Lancaster, PA news and local guide

In the summer of 1744 the Lancaster courthouse was the scene of an important treaty between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the colonies of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, with Conrad Weiser as interpreter, and Benjamin Franklin soon published the text. A carved Torah ark lintel from the home of Joseph Simon survives from the mid-18th century, showing how Jews prayed in private homes in colonial towns without synagogues. Its Hebrew inscription reads "Know before Whom you are standing." On September 27, 1777, after the British captured Philadelphia, the Continental Congress met at the Lancaster courthouse, making the town the national capital for one day before Congress moved on to York. The courthouse, built in 1739, burned in 1784 and was rebuilt, and its site is now Penn Square, marked by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument of about 1874. Lancaster was the capital of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1812, when the government moved to Harrisburg. Sources Wikipedia: Lancaster, Pennsylvania