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Wayside markers will be dedicated on Saturday in Newville
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Newville will dedicate seven wayside markers along West Big Spring Avenue at 1:30 p.m. Saturday on the sidewalk of the United Presbyterian Church, 111 W. Big Spring Ave.

Those who attend will receive an information sheet for a self-directed walking tour. The seven markers are for the following:



• The former site of the Cumberland Valley Railroad Station, Walnut and Buchanon streets.



• The former site of the Newville Hotel and first Pennsylvania State Police Academy, 3 Walnut St.



• Literary Hall (now a Farmer’s National Bank), 1 W. Big Spring Ave.



• The First National Bank, 9 W. Big Spring Ave.



• The former site of the Newville-Carlisle Trolley, 109 W. Big Spring Ave.



• The United Presbyterian Church.



• Byers-Eckels House, 116 W. Big Spring Ave.

By Joseph Cress, Sentinel Reporter, October 3, 2008

Last updated: Friday, October 3, 2008 9:45 AM EDT

Craig Kennedy can’t help but wonder if every creaking floorboard is a prior occupant trying to draw his attention.

The retired English teacher has never seen a ghost in the Byers-Eckels House he owns at 116 W. Big Spring Ave., Newville.

But he knows the house’s colorful past is part of the borough history being celebrated Saturday with the dedication of seven wayside markers.

Borough Manager Fred Potzer said the markers are the finishing touch of a streetscape project started in 2004 to spruce up West Big Spring Avenue.

The streetscape improvements were meant to connect the center of Newville to a Rails to Trails project linking the borough to Shippensburg Township, Potzer said.

He said former state Sen. Hal Mowery helped the borough secure a $5,000 grant in 2004 from the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

The money was used to purchase the markers, six of which have been installed so far by the borough public works department, Potzer said.

The state Department of Transportation spent about $735,000 to reconstruct Big Spring Avenue, a state road, while the borough spent $165,000 to install period style lighting, a brick crosswalk and improvements around the town fountain.

Researched history

Three members of the local historical society — James McNally, Joan Brehm and Ron McDonald — researched the history of several key properties in town and compiled stories and photos for each, Potzer said.

The borough hired Pannier of Gibsonia to manufacture the signs while Potzer and the borough solicitor negotiated easements with private property owners to place them.

“It’s nice because of the variety of structures represented,” Kennedy said. “The properties give a view of the diverse history of this town. The people who lived in the Byers-Eckels House were an interesting lot.”

The brick Victorian building was the home of Virginia Eckels Seitz, the first telegrapher in Newville and a pioneer of women in the professional workplace.

Another notable resident was B. Frank Seitz, an eccentric playwright, poet and actor who immortalized Sweet Alice Roosevelt — daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt — in syrupy quatrains printed in Philadelphia newspapers.

In the 1980s, the house was owned by Bettine Field Carroll Reisky deDubnic, great-granddaughter of department store magnate Marshall Field, Kennedy said.