95-year-old Marine prepares to raise flag from Yorktowne Hotel’s rooftop (2024)

When Anthony Stabile and other Marine Corps League members raise the flag above the restored Yorktowne Hotel on Nov. 11, they’ll keep a tradition alive.

The Yorktowne was crowned with an American flag in the years after it opened in 1925.

In 1995, Yorktowne Hotel’s owners wanted to make a big 70th anniversary statement. They ordered the installation of a 70-foot rooftop flagpole to serve as a big birthday candle.

A 20-by-30-foot flag was raised to its top that June, floodlights marking its spot. The idea was to make an exclamation point high enough that it could be seen atop Reeser’s Summit as motorists entered York County from the north.

95-year-old Marine prepares to raise flag from Yorktowne Hotel’s rooftop (1)

Good thing the hotel received that tall pole because it kept the Yorktowne as the tallest building in York even after the York County Judicial Center went up about 10 years later. It kept the saying “Nothing Rises Higher than the Yorktowne” intact.

York County’s Anthony Stabile was there atop the Yorktowne that Flag Day in 1995. Indeed, he organized the Marine Corps League members who raised the banner after veteran Joe Stees secured the big new flag and coordinated the event with the Yorktowne.

That was not the first — or last — time that Stabile played big roles in commemorative ceremonies in the county that became his home after his military retirement.

And the 95-year-old will be involved again in the rooftop Veterans Day flag raising just days before the Yorktowne is set to reopen.

95-year-old Marine prepares to raise flag from Yorktowne Hotel’s rooftop (2)

Served in three wars

Anthony Stabile’s military career began in World War II, a challenging start that brought him to the Chinese theater of war as a mechanic.

He later served in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

“Ninety-five percent of the time,” he said, “I was in motor transport maintenance.”

A career spanning three major wars would seem to be a rarity.

Not so, Stabile said. Two of Anthony’s brothers also served in those wars, one in the Army and the other in the Air Force. Three brothers. Three wars. Three branches of service.

Having said that, veterans living today in the York County area who served in all three wars would be rare.

Stabile, born in western Pennsylvania, served around the world before retiring as a Marine captain in 1972. He moved to York that year and worked at York Stone and Supply Co. as a maintenance supervisor.

His career in retirement is marked by a long list of volunteer activities.

95-year-old Marine prepares to raise flag from Yorktowne Hotel’s rooftop (3)

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His community work included fundraising for three landmark public sculptures by Dallastown artist Lorann Jacobs: the World War II monument in Continental Square, the Korean War statue near West Market Street/rail trail and the Vietnam War memorial at the York Expo Center.

I remember Stabile coming into the York Daily Record to promote these projects as part of the quest for funding from the public. You’d look at his contributions in the military and his enthusiasm for the project he was backing, and, well, he’s one of those community members you couldn’t say no to.

“I wanted to stay involved with the military in some format after I retired from the Marine Corps,” he said. “There was a need for York County veterans to be recognized, and I wanted to play a part in that. Once a Marine, Always a Marine!”

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Battle for air supremacy

The topic of buildings that scraped the sky has been on the minds of York residents for decades.

William C. Goodridge, a formerly enslaved businessman, built an emporium in the late 1840s that topped out at four stories, plus skylights. Call the height of his building in Centre Square’s northwest angle 4 ½ stories.

As related in correspondence, John Hartman wouldn’t accept the tallest building in York being owned by a Black man. He constructed his building at five stories. And while stories have been added and subtracted over the years, it stands tall today in the square’s southeast corner.

In the 1890s, the Colonial Hotel across the street from the Hartman building went up to what appeared to be eight stories. But a fire took off the Mansard roof, part of the York-based Dempwolf firm’s design. So did that make it seven stories?

Later that decade, the Dempwolf-designed York County Courthouse came along with a 155-foot dome, possibly making that artful building the tallest.

But not for long. In 1925, the Yorktowne went up, measuring 11 stories, at least to the eye. That seemed to decide the battle for the skies.

Then in 2004, the seven-story York County Judicial Center was opened but could not compete with the Yorktowne and its rooftop flagpole.

The number of stories at the Yorktowne depends on how you count them.

The National Park Service defines it at eight stories. But the federal agency notes that it has a two-story terra cotta base, an upper block of seven stories and a cap of terra cotta.

As for the floor plan, the hotel has 12 floors and 14 elevator stops, with two sub-basement levels not included in that count.

Years ago, a York Daily Record/Sunday News reporter looked into the judicial center’s height versus the Yorktowne and wrote: "It boasts seven stories, making it the tallest building in downtown York, if you don't count the flagpole on the Yorktowne Hotel."

But you have to count that pole because it carries a flag that means much to Stabile, countless other veterans and, really, every York County resident.

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Private ceremony planned

Stabile called me several weeks ago to give a heads-up about the private ceremony celebrating the flag raising atop what is now called the Yorktowne Hotel, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, on Nov. 11. It’s a non-public event coming amid construction in the days before the reopening of the hotel later in the month.

Stabile reached out to the current commandant of the Marine Corps League’s First Capitol Detachment #521 to gain members to help with the flag raising.

It will take at least four members, he said, given the size of the flag.

Meanwhile, the Yorktowne is making preparations to hoist the flag. The flagpole was reported at 70 feet in 1995, but a new measurement has it 7 feet and change taller.

A brand new 15- by-25-foot polyester flag will be hoisted via a new stainless steel cable.

The lighting has been upgraded with LED technology.

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Deep meaning for vets

Prominently displayed American flags have immense meaning to veterans.

When vets come back to America after overseas assignments, Stabile said, that’s what they look for: the flag.

The same is true when veterans arrive in York County.

“Now when they come home,” he said, anticipating the Veterans Day flag raising, “they can see it flying here.”

Sources: York County Economic Alliance, GF Hotels, YDR files, Jim McClure’s “Never to be Forgotten.”

Jim McClure is a retired editor of the York Daily Record and has authored or co-authored nine books on York County history. Reach him at jimmcclure21@outlook.com.

95-year-old Marine prepares to raise flag from Yorktowne Hotel’s rooftop (2024)

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