turned out that the tot had emptied his mother's purse of all her loose change and proceeded to leave the house with it - not to go buy candy or toys, but to feed the coins into the parking meters near his home.

Apparently he saw adults engaging in that activity and thought he'd try it himself. He enjoyed it so much, he said, that he planned to repeat the fun the next day. His mother, of course, dissuaded him from that idea.

In the headlines:

Steel industry accepts truce

Chinese communists announce they have set up 'Republic'

Strike threats in Britain and France pose new problem

Check out the Sept. 22, 1949, Intelligencer Journal here.

Under gray skies and a drizzling rain, on Sept. 21, 1924, 750 Catholic men from Lancaster County gathered in Washington for a rally of the Society of the Holy Name.

The event, which drew 100,000 participants from all over the nation, was the largest such gathering in the history of the Catholic church in this country.

The Society of the Holy Name is a Catholic laypeople's organization which, at the time, was open only to men. (However, many women and children traveled to Washington along with the men to witness the rally.)

Participants in the event marched a two-mile route past the gathered crowds, with no less than 100 marching bands. The local delegation was led by Lancaster's American Legion Band.

The parade ended at the Washington Monument, where the Society members listened to a speech by President Calvin Coolidge, in which the president denounced communism and praised people of faith.

In the headlines:

Pastor confesses he slew wife

Immense polar coal deposits discovered