Zimmerman Center for Heritage

The Zimmerman Center for Heritage is the headquarters of Susquehanna Heritage and serves as Pennsylvania’s Official Visitor Contact and Passport Station for the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. Visit us by land or water to learn more about this unique heritage trail; become a Junior Ranger; enjoy a hike to Native Lands County Park and the Mason-Dixon Trail; launch your kayak or canoe; view our Visions of the Susquehanna River Art Collection; see Susquehannock Indian artifacts in the Susquehannock Gallery; learn about river history on a River Discovery Boat Tour.

The Zimmerman Center for Heritage presents a unique setting for Susquehanna Heritage programs and is a lasting tribute to the civic leadership of its namesake donors. For over half a century, John and Kathryn Zimmerman committed their time and resources to improve the York community. In the late 1990’s, they saved this special place and restored the home as a historic jewel on the riverfront.

In 2007, the Zimmermans donated the property to Susquehanna Heritage as a place for storytelling, inspiration, and outdoor adventure. In 2014, with public and private funding, Susquehanna Heritage enhanced the site with a waterfront pavilion, boardwalk, floating dock, paddle craft landing, accessible pathways, historical displays, improved parking, native landscaping, and a wetland and rain garden for better storm water management.

In 2016, the National Park Service designated the Zimmerman Center for Heritage as the first-ever Visitor Contact & Passport Station for the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, bringing well deserved national recognition to the Zimmermans’ legacy. 

The construction date for the Zimmerman Center’s stone house is not known, but historians date the home to about 1750, after Thomas Cresap left the area. Owners included John Meyer, Jacob Dritt, Margaret Bonham, Jacob Detwiler, David March, Barton Gnaw, Byrd Leibhart, Kenneth Wallick, and the Zimmermans. The house is known as the Dritt Mansion for Jacob Dritt, who lived here from 1783 until 1817, when he drowned in the river. Dritt served in the Revolutionary War and was a Major General of the Commonwealth Militia. His house was a residence and a place of business. Dritt operated a ferry and engaged in wine and liquor trading, farming, and milling. He founded the village of Washington Boro across the river and planned a bridge from there to his proposed town of Pleasant Garden at Long Level, but neither was built. Dritt had eleven children with his wife, Maria Elizabeth, and the house remained in the family until 1851. The Dritt Cemetery is now part of Native Lands County Park. Jacob Dritt is not buried there, but his wife and descendants are, with graves dating from 1824 to 1879.

The property remained a farm into the 1930s, with a barn south of the house and pastures and fields along the river and hillsides. The hilltop land was sold off after Safe Harbor Dam was built in 1930 and created Lake Clarke, establishing Long Level as a place for respite and water recreation.

The home’s architecture reflects English and German influences. Original features include four fireplaces and a vaulted basement. Excavations revealed over 10,000 artifacts, including hardware, coins, pottery, and prehistoric relics. The summer kitchen and bake oven, likely torn down in the 1800s, were reconstructed based on archaeological findings.

Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail

The Zimmerman Center for Heritage is designated by the National Park Service as Pennsylvania ’s Visitor Contact & Passport Station for the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. Our history programs and exhibits have a special focus on the Susquehannnock who lived in this area at the time of Smith ’s explorations of the Chesapeake Bay and traveled to meet with him near the mouth of the Susquehanna in Maryland in 1608. America ’s first water-based National Historic Trail, the 3000-mile long John Smith Chesapeake Trail highlights the natural history and 17th-century American Indian societies of the bay and its rivers, along with Captain Smith ’s voyages on these waterways in 1607-1609. The trail stretches across much of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and includes the entire Susquehanna River from its headwaters at Lake Ostego located near Cooperstown, New York, through all of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Visions of the Susquehanna

The Susquehanna River flows 444 miles from its source in New York state to the Chesapeake Bay. Throughout history, this river has been a place of respite and inspiration—especially for America’s artists.

Susquehanna Heritage honors this cultural legacy at the Zimmerman Center through the Visions of the Susquehanna river art collection.

In 2006, York County artist Rob Evans curated Visions of the Susquehanna: 250 Years of Paintings by American Masters, a travelling exhibit of historic and contemporary art showcasing the Susquehanna River. The exhibit examined the rich tapestry of art created by the great number of renowned artists, past and present, who have been attracted to this waterway. When its journeys ended in 2008, Evans and Susquehanna Heritage collaborated to acquire key contemporary pieces from the exhibit to create the first-ever permanent collection of Susquehanna River art. Funding was provided by private donors and the Pennsylvania Heritage Areas Program. Since the original exhibit opened at the Zimmerman Center, additional contemporary and historic art works have been added to this unique collection through generous private contributions.

Visions of the Susquehanna interprets the river’s heritage with over a dozen permanent and several loaned paintings. Artists include Michael Allen, Rob Evans, Mark Innerst, Phylis Koster, Carol Oldenburg, Robert Patierno, Mark Workman, and Scott Wright.

Native Lands

The Native Lands Heritage Trail begins at the Zimmerman Center for Heritage Nature Space. This is a scenic journey through history. It is a one-mile earth and grass hiking trail providing public access and storytelling for Native Lands County Park, a 180-acre preserve owned and managed by the County of York.

Please visit the Susquehannock Gallery within the Zimmerman Center for more information.

River Discovery Boat Tours

We are very pleased to announce that we will be conducting our River Discovery Tours aboard the historic Chief Uncas, a beautiful 55-foot wooden launch built in 1912 by the Electric Launch Company of Bayonne, NJ.

The Chief Uncas was built for Adolphus Busch, co-founder of the famous American beer company, to enjoy cruises at his summer estate on Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, NY – the very headwaters of the Susquehanna River. After cruising those headwaters for 109 years, next summer, the Chief Uncas will begin a new chapter in its life 400 miles downriver as Susquehanna National Heritage Area’s flagship tour boat!

Visit the Zimmerman Center for Heritage. Accessed February 22nd 2022. https://susqnha.org/explore-2/zimmerman-center/.

Zimmerman Center for Heritage Guide, Susquehanna Riverlands . Accessed February 22nd 2022. https://susquehannariverlands.com/history-culture/heritage-sites-museums/zimmerman-center-for-heritage/.