Greencastle citizens who celebrated Old Home Week 51 and 99 years ago wore different fashions, drove antique cars and paid pennies for items that would cost dollars today. However, the traditions they celebrated and the sentiments they experienced back then were strikingly similar to the customs contemporary OHW revelers will embrace during the 2025 event, which begins Aug. 2.
As America inched closer to its bicentennial, Old Home Week celebrated its 25th triennial from Aug. 4 to 10, 1974. Tom Fox served as the event’s president. The traditional OHW badge cost $1.50 and featured the newly renovated Martin’s Mill Bridge, the local landmark that turned 125 years old. Excited collectors quickly bought all the commemorative Martin’s Mill decorative plates produced for the celebration. The OHW Association scheduled a dedication ceremony for a new pavilion near the bridge, and a boat parade on Conococheague Creek would add excitement to the festivities.
The top-selling American vehicle in 1974 was the Ford Pinto, with a sticker price of $2,671. Gov. Milton Shapp (D) presided over Pennsylvania’s government in Harrisburg, and Richard Nixon was the 37th U.S. president. Actress Farah Fawcett wore bell-bottoms, and singer Stevie Nicks sported clogs. The disco era of dance music was in full swing.
The Greencastle Jaycees’ chapter crowned Diana Young Miss Old Home Week, and she wore an official sash across her dress and a tiara on her head in a newspaper photo. The official program and badge were colored green with a matching embossed ribbon. The window display competition kicked off the community spirit with 60 contestants. Headquarters for Old Home Week set up shop in the Frey Building at 4 S. Carlisle St. Howard Craig, 98, of Waynesboro, would be the oldest person to sign the registry that week.
Pageant producers chose David Besecker to play “The Younger Philip Baer” in Scene 1 of the pageant production, “Auld Lange Syne.” The OHW Association announced that Paul Huddleston, a world-famous tenor from Kansas, would perform a concert at the Alumni Banquet and finish by singing the favorite tunes of Old Home Week founder Philip Baer, who died in 1935.
Numerous advertisements covered the pages of Greencastle’s Echo Pilot newspaper leading up to the event, as the E.L.M. Department Store offered a hearty welcome to OHW visitors and promoted wares such as Pfaff Sewing Machines. The Hotel Greencastle published a more provocative ad: “Welcome old boys and girls, stop by the Starlight Room, serving your favorite beverage till 2 a.m. daily.” The town seemed poised for a party as record numbers gathered in the square for the unofficial opening at midnight.
Older Greencastle residents estimated Sunday’s attendance to be the biggest in history, as Mary Donegan Howe played the organ in the square. The crowd was so dense that many didn’t spot the streaker who ran down Baltimore Street toward the festivities. A number-one hit in American pop music that summer was Ray Stevens’ song “The Streak.”
Early in the week’s planned events, multiple class reunions took place, reuniting old friends at various venues and dating back to 1923 graduates. The OHW’s premier female group meeting’s theme was “Six Decades of Loyal Daughters.” After ceremonial skydivers landed safely, multitudes of Greencastle residents and visitors posed for the traditional Wednesday group picture in the square. The next day, they cheered at the parade that featured baton-twirling majorettes and 16 elaborately decorated floats.
Throughout the week, many events that have become cherished traditions took place, including bike races on Carlisle Street, band concerts and open houses held downtown.
During the Martin’s Mill Bridge pavilion dedication, heavy rains nearly sank the boat parade in the creek. Eventually, the wet event concluded with awards bestowed on homemade vessels called “The Dandy Man,” “Rescue Raft” and “Indians in Canoe,” which was piloted by Boy Scouts. In Washington, D.C., that week, Richard Nixon was up the creek without a paddle, and he became the first president to resign from office on Aug. 9, 1974.
Despite incidents of bad weather, locals judged the 25th Old Home Week a great success, and organizers quickly turned their attention to the 1977 event. The ninth triennial OHW celebration, 48 years earlier, was a humbler affair.
Founder Philip Baer was an active participant during Old Home Week, held from Aug. 8 to 14, 1926. That year’s program sported a classic design with the iconic Bank Building on the cover. Inside, a teaser passage read, “Stay ‘Til The End,” as organizers announced that Baer would close the festivities on Saturday by singing as first tenor in a quartet that impersonated the “Shoo Fly Minstrels.”
“Don’t think of leaving town after Friday night,” the program said, urging people to stay for Baer’s anticipated performance.
The week began with an optimistic outlook for the area’s apple crop, expected to be the best in a decade. For women’s 1920s fashions, designer Coco Chanel helped popularize the flapper look, creating dresses with dropped waists and rising hemlines. In the White House, President Calvin Coolidge completed his third year in office after the sudden death of his predecessor, Warren G. Harding. The Model T Ford was America’s most popular car.
A local newspaper promoted the coming Greencastle event, saying, “The Old Home Week Association has been most liberal in their efforts to provide a week brimming with entertainment.” The Waynesboro press reported that Dr. James Kennedy, a medical missionary living in New Mexico, was expected to return to his hometown of Greencastle for the first time in a quarter-century.
OHW President Chalmers Omwake welcomed visitors in the language of the era, offering “cordial greetings to one another and especially to all who have journeyed hither from afar and near to renew friendships and visit once more the scenes of earlier days.” A 1926 Old Home Week badge cost 10 cents.
That year’s event schedule centered on reunions and athletics. On Monday, the old boys scheduled a “ride around town to visit familiar scenes and renew acquaintances.” The Wayne Band, which began its musical tradition in 1899, three years before Old Home Week originated, performed a concert. That same Waynesboro group will perform at the 2025 event.
Creekside family and class picnics took place on Wednesday, and the program urged attendees to “catch every fish in the Conococheague,” but then kidded, “Have the picnic supper early enough and let the last fish get away so that no one will be late for the evening reception.” The OHW program was imprecise with several listings, describing one afternoon’s activities simply as “visiting relatives and friends.”
Several baseball contests filled the schedule, with an “old boys vs. young boys” game leading the bill. Later in the week, the bygone Blue Ridge League scheduled a professional competition on the diamond between the Waynesboro Villagers and the Chambersburg Maroons. Another contest pitted the Greencastle Athletic Club’s ball players against Hagerstown. Later that year, in the Major Leagues, the World Series ended with Babe Ruth trying to steal second base as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the New York Yankees 4 games to 3.
Thursday’s busy athletic OHW lineup included a tennis tournament and a full-fledged track and field meet. Boys aged 12 to 16 qualified to compete in all events, which included pole vault, broad jump, discus, dashes, relays and distance races up to a mile. Girls were eligible only in the sprints and the discus competition.
That evening, the traditional Old Home Week fireworks lit up the sky, but organizers scheduled the group picture earlier that year, taken on Monday, not Wednesday. As the celebration neared its conclusion on Friday the 13th, the Greencastle Band performed a Mardi Gras-style concert. Earlier that day, at 10:30 am, a lazy event called the “Old Time Loaf on Centre Square” took place.
Organizers asked all visitors to stop by the headquarters in the Ziegler Building before leaving town so they could accurately record present addresses for future celebrations. In a tradition that carries on to the present day, the Old Home Week program promised: “An officer of the Association will be present at all times who will gladly impart full information and give all assistance requested.”
No newspaper accounts mentioned the bad weather Old Home Week would face in 1974, so August 1926 was likely mild and dry. The mid-1920s Prohibition era was a prosperous time, but the upcoming 10th triennial would be held only two months before the October 1929 stock market crash. Undaunted, Greencastle’s Old Home Week continued uninterrupted and unfazed during the Great Depression, sponsoring a successful 11th edition in 1932.
Looking back to bygone eras, Old Home Week played out in different times 51 and 99 years ago. However, the spirit and intent of Greencastle residents and visitors in those days was the same as today; gather and reunite with old friends and make new ones.
As the 2025 festivities begin with a new OHW badge honoring Carl’s Drug Store, a freshly printed program, and plans for the traditional pageant, fireworks, parade and group picture, Greencastle is ready to make new memories.
