COLUMBIA SPY

Columbia Spy has been spying on the progress of a painting project at Bootleg Antiques on Bridge Street recently. Newly applied paint has revived a "ghost sign," a faded indicator of a faded industry, in this case, the Superior Laundry Machinery Company. (Go  HERE  for links to the company's history.) Various stages of the repainting are shown below. Kudos to Bootleg for bringing back a bit of Columbia's history.

Columbia Spy recently received reader-submitted photos taken at the rear of a property in the 300 block of Avenue H, showing a piece of plywood with a spray-painted racial slur and two boys allegedly trying to damage it. The plywood appears to block a building entrance. A source tells the Spy that the graffiti was previously reported to the borough code office. The entire area at the rear of this building is in disrepair and is an eyesore, clearly visible to patrons exiting Burning Bridge Antiques' parking lot.

Columbia's Cle Berntheizel at his Victorian era building at 22 South Second Street. Cle Berntheizel has a special affinity for his building at 22 South Second Street. He believes it represents a significant piece of Columbia history and therefore feels a particular responsibility for its upkeep. Recently, under his direction, the building - part of Columbia's Historic District - underwent an extensive exterior re-painting by Dave Knapp (and some interior painting as well). According to Berntheizel, his grandfather, Lt. Colonel Cleon N. Berntheizel , helped found the American Legion and established the first Columbia post there on the second floor in 1918.  Berntheizel and Columbia's General Edward C. Shannon  founded the organization in Paris right after World War I. The Detwiler family, then-owners of the building (as well as the First National Bank just up the block), rented it to the legion for a dollar a year. (Years later, the organization moved to the former ...

The section of the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail from Columbia to Marietta is now reopened. Paving of the trail started Wednesday and was completed yesterday.