When Lititz Built a Road-O-Plane: Inside Cory Van Brookhoven’s New Book of Local Postcards

A postcard is a small thing.

A picture on one side. A few handwritten lines on the other. Maybe a stamp tucked into the corner.

But more than a century later, those little pieces of mail can reveal an astonishing amount about the places and people that came before us. That is the idea behind Postcards of the Lititz Area, the latest book from Lititz Historical Foundation President Cory Van Brookhoven.

The oversized, coffee-table-style book contains more than 200 pages and over 500 images, including more than 375 in color. Its coverage extends beyond Lititz Borough into Warwick and Elizabeth townships, offering readers a visual journey through communities, businesses, landmarks, streets, and everyday scenes that have changed dramatically over the decades.

Many of the postcards featured in the book have never before been published. But this is more than simply a collection of old pictures. Van Brookhoven uses the postcards as starting points for telling the stories behind the images, giving readers a better understanding of the people, places, businesses, and events that helped shape the region. The book also explores the history of the known post offices that once served the Lititz area.

For Van Brookhoven, it is familiar territory. Born and raised in Lititz, he describes himself as a third-generation historian and has served as president of the Lititz Historical Foundation since 2013. He has written more than 200 local history stories for area newspapers. Postcards of the Lititz Area is his fifth book.

And tucked among those hundreds of postcard views is one of my favorite kinds of local history stories: something so strange that it sounds almost made up.

Meet Lititz’s Road-O-Plane

In the early 1900s, John Longenecker was helping usher Lititz into the automobile age.

Longenecker operated an automobile dealership and repair shop at 64 North Broad Street. His dealership was reportedly the first of its kind in Lititz and only the second in Lancaster County. He sold vehicles from manufacturers including Chevrolet, Scripps-Booth, Studebaker, and Nash.

But Longenecker was more than a car salesman. He understood publicity.

In November 1918, he constructed a parade vehicle designed to resemble a ship. Apparently one elaborate automobile wasn’t enough.

For Lititz’s Fourth of July parade in 1919, he went bigger. Much bigger.

Longenecker transformed a Scripps-Booth automobile into what looked like a bizarre cross between a car and an airplane. He added wings, a tail, and even a revolving propeller mounted on the front.

He called his creation the Road-O-Plane. It was never intended to fly. That detail, however, apparently became lost somewhere along the way.

Photographs of the contraption were turned into postcards, and before long an image of the Road-O-Plane appeared in a supplement to the Detroit Free Press. Because the photograph had been distributed by New York’s Central News Service, the same image began appearing in newspapers across the country.

Suddenly, people far beyond Lancaster County were taking John Longenecker’s parade float very seriously.

Some apparently believed they were looking at the next great advancement in transportation.

Longenecker began receiving letters from people interested in his strange machine. One doctor in Minnesota wanted to know whether the Road-O-Plane could skim just a few feet above the ground, perhaps traveling across the tops of snowdrifts.

Others saw a potential business opportunity.

A correspondent from Norfolk, Virginia, suggested that his community’s manufacturing facilities, available capital, and poor roads made it an ideal location to manufacture the vehicles. Another writer promoted Kenton, Ohio, pointing to its low taxes, inexpensive labor, railroad connections, electrical power, and available factory sites.

All this attention for something Longenecker had created primarily as entertainment for a local parade. The Road-O-Plane never became America’s next transportation revolution, and Longenecker returned to the automobile business. But for a brief moment, a publicity stunt from Lititz managed to capture imaginations across the country.

That is precisely what makes Postcards of the Lititz Area so much fun.

A century-old postcard showing an odd-looking car can become the doorway into a forgotten story about an inventive Lititz businessman, an elaborate Fourth of July parade, nationwide newspaper coverage, and Americans genuinely wondering whether they might soon be commuting in something called a Road-O-Plane.

More Than Pretty Pictures

Postcards flourished during an era when communication looked very different from today. For only a few cents, someone could write a quick message, attach a stamp, and send a colorful glimpse of their hometown across Pennsylvania or across the country.

Today, those cards serve another purpose. They freeze moments in time.

Businesses that disappeared decades ago suddenly have storefronts again. Roads return to their earlier appearance. Long-gone hotels, schools, factories, parks, churches, post offices, and neighborhoods reappear exactly as someone saw them generations ago.

And sometimes, sitting quietly inside one of those images is a story as strange as John Longenecker’s Road-O-Plane.

That combination of imagery and storytelling is what makes Van Brookhoven’s new book especially appealing to anyone interested in Lititz and northern Lancaster County history.

How to Get a Copy

Postcards of the Lititz Area is an 8½-by-11-inch, coffee-table-style book containing more than 200 pages and over 500 images. Copies are priced at $27.95 plus tax.

The book is available through Amazon and at the Lititz Historical Foundation gift shop at 145 East Main Street in Lititz. The Foundation’s museum and gift shop are open year-round, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Whether you grew up in Lititz, collect local postcards, enjoy Lancaster County history, or simply like discovering the unusual stories hiding behind familiar places, Postcards of the Lititz Area offers plenty to explore.

And if you happen to spot a strange automobile with airplane wings and a propeller somewhere inside its pages, now you know the story behind it.

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