an interview with Columbia’s Mary Loreto – a life of grace and caring

Mary Loreto, Columbia’s long-standing cheerleader. (Photo by Mary Ellen Graybill)

By Mary Ellen Graybill

[Editor’s NOTE:] This is the first installment of a two-part article about a conversation with Mary Loreto, Columbia’s long-time cheerleader and community proponent.

“Not to be served, but to serve” is a saying that many know, but few practice like Mary Loreto, who has been the proprietress at the cooperative antique and collectibles store called Menagerie at 301 Locust Street for the past three years.  

Many know Mary for her grace, humor, kind works and memorable stories. Others remember Loreto’s Restaurant at the corner of Union and 4th Street which featured her famous tomato sauce, still selling at the Menagerie shop. 

Fewer know her for her perseverance over the years for the individuals and families of Columbia.

Born and raised on North 3rd Street, Columbia, Mary had an opportunity to observe the Swartzenbach-Huber Mills. The once deteriorated building is soon to have new life as the “Turkey Hill Experience.”

Mary said that she could look into the windows of the silk factory and see the machines in motion, making silks.

“Beautiful! I have a whole book on it. It had its own generator. You know you could look in the window and see it operating. It was just beautiful … they made fabric and the floors were beautiful, shiny thick hardwood … they had quillers, and the quiller made the bobbins that fit into the machine that go back and forth … We were across the street, and I hated to see it torn down like that. No one was paying attention. After the silk mill went out it was Tidy’s and Little Prince – they made winter and spring garments for children, like snowsuits and little spring jackets. Some of the stuff was sold in Macy’s in New York.”

New York Macy’s was exclusive in those days.

Textile workers made good salaries in those days, comparable to workers on the railroads. A whistle summoned them to work, and all could earn a good wage in the days before textile technology replaced silk with nylon. Employees such as “Loom fixers” had work to do.

The mill across from her childhood home was the largest of three in town at that time. It was where weavers worked, and Mary, a sacristan at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, cites a verse in the Bible, saying the Weaver cut the last thread.

(Many of the words spoken during the Easter season have become so well-known that they have become part of everyday expressions.)

“God sends us a myriad of angels”

Vista volunteer, Bud Kissinger, came to Columbia and gained the cooperation of local parishioners at St Peter’s Catholic Church, and representatives of the town’s businesses. He went to a Lutheran Synod of New York and got $25,000 “seed money” to set up a housing organization, multi-denominational. However, only St. Peter’s Catholic Church contributed, said Mary, who contacted the various churches in town.

“There’s one church left,” said Mary “and that was Holy Trinity. The Monsignor there served on the Bishop’s council so Mary figured there ‘might be an in’ and went to see him, told him what it was all about, and he said ‘Come back after Easter Monday and we’ll talk.’”

“I’d met this Monsignor before,” said Mary, about meetings in Lancaster. The result was success in getting the cooperation from Holy Trinity.

“domestic engineer” on the Board

First a board had to be chosen and on the board was Bill Elliott, Mayor at the time; Donald Nikolaus, lawyer, Sam Holbright, insurance, and Phil Galdfelter, banker, the Monsignor and Mary Loreto, self-named “domestic engineer!” A housing consultant arrived from Philadelphia, and the application began.

“We had to have a location near a bank, a grocery store, and it had to be (below) a certain noise decibel and where there was a bus. And you had to get approval or support from your local churches, your social organizations, (and) the county commissioners. I was in charge or getting the support from the county commissioners – separately, and individually and collectively, “she said.

“It’s not easy,” she said getting all the paperwork done, even with the note from the Monsignor!

one downfall – many dreams

Nowadays, with two nursing homes, 2 high rises, now three for the elderly, there are no Emergency Rooms like they had at Columbia Hospital, said Mary.

“We have to run to Lancaster General and that’s a precious time to call in from Lancaster or York … ”

Her one wish, as an RN and long time resident concerned about health care in Columbia, is that Emergency Room services were more local, operating room and in patient service.

“I have so many dreams for this town,” she added.

After her successful work to bring the Community Action Agency to Chestnut and 4th Street, where people can go for social services directly, she is still concerned for the town’s poor. If past actions are any indication, it’s likely that Mary Loreto will fulfill her dreams.

[See chapter two of this conversation with Mary Loreto tomorrow at www.columbianewsandviews.com.]