# Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the 1960s

> A manufacturing city of brick rowhouses, downtown shops, suburban pull, civil-rights pressure, and federal urban renewal.

- Place: Lancaster, Pennsylvania (40.038, -76.306)
- Years: 1960 to 1969
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/lancaster-pennsylvania/1960s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Lancaster%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20USA&at=40.0379,-76.3055&year=1965

## Looking around

You stand near the old center of a city of about 61,055 people[6]. Around it are brick rowhouses and duplexes built for factory and mill workers[2], with the older business streets close by. To the west is Hamilton Watch Company’s plant[3], and across the city’s working landscape are employers tied to RCA, Armstrong Cork, Raybestos-Manhattan, Sperry-Rand, ITT Grinnell, and Kerr Glass[3]. Downtown does not feel settled: several blocks of North Queen Street are being razed or planned for clearance[2], and parts of South Duke Street are also touched by renewal[2]. The city government and redevelopment files speak of housing studies, market studies, relocation payments, and project maps[1]. Beyond the city edge, the county is building outward, because suburban houses were going up at about 100 a month by 1954[3]. Newspapers, council meetings, churches, shops, and factories make this a compact, argued-over place.

## Work: Factories still mattered

The west side held Hamilton Watch Company’s plant[3], while the county’s larger industrial world included RCA, Armstrong Cork, Raybestos-Manhattan, Sperry-Rand, ITT Grinnell, and Kerr Glass[3].

## Home & table: Brick rows, suburban pull

Many city households lived among brick rowhouses and duplexes[2] near industrial and commercial districts. At the edge of city life, about 100 new county homes a month[3] showed how strongly families and money were moving outward.

## Law & power: Renewal had bulldozers

Power sat in City Hall, the Redevelopment Authority, and federal urban-renewal money: the files list project maps, housing studies, road plans, and relocation-payment lists[1]. Named projects included Duke Street, Adams, Queen Street, Church-Musser, and Higbee[1].

## Who lived here: Race shaped opportunity

The city’s small minority population[9] was concentrated in the southeast as renewal began. In a 1964 labor study, Black unemployment at chamber-member firms was 12.1 percent, compared with 1.1 percent for white workers[5].

## In the air: Civil rights came home

National civil-rights arguments were not distant: local papers covered Mayor George Coe meeting NAACP leaders[4] and a City Council meeting soon after. Urban renewal raised a second question: whether clearing “slums” also destroyed viable homes and neighborhoods.

## Roads & news: Two daily papers

A 1962 directory listed the Intelligencer-Journal and the News[10] for Lancaster. These papers carried council business, civil-rights stories, redevelopment disputes, advertisements, deaths, sports, and the wider Cold War decade.

## Money: Hourly floors were low

For workers covered by the federal floor, the minimum wage moved from $1.00 an hour in 1960 to $1.60 by 1968. Factory, service, and clerical wages varied far above or below that depending on employer, union, race, and sex.

## What people feared: Displacement was a danger

The risk was not only illness or machinery; it was losing a place to live or trade. The Higbee project alone involved 149 residences and 17 commercial structures[4].

## Year by year

- **1960** (here): Lancaster city counted 61,055 residents in the federal census.[6]
- **1960** (nearby): Richard Nixon carried Lancaster County by more than two to one over John F. Kennedy in the presidential election.[7]
- **1961** (here): A downtown proposal appeared in the Redevelopment Authority files, putting city-center change into formal planning.[1]
- **1963** (here): A Lancaster city market study was filed amid downtown redevelopment planning.[1]
- **1964** (the country): The Civil Rights Act became federal law, and Lancaster papers were already covering NAACP pressure on city officials.[4]
- **1964** (here): A Lancaster labor-market study reported much higher Black unemployment than white unemployment among chamber-member companies.[5]
- **1968** (here): The new Higbee School was completed and dedicated in January.[4]
- **1969** (the world): The Apollo 11 moon landing gave Lancaster households, shops, bars, schools, and factories a shared national event to discuss.

## What the sources say

- Lancaster city had 61,055 residents in the 1960 census, down from 63,774 in 1950. (from the sources)[6]
- Lancaster County had 278,359 residents in 1960. (from the sources)[11]
- The 1962 newspaper directory listed Lancaster with the Intelligencer-Journal and the News, giving the Intelligencer-Journal a circulation of 33,643. (from the sources)[10]
- Much of the central-city housing stock consisted of brick rowhouses and duplexes that had filled in around industrial and commercial districts for factory and mill workers. (from the sources)[2]
- Hamilton Watch Company remained one of Lancaster city’s best-known manufacturers, with its plant on the west side of the city. (from the sources)[3]
- Major Lancaster County employers in the postwar period included RCA, Armstrong Cork Company, Raybestos-Manhattan, Sperry-Rand, ITT Grinnell, and Kerr Glass Company. (from the sources)[3]
- Lancaster County’s 1945 plan expected 100 new houses a year by 1950, but by 1954 the county was building about 100 new homes every month. (from the sources)[3]
- In the 1960s and 1970s, urban renewal razed several blocks of North Queen Street and replaced them with large office, hotel, and parking-garage buildings. (from the sources)[2]
- South Duke Street also lost buildings under Lancaster’s urban-renewal programs. (from the sources)[2]
- The Redevelopment Authority’s surviving 1958–1978 files include downtown proposals, a 1963 city market study, a 1964 Lancaster Negro Employment Report, housing studies, road plans, project maps, relocation-payment lists, deeds, and housing-inspection reports. (from the sources)[1]
- Named redevelopment projects active in the 1960s included Duke Street Project I, Adams Project, Queen Street Project, Church-Musser Project, and Higbee Project. (from the sources)[1]
- The Higbee project centered on the old Higbee School area at Dauphin and Rockland Streets and included 149 residences and 17 commercial structures. (from the sources)[4]
- A new Higbee School, later Martin Luther King Jr. School, was completed and dedicated in January 1968. (from the sources)[4]
- Lancaster’s southeast quadrant held the city’s small minority population at the beginning of the renewal era and was especially affected by redevelopment. (from the sources)[9]
- A 1964 dissertation on the Black labor market in Lancaster, financed by the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, found 1.1 percent unemployment among white workers at chamber-member companies and 12.1 percent among Black workers. (inferred)[5]
- Civil-rights issues were local news: Lancaster newspapers in 1964 covered a meeting between Mayor George Coe and NAACP leaders and a City Council meeting soon afterward. (from the sources)[4]
- Lancaster’s city government used a mayor-council form, and George Coe served as mayor from 1962 to 1966. (from the sources)[8]
- Lancaster County voted heavily Republican in the 1960 presidential election, giving Richard Nixon 78,390 votes and John F. Kennedy 33,233. (from the sources)[7]
- Pennsylvania’s legal minimum wage for many workers followed the federal floor, rising from $1.00 an hour in 1960 to $1.25 in 1963 and $1.60 by 1968. (inferred)
- No detailed online room-by-room description of ordinary Lancaster apartments or rowhouses in the 1960s was found in this quick search. (not known)

## Sources

1. Redevelopment Authority of Lancaster, PA Collection, 1958–1978. LancasterHistory. https://www.lancasterhistory.org/finding-aids/redevelopment-authority-of-lancaster-pa-collection-1958-1978/
2. Lancaster City Historic District. LivingPlaces. https://www.livingplaces.com/PA/Lancaster_County/Lancaster_City/Lancaster_City_Historic_District.html
3. Lancaster County Heritage: The Cultural Heritage Element. Lancaster County Planning Commission, 2006. https://lancastercountyplanning.org/DocumentCenter/View/26/Heritage----Full-Document?bidId=
4. The Journal of Lancaster County’s Historical Society, Volume 124, Number 2. LancasterHistory, 2024. https://www.lancfound.org/wp-content/uploads/LancasterHistory-Journal-ONLINE-VERSION.pdf
5. A brief history of Black Lancaster, according to professor and historian Leroy Hopkins. One United Lancaster, 2023. https://oul.uwlanc.org/community/a-brief-history-of-black-lancaster-according-to-professor-and-historian-leroy-hopkins/
6. Lancaster, Pennsylvania Population by Year. World Population Review, 2026. https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/lancaster-pa-population
7. 1960 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_United_States_presidential_election_in_Pennsylvania
8. George Coe (mayor). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Coe_(mayor)
9. A City Transformed: Redevelopment, Race, and Suburbanization in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1940–1980. Penn State University Press, 2002. https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02207-8.html
10. N. W. Ayer & Son’s Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals, 1962. N. W. Ayer & Son, 1962. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Other-Documments/Ayer-Directory-of-Newspapers/NW-Ayer-Newspaper-1962-Classified-Lists.pdf
11. Regional Census Data. Warwick Township, 2025. https://www.warwicktownship.org/planning-zoning/files/regional-census-data

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1950s](https://yorehistory.com/place/newtown-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1950s/md) (118 km)
- [Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1950s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1950s/md) (139 km)
- [Princeton, New Jersey in the 1930s](https://yorehistory.com/place/princeton-new-jersey/1930s/md) (144 km)
- [Dallas, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1960s](https://yorehistory.com/place/dallas-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1960s/md) (147 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-12 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the 1960s", https://yorehistory.com/place/lancaster-pennsylvania/1960s