Carlisle, PA (PGLX)

The Painted Gentleman for this week is a focus on Carlisle, PA. This mural, painted on the side of Blondie's Inn, at the intersection of West High Street and North Pitt Street shows the images that make Carlisle a place where history was made. Let's have a look. Starting upper right is the old Courthouse. It's been sitting on the square since it was rebuilt in 1846 and still shows where Confederate shelling damaged the front pillars on July 1, 1863. The second image, the gentleman, is for education, Carlisle had the first public high school in PA in 1837. It currently is home to Dickinson College and the Penn State Dickinson School of Law. And onetime home to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Next is Molly Pitcher. Mary Ludwig Hayes McCauley who is believed to have carried water to the troops during the Battle of Monmouth in the Revolutionary War. Next is Jim Thorpe, the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th Century and student at the aforementioned Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Bottom row left side. The Letort Stream was vital as a water source for Carlisle and today is world renowned for it's brown trout. Next is the Two Mile House, listed on the Nation Register of Historic Places and named for it's distance from the Square. Right side is Flat Rock, near Doubling Gap, at 2,000 feet above sea level it gives you a great view of the Cumberland Valley. And finally the trolley symbolizes Carlisle as a transportation hub. The PA Turnpike, when it opened in 1940, ended in Carlisle. The mural and this information was made possible by the Downtown Carlisle Association as part of Carlisle's 250th anniversary in 2001. HAMD