Every three years since 1902, Greencastle has celebrated its heritage during a week-long community tradition called Old Home Week. This year marks the festival’s 42nd edition, which takes place from Aug. 2 to 9 at various venues throughout the town.
Old Home Week is an open-arms invitation for past residents to return to Greencastle to reminisce with old friends and make new memories. The event also serves as a triennial commemoration where the town’s residents interpret their storied past through concerts, reunions, tours, parades, pageants and family-oriented entertainment.
Old Home Week started with one man’s desire to gather the “Old Boys” together for a summer reunion. Philip Baer was a native of Greencastle who traveled the world as a singer and musician. Baer learned his craft in Italy, and after years of European study, he became a talented vocalist, piano player and violinist. Nationally recognized as an opera singer and entertainer, Baer once sang for Pope Leo after the pontiff blessed him. His traveling musical tours occasionally brought him through Greencastle, and the tenor missed his hometown.
Baer wrote a letter published in September 1901 by local newspapers, saying, “During the past few years, I have had the pleasure of meeting many of Greencastle’s noble sons,” and he had considered a reunion. Baer invited all Greencastle native men to return to their hometown from Aug. 10-20, 1902. The host promised the event would offer “many joyous never-to-be-forgotten demonstrations.”
Baer laid out a schedule that included speeches made by returning men during the first evening. On another night, a performance by the famed Bert & Miller minstrels would entertain the Old Boys during a grand concert. “Everything free to all comers,” Baer wrote.
In 1902, Teddy Roosevelt was President, and Greencastle had 1,450 citizens. Carl’s Drug Store, now the nation’s longest continuously running pharmacy (celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2025), had already been established in Greencastle for 77 years. John Allison founded the town in 1782.
Greencastle got a taste of excitement when the Liberty Bell passed through town earlier in 1902. A train called the Liberty Bell Special left Philadelphia with the national icon on January 6 and later stopped in Greencastle’s Square during its journey to Charleston, South Carolina. That sighting was a once-in-a-lifetime event for the townsfolk who witnessed it, but the first Old Home Week reunion held seven months later became a cherished tradition revisited every three years.
Sixty-five men showed up for the first Old Boys reunion. Organizers picked Sandy Hollow, a favorite spot along Conococheague Creek, for a picnic. The group posed for a photograph there, initiating a tradition that continues to modern-day Old Home Weeks.
Town Hall served as the official headquarters for the event and hosted a chicken dinner. In the following years, the building accommodated various receptions and dramatic presentations for Old Home Week participants. The first reunion was a grand success, and the town decided to host the event every three years. That timeframe between festivals proved to be ideal since yearly would be too frequent, and five years seemed too long to wait for the next celebration.
For the second event in 1905, organizers invited women and children, and they officially coined the term Old Home Week. Greencastle’s women formed a charitable group in 1920 called the “Loyal Daughters.” Over the years, this female organization performed many good deeds in the community, including electrifying the town clock in Greencastle’s Square.
Also, in 1920, the Old Home Week Association was formed, dedicated to organizing and financing the event. Gilmore Fletcher was the first president. After that event ended, the Board of Directors followed a new tradition and selected the next president. Then, planning commenced for the next triennial celebration.
In the early years, the McGlaughlin Hotel was a choice spot for lodging in Greencastle. That old hotel building still stands and now serves as a fine dining establishment. Greencastle’s National Historic District preserves many other notable architectural relics that date back to Old Home Week’s founding year and beyond.
Other traditions originated over the years. Chicago businessman David King donated five acres for a community park in 1922 to honor his deceased brother. When Greencastle dedicated the park the following year, King chartered a train from Chicago and brought 125 former residents to the event. Jerome R. King Park has hosted many athletic and community Old Home Week events in the years since, including old-timers baseball games.
As the festival grew, Philip Baer’s stature in the community rose to greater heights, respected as the father of Old Home Week. As his health declined with a crippling illness, he no longer attended the events, so Old Home Week officials paid friendly visits to his Greencastle home. Baer rode through town one last time as an honorary marshal in August 1935. After his death a month later, a new Old Home Week triennial tradition started in 1938 by placing a flower wreath on his grave.
That same year, the Old Home Week pageant started. Fred Ziegler, a long-time editor of Greencastle’s Echo Pilot newspaper, wrote the first program. Each scene in that play told a tale of a unique event in the area’s historic past.
During its first 100 years, Old Home Week featured antique car shows, fireworks displays, elaborate parade floats, and even a jousting competition in 1941. Another tradition is the creation of a special badge that honors a piece of local history, and this year, it honors Carl’s Drug Store.
Old Home Week officially starts on Monday, but a crowd gathers on Sunday night to await the stroke of midnight and to sing “The Old Gray Mare.” Old Home Week has continued uninterrupted through world wars, financial downturns and other major calamities.
Bonnie Shockey offers a unique perspective on the significance of Old Home Week. She is a lifelong resident of Greencastle, and her family traces its roots to the founding of Franklin County. Shockey is a notable historic preservationist, the president of the Allison-Antrim Museum, and served as Old Home Week president in 2022. “It was the opportunity of a lifetime to serve as president,” she said.
Shockey said the triennial celebration couldn’t take place without the many volunteers and committee members who organize the multiple events. “They’re the ones who get it done.” She said the pageant and choral concerts are exceptional events, and the square remains a symbolic gathering space. “I have stepped back into our yesterdays, when the people who are now gone were still alive and places were familiar yet different, and have turned around to find myself in the present with a greater understanding of today’s Greencastle-Antrim.”
As Greencastle grew over the years (its population tripled since 1902), Old Home Week has grown as well. Organizers add new events each edition, and this year modern events such as a dog show, artist/author open houses, a 5K run, motorcycle and car displays, a flower show and the Martins Mill Bridge drive-through will take place. For more information on these and other events, visit the organization’s website: oldhomeweek.org/events.
Garon Gembe is the Old Home Week president for the 2025 event. During the extensive planning leading up to the August festivities, Gembe worked with multiple committee chairmen and chairwomen to expertly execute a series of events that will please Greencastle residents and visitors this year. He welcomes everyone to this 42nd event with great enthusiasm. “This cherished tradition, which began in 1902, continues to unite our community, honoring our past while celebrating the vibrant spirit of today.”
