Past and Present

For a home constructed in 1912, the Brockie Mansion contains innovation—and quirks: an elevator, and a no-longer-functioning central vacuum system housed in an ornate basement unit emblazoned with “Victor” and “York, PA.”

The brick home, painted white in the 1950s, was constructed with cement walls that present renovation challenges—especially for modern bathroom plumbing.

And on every floor of the home, still preserved today, are circa-1912 fire hoses, neatly coiled, within metal compartments similar to electrical boxes. And there’s a reason for both the cement and hoses.

“The original Victorian home at this location burned down,” Gabrielle explains, “and the Smith family did not want another tragedy to occur.”

To understand who the Smiths were, and learn about the past and present Brockie Mansion, we turned to York historian Jim McClure, who explained the original Victorian-era mansion was built in 1873 for Jeremiah Sullivan Black, President Buchanan’s attorney general, then secretary of state. Home ownership passed to son Chauncey Black, a lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania.

In 1907, the Victorian-style Brockie Mansion was purchased by S. Morgan Smith, “probably the most important industrial leader in York County history,” says Jim. Business and home ownership passed to son C. Elmer Smith.

“At Christmas in 1911, C. Elmer Smith, on his way home from church, had a head-on collision with a trolley that immediately killed one of his sons, and it badly injured another son, who was recuperating at Brockie. They had all the fireplaces going, warding off the bitter cold,” Jim explains.

The flue overheated, the mansion caught on fire, and pumper trucks froze while trying to fight the flames.

“Some people think well-to-do people are insulated from loss, but that was a key moment in that family’s life, losing their son, then losing their home,” says Jim.

That’s why the family, determined to avoid future tragedy, rebuilt the 1912 Brockie Mansion with cement walls and fire hoses. It was designed by Robert A. Stair, who apprenticed under prolific York architect John Augustus Dempwolf.

“The Dempwolfs, [brothers], really designed York’s skyline,” says Jim, “so to the extent that Stair-Dempwolf did the second Brockie is a real plus to the architectural history of York County.”