[SOLD OUT] History Happy Hour

[SOLD OUT] History Happy Hour

Photograph of the exterior of Our Town Brewery in Lancaster.
Photograph of the exterior of Our Town Brewery in Lancaster. Photo: Our Town Brewery

SOLD OUT
Due to overwhelming demand, this event has sold out as of 5/30/2023.
Thank you so much for your interest!


History Happy Hour is back! For the first time since 2020, LancasterHistory’s sold-out History Happy Hour program returns on Thursday, June 22 from 5:30-7:30pm at Our Town Brewery.

Unbeknownst to most Lancastrians, Our Town Brewery sits upon the site of a well-known, well-reputed 1913 brothel run by a woman named Edna Carson. At that time, Lancaster was known as a “wide open” city, where police and city officials looked the other way and sometimes even encouraged drinking, gambling, and prostitution. Edna Carson ran a high end business that catered to well-to-do patrons. Its décor featured expensive rugs, fine furniture, a player piano, and refined women dressed in gowns. At this summer’s History Happy Hour, learn more about Edna and the women and men of Lancaster’s Red-Light Districts from Franklin & Marshall College’s Dr. M. Alison Kibler.

Image of Alison Kibler.
M. Alison Kibler, Ph.D. Photo: Franklin & Marshall College

M. Alison Kibler, Ph.D. is a professor of American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Franklin & Marshall College. She is the author of Rank Ladies: Gender and Cultural Hierarchy in American Vaudeville (University of North Carolina, 1999) and Censoring Racial Ridicule: Irish, Jewish, and African American Struggles over Race and Representation, 1890-1930 (UNC, 2015). With Franklin & Marshall undergraduate researchers, she has been researching the history of Lancaster’s anti-vice campaign in the early twentieth century. The activists who worked to end vice in Lancaster kept detailed records of their investigations, many of which have been preserved at LancasterHistory.

The doors (and bar) open at 5:30pm at Our Town Brewery on Thursday, June 22. The program will begin at 6/6:15pm. Attendees are welcome to stay until 7:30pm.

Tickets are $20/Non-Member, $15/LancasterHistory Members. Ticket includes admission to the program, light refreshments, and one complimentary beverage or non-alcoholic beverage. (Please note that additional drinks, additional food, and merchandise are not included in the purchase of a ticket.) Event is suggested for ages 18 or older, and individuals must be 21 years or older to consume adult beverages. Our Town Brewery is located at 252 North Prince Street in Lancaster [Google Maps link]. Parking is available in nearby garages for a fee.

Thank You to Our History Happy Hour Sponsors

Sponsors David Lyall and Henrietta Heisler Interiors.

In-Person Event Off-Site Event Program

June 22, 2023 Our Town Brewery, 252 N. Prince Str., Lancaster 5:30 - 7:30pm $20/Non-Member | $15/LancasterHistory Member