“Grand View,” One of America’s Early Show Places

       Every city has its show places and historic spots which give it an identity peculiar from any other place in the world.

       One of the most noted of these in Lancaster is “Grand View,” the original site of “Poplar Town.” It was here white men made their homes until Indian attacks drove them to “Hickory Town” where later arose the city that is now Lancaster, and in the center of whose marshes was one day to rise the Soldiers monument that now occupies the center of Penn Square.

       “Grand View” later became the home of the famous McGrann racing stables which were among the most noted in America, in their time and whose breds wrote the name of McGrann and Lancaster high in the turf annals both in America and abroad. 

       The names of McGrann and Grandview were well known in the early history of Pennsylvania and many notables, such as the Vanderbilts, were frequent visitors at the old homestead, located just beyond the city limits, on New Holland pike. 

       The McGrann homestead known as “Grand View” today, is rapidly being turned into a modern real estate development. And soon, the first show place of Lancaster, a place whose name was a by-word in society during the early history of Pennsylvania and the fame of whose hosts was known far and wide will be a thing of the past and a group of modern homes will stand where a hundred or so wigwams once surrounded an old water hole. That was when the Dutch from the Hudson Valley first penetrated the then wilds of the state to trade with the Indians.

       The Dutch and the Swedes settled along the Delaware Bay and river as early as 1640. That was fifty-one years before the grant of the Province of Pennsylvania to William Penn in 1681. 

“Hickory Town” and “Poplar Town”

       It is recorded, in the early record of the Philadelphia Historical Society, that the Dutch and Swedes who settled along the Delaware sent traders westward to trade with the Indians. In these early records there are mentioned two Indian towns, “Hickory Town” and “Poplar Town.”

Hickory Town was in a black swamp, about where Center Square is today. And Poplar Town was located at a spring on the land now known as Grand View. 

       Watson in his “Annals of Pennsylvania” speaks of “Poplar Town” as being northwest of “Hardwick,” the home of an old English Judge which stood where the Conestoga railroad tower now stands.

       To “Poplar Town” came the Dutch traders about 1670 and after several trips, tradition says, some of the Dutch came to live with the Indians. Mute evidence of this was discovered when engineers started to turn the McGrann farm into a modern city. 

       “Poplar Town” which existed as a town, a center of trade for the Dutch with the Indians until about 1757 when all of the inhabitants, both Dutch and Indians, who by this time had intermarried, moved hurriedly into the block house at “Hickory Town,” now Lancaster, for protection from Indian raids. This was just after Braddocks defeat when all of the people in Lancaster County were in great fear of the approach of the French and Indians from the west.

Find Evidences of Hurried Retreat From Poplar Town

       Many traces of the hurried departure form Poplar town were discovered in later years by early settlers in the county some of which are still in the possession and memory of Richard McGrann, son of the late B.J. McGrann of Eden. 

       In 1845 a pot of gold coins was found buried under the large oak tree which stands at the bend of Pleasure Road. Who dug up the pot of money was never known but the late B.J. McGrann found the hole and the impression of the pot as well as two or three old Dutch coins and several pieces of eight that had been evidently dropped around the hole by the Dutch when they hurriedly buried their treasure. 

       Later, when the old well at “Poplar Town” was cleaned out in 1885 by B.J. McGrann, a lot of broken Dutch china and plate silver were found in the bottom. It is believed that the Dutch threw these articles in the well for safe keeping when they fled for “Hickory Town” and that they never returned for them after they deserted the village in 1757. It grew up into a dense thicket, which was not cleared until about 1780 when the foundations of the old Dutch dwellings were dug. 

Richard McGrann Started Building “Grand View” in 1835

       Richard McGrann took over the large portion of what is now known as Grand View about 1835 just after he had completed building the Philadelphia and Columbia, and State Railroads.

       The McGranns first lived in a stone house that stood at the large spring just east of what is now Fountain Avenue. The house dated back to the time when the Dutch settlers settled this region about 1700. In 1838 the main part of Grand View was built and the old stone farm house which stood near the road, near the present barn, was torn down.

       For many years the fame of this mansion house and its hosts spread over America and abroad. It was the scene of many a gay fete and its stables were world famous for their riding horses.

One of First Great Racing Stables in the Country

       The McGrann stables were one of the first racing stables in America. As stated before, many champions were bred at Grand View and its horses competed in all the horse events in America as well as the world renowned “Olympia” show in London. They also captured laurels at the horse shows held at the Coliseum in Rome. 

       The two most noted champions bred at Grand View were “Secca” and “Supervisor.” Secca was a running horse and captured the famous Brooklyn Handicap in 1908. “Supervisor” was a middleweight riding horse, by Peter Simple and he walked away with the field at the Olympia Horse Show in London also in 1908. 

       The greatest piece of horse flesh ever developed at Grand view was “Tinker Bell” who for may years ruled the turf both in America and England. The field were Merchant and Evans is now located was late the site of the first stock yards in Lancaster. 

       Patrick Kelley and Frank McClain, father of the late Frank B. McClain, who was a member of Reed, McGrann & Kelley Co, later Reed-McGrann Co., and now the Conestoga National Bank were its first proprietors.

       Kelley and McClain used to go west and drive large herds of Texas steers to Lancaster. Texas cowboys drove the herds from Texas as far north until they could no longer get white corn meal and there they waited for McClain and Kelley who usually met the rangers near Louisville, Kentucky where they bought the cattle and then drove them to Lancaster.

       Several trips were made for cattle. The first was very profitable but the adventure was finally abandoned between 1845-50 because the Lancaster County Farmers were unable to drive the steers into their stables on account of the great size of their horns. 

       The old Mansion House at Grand View was enlarged in 1874-75 by B.J. McGrann. Here many noted men were entertained and Democratic politics were freely discussed. The late B.J. McGrann, became the Democratic leader in Lancaster, and the Democrats controlled Lancaster county for many years.

“Grand View” and “Hardwick”

       There are many interesting old stories about Grand View and especially its connection with “Hardwick” the home of one of the first English judges in America. 

      “Hardwick” was the first real mansion in America being built in 1810 by Judge Smith, at a cost of $300,000. 

       Watson in his “Annals of Pennsylvania” describes the home as “the finest and most elaborate mansion then in Pennsylvania.”

       The gate house to “Hardwick” still stands just across the road from Grand View trolley station. Two giant sycamore trees stand as sentinels at the opening of “Hardwick” lane. They were planted by Captain Cassatt, father of A.J. Cassatt one of the builders and founders of the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

       When the Pennsylvania Railroad was built to Lancaster the road bed ran directly through “Hardwick” and the courts ruled it had to be torn up. 

       Railroad officials gave the home to B.J. McGrann for dismantling it. The stone pillars which were used as a foundation for the home, were moved over to Grand View and stand today as support at the entrance of the old Grand View barns. 

       Stories of Grand View are legion. The first show place of Lancaster, whose fame was so widely known in the early history of our country, is now rapidly being torn up and turned into a real estate development. Modern macadam roads and concrete pavements are replacing the old horse trails and the wooden fences. 

       A modern water system is being installed and the once famous spring about which “Poplar Town,” grew up will be closed forever. 

       In the day when “Grand View” was the show place of Lancaster, giant Hickory Trees stood all over the estate. All of these have been chopped down and replaced by pine trees which will soon decorate the yards of modern dwellings now fast springing up where the “Kings of the American Turf” once took their morning trot and hounds urged the riders over fences and barriers in the chase. 

       Soon the last of Lancaster’s first show place will disappear.