Our Town New Holland: Industry and community combine in a town made famous by farm machinery (2024)

The town’s name — New Holland — is known around the world because of its namesake farm machinery brand.

But some residents say the town itself isn’t that well understood.

“I think there’s a story to tell that we’re not who most people think we are,” said Don Horning, who used to own a car dealership in town.

Many people know New Holland simply as the place where they go to work. Long time residents say there’s more to it.

“We do have two towns,” Horning said. “We have an industrial town during the day and a residential town at night.”

In addition to CNH Industrial’s New Holland farm machinery plant, employees arrive in droves every day to work at the Tyson Foods plant or Fleur De Lait Foods on the south edge of town.

There’s also a steady stream of traffic headed to the New Holland Sales Stables or going to work at Garden Spot Village retirement community.

“I’m told that New Holland is the largest borough in Lancaster County during the day and that’s because of all the jobs that we have here,” said Wilbur Horning, who is in his 16th year as the borough’s mayor. “That’s our strength. The jobs.”

The many businesses help support the initiatives and local events that help create a sense of community for New Holland residents. But that facet of New Holland isn’t always visible to outsiders.

Businesses help underwrite the Summer Arts Association which offers entertainment in the community park three times a week over the summer.

Local volunteers have also turned the New Holland Historical Society and its extensive museum into a source of local pride.

“I think we have the basis for a deeper culture. I’m not sure the people who live here are quite aware of everything we have,” said Don Horning, who is a member of the historical society board.

Some of these same volunteers who started the historical society have also organized an annual car show in the park and turned Christmas on Main into a successful early December town party.

Of course, the biggest gathering in town remains the New Holland Farmers Fair, the four-day October street fair where “the extended family” of New Holland turns out to eat, ride and parade.

On a more regular basis, locals gather at places such as Yoder’s restaurant, Squire Side Cafe and New Holland Coffee company, where hyper-local news is freely passed around.

“Can something happen in this town without everybody knowing in 48 hours?” Don Horning asked rhetorically.

More than Main Street

While there’s a lot going on in New Holland, it can be hard to see by just driving down Main Street.

There are a few retail shops and some breakfast and lunch spots, but New Holland doesn’t have the kind of Main Street with strolling shoppers and diners.

Local historian Bryan Frankhouser said some of that has to do with the layout of the town, which is long and skinny and lacks a center crossroads where there could be a town square.

Frankhouser said the town developed in a linear way because in its early days, everyone wanted to be near the top of the ridge that runs through the area, where Route 23 now runs.

That lack of a town center, coupled with the early, industrial development means Main Street can be overlooked, he said.

“It’s very utilitarian, the architecture in this town,” Frankhouser said. “I think it’s not necessarily a pretty town, when you drive down Main Street.”

In recent years, some buildings along Main Street have been torn down, including the former elementary school at the corner of Main Street and North Roberts Avenue and the historic building at 153 E. Main that housed a restaurant a lounge.

“We’ve lost some great buildings ... Part of the iconic view of the town is gone,” said Mike Ressler, a New Holland resident who spent 39 years with the U.S. Marine Band and now is business manager for the New Holland Band.

Don Horning said there’s an opportunity now with the former silk mill building, a sprawling, blighted property just off Main Street, near Brimmer Avenue.

“It’s just sitting there now, deteriorating,” Horning said. “I think it is the key to the next 25 years of this town.”

Like many other small towns, New Holland did once have a thriving Main Street.

But the 1970s-era development of shopping centers on the edge of town as well as the opening of Park City Center in Lancaster, drove most of those shops out of New Holland.

And while there are efforts to encourage more retail on Main Street, most locals don’t expect a Lititz-like resurgence.

“We’re known for agribusiness,” said Mayor Horning. “We need to recognize what our strengths are and build on that rather than trying to be like somebody else.”

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