![The Old Village Store Hardware and fuel pumps](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/The_Old_Village_Store_Hardware_and_fuel_pumps.jpg)
Bird-in-Hand is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
and
census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...
(CDP) in
Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States, in
East Lampeter Township
East Lampeter Township is a township in central Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. At the 2020 census the population was 17,834.
East Lampeter Township is one of the six suburbs that border the city of Lancaster, all sharing the sa ...
. The "Bird in Hand"
ZIP code extends east from the CDP into
Leacock and
Upper Leacock townships. The community has a large
Amish
The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches ...
and
Mennonite
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
population.
[ As of the 2010 census, the population within the CDP was 402.]
History
The area's first inhabitants were Native American Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
and Susquehannock
The Susquehannock people, also called the Conestoga by some English settlers or Andastes were Iroquoian Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, ranging from its upper reaches in the southern p ...
people.[''Bird-in-Hand History'' at amishnews.com]
The earliest European settlers of what was to become Bird-in-Hand were Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
and Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
Mennonites
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
. James Smith was the first of the Quakers known to have settled in the area, arriving by the year 1715. William and Dorothy McNabb were pioneer landowners and the owners of the original Bird-in-Hand Hotel
Bird-in-Hand Hotel, also known as the Bird-In-Hand Village Inn & Suites or the Rhoad's Hotel, is a historic hotel located at Bird-in-Hand, East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1852, on the site of several earli ...
. The Quakers built a meetinghouse and two-story academy, which stands today, next to the present day Bird-in-Hand fire company.[
]
The community was founded in 1734. The legend of the naming of Bird-in-Hand concerns the time when the Old Philadelphia Pike was surveyed
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Two-dimensional space#In geometry, two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of ...
between Lancaster and Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. According to legend, two road surveyors discussed whether they should stay at their present location or go on to the town of Lancaster. One of them supposedly said, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," which means it is preferable to have a small but certain advantage than the mere potential of a greater one; and so they stayed. By 1734, road surveyors were making McNabb's hotel their headquarters rather than returning to Lancaster every day. The sign in front of the inn is known to have once "portrayed a man with a bird in his hand and a bush nearby, in which two birds were perched," and was known as the Bird-in-Hand Inn. Variations of this sign appear throughout the town today.[
In 1834 construction began on the ]Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
line between Philadelphia and Columbia. Bird-in-Hand, featuring tanneries
Tanning may refer to:
*Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather
*Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin
**Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun
**Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...
, feed mills, and coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
and lumber yard
A lumber yard is a location where lumber and wood-related products used in construction and/or home improvement projects are processed or stored. Some lumber yards offer retail sales to consumers, and some of these may also provide services suc ...
s, was the most important stop on the Lancaster-to- Coatesville section.[
In 1836 the village post office was established as the Enterprise ]Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
, as the village was then officially called, until the name officially changed to Bird-in-Hand in 1873.[
The town remained relatively unknown until a musical called '']Plain and Fancy
''Plain and Fancy'' is a musical comedy with a book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, lyrics by Arnold Horwitt, and music by Albert Hague. One of the first depictions of an Amish community in American pop culture, it includes a traditional barn r ...
'' opened in New York in 1955. The play was set in the village of Bird-in-Hand and is often credited as a catalyst for the boom in Pennsylvania Dutch Country
The Pennsylvania Dutch Country ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Deitscherei'' Dutchery', also called Pennsylvania Dutchland ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Pennsylvania Deitschland'', german: Pennsylvania Deutschland), or simply the Dutch Country or Dutchland ( ...
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
in the mid-twentieth century. The Plain & Fancy Restaurant opened in 1960, and is the oldest "family-style restaurant" in the area.[ Bird-in-Hand is often named in lists of "delightfully-named towns" in ]Pennsylvania Dutchland
The Pennsylvania Dutch Country ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Deitscherei'' Dutchery', also called Pennsylvania Dutchland ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Pennsylvania Deitschland'', german: Pennsylvania Deutschland), or simply the Dutch Country or Dutchland ( ...
, along with Intercourse, Blue Ball
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when o ...
, Lititz, Bareville Leacock-Leola-Bareville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the CDP population was 6,625. The area is heavily populated by the Amish and Mennonites. Bareville is often ...
, Mount Joy and Paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...
.[Ward's quarterly (1965) p.109 quote: ][Anderson (1979) p.214 quote: ][Museums Association (2006) p.61 quote: ]
In 1968 the Smucker family opened a small 30-room motel
A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries ...
called the Bird-in-Hand Motor Inn, with an adjacent coffee shop, in hopes of capitalizing on the growing tourist trade in the area. Over the years, the small coffee shop grew into the larger Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant & Smorgasbord.
In 1976 the Bird-in-Hand Farmers Market opened adjacent to the Bird-in-Hand Motor Inn.[
The Bird-in-Hand Village Inn and Suites was listed on the ]National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1992.
The town is home to the Bank of Bird-in-Hand
Bank of Bird-in-Hand is an American bank, the first in the United States to open following the passage of the Dodd Frank Act in 2010. It was founded in Pennsylvania by a group of local Amish and non-Amish investors.
History
On November 27, 2013, ...
, the first bank in the United States to open following the passage of the Dodd Frank Act Dodd may refer to:
Places
* Dodd (Buttermere), a fell near Red Pike in England
* Dodd (Lake District), a fell in Cumbria, England
* Dodd, Indiana, a community in the United States
People
* Dodd (surname), people with the surname ''Dodd''
Other us ...
.
Geography
Bird-in-Hand is in central Lancaster County, on the eastern edge of East Lampeter Township. Pennsylvania Route 340
Pennsylvania Route 340 (PA 340) is a state highway located in Lancaster and Chester counties in Pennsylvania. The western terminus is at PA 462 in Lancaster. The eastern terminus is at U.S. Route 30 Business (US 30 Bus.) in Thornda ...
(Old Philadelphia Pike) runs through the center of town, leading west to Lancaster, the county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
, and east to Intercourse.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, the Bird-in-Hand CDP has a total area of , of which , or 1.11%, are water. The area drains westward to Mill Creek, a west-flowing tributary of the Conestoga River
The Conestoga River, also referred to as Conestoga Creek, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Susquehanna River flowing through the cente ...
, part of the Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
watershed.
Demographics
Economy
Tourism is very important and many businesses cater specifically to tourist
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...
s. Many of these businesses have an Amish theme, such as horse and buggy
]
A horse and buggy (in American English) or horse and carriage (in British English and American English) refers to a light, simple, two-person carriage of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, drawn usually by one or sometimes by two ho ...
rides and crafts.
Museums and historic sites
*Amish Country Homestead
*Lampeter Friends Meetinghouse[Se]
Keystone Fellowship Friends Meeting
/ref>
*Don & Ann Antiques Roe
Churches
*Bird-in-Hand United Methodist
*Stumptown Mennonite
*Weavertown Amish Mennonite Church
Weavertown Amish Mennonite Church is a Beachy Amish Mennonite congregation located in the village of Weavertown, between the somewhat larger villages of Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
History
Weavertown shares ...
Notes
References
*
* Anderson, William Charles (1979
''Home sweet home has wheels: or, Please don't tailgate the real estate''
*Henry Louis Mencken, Raven Ioor McDavid (1963
''The American language: an inquiry into the development of English in the United States, Volume 1''
*Museums Association
The Museums Association (MA) is a professional membership organisation based in London for museum, gallery and heritage professionals, museums, galleries and heritage organisations, and companies that work in the museum, gallery and heritage s ...
(2006
''The Museums journal, Volume 106, Issues 1-6''
Indexes to papers read before the Museums Association, 1890–1909. Compiled by Charles Madeley.
*Rand McNally
Rand McNally is an American technology and publishing company that provides mapping, software and hardware for consumer electronics, commercial transportation and education markets. The company is headquartered in Chicago, with a distribution c ...
and Company (1978
''Vacation & travel guide''
''Ward's quarterly, Volume 1''
1965
*
Bird-in-Hand History
"Connect With Our Past", timeline of Bird-in-Hand history.''
External links
Bird-in-Hand visitors website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bird-In-Hand, Pennsylvania
Populated places established in 1715
Census-designated places in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
1715 establishments in Pennsylvania
Quakerism in Pennsylvania