The A.R.C. Canteen in Williamsport

 
The American Red Cross Canteen, Williamsport Pa
To the left is the Park Hotel, with the train station in the background.

During World War I, the Red Cross established the Canteen Corps to create waypoints at railway stations and sea ports to provide meals, comfort, and smiles to the service men and women who were being transported to their final destinations.

In May of 1918, Williamsport was designated as one of the canteen transfer stations in the canteen service of the Red Cross.  

Williamsport,  a Red Cross Station 

Special to The Inquirer. 
"WILLIAMSPORT. May 7. Williamsport has been designated one of the transfer stations in the canteen service of the American Red Cross. Sick and wounded soldiers passing through here will be given food and, if needed, medical and surgical attention.
A "hut' will be erected where they will be made comfortable between trains or while waiting for ambulances to take them to hospitals or other stations. 
Mrs. C. E. Buhb is chairman of the canteen service, which has since January 1 cared for 20,315 soldiers passing through here from one camp to another.
Lunches were served to 639."

"WILLIAMSPORT. June 1. Since last Saturday 8000 soldiers have been fed while passing through this city. This work Is in the hands of the canteen branch of the Williamsport chapter of the Red Cross. A hut for canteen work will be opened Monday at the Pennsylvania Railroad.  Tuesday will be "egg day." when the canteen workers will solicit eggs to be preserved for use nest winter in canteen work.

It was stated today that the local Red Cross war fund will reach $144,000 when all parts of the district have been heard from. This will be 175 per cent, exceeding all expectations." The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2 1918

"The refreshments we propose to give where a meal is requested the Commanding Officer consist of two large sandwiches, one of meat and one of jam, and coffee or soup and bread. Soup and bread only when especially requested by the commanding officer."

"Official identification shields will issued by the chapter to all American Red Cross canteen workers who have signed the enrollment certificate and taken the Oath of Allegiance and have, after proper investigation, been accepted and authorized act as canteen workers. 

Only those persons who have, been carefully investigated and enrolled under oath of allegiance are permitted to serve the troops. It is obviously necessary for the protection of troops workers that only the accredited American Red Cross Canteen officers be permitted to receive information and direct canteen service. No person under twenty-three years of age and no officer under twenty-five years of age shall re- permission to wear a canteen service uniform. " 

"Williamsport has an institution that I wish Harrisburg would find it possible to copy," said a returning traveler yesterday. "I refer to the Red Cross booth at the railroad station. Williamsport Is well situated for this, better than Harrisburg, In fact. There is an open plaza in front of the station and a broad lawn along the side. On this the Red Cross canteen branch has I erected a trim little frame building, in the rear of which is a tent store the supplies.

The frame structure is used during cold or wet weather, but during days like these little tables are spread under trees. Not a soldier passes through Williamsport these days who is missed by the bright-eyed, prettily-uniformed Rod Cross girls, who are always on hand with a cheerful word and an Invitation to have anything from an ice cream cone to a substantial lunch, with hot coffee or iced tea on the side. "While waiting for a train the other being late in Williamsport as well as most everywhere else these amused myself by observing how the canteen worked. A train came in over the Lehigh Valley. Immediately the two girls in charge at the time appeared with ice cream cones.

They sold them to the perspiring passengers, even the "candy butcher' and the conductor taking one each. The profits, I learned, went into the upkeep of the canteen and the girls said that most people gave them from ten cents to a quarter and didn't for change, although they charged but a nickel for the cone. But the moment a tired, drooping soldier with a big satchel in tow hove in sight the girls forsook their customers and headed straight for him. asked one. 'I should say replied the soldier, mopping his brow and smiling.

'Well, come right over here and sit added the girl, leading him gently toward a table, and you can Just bet that young private never made the least resistance. "Before you could say Jack Robison the girls had dished up for him a tall and clinking glass of lemonade and he wound up with the second glass. About that time another overheated soldier in heavy O. D. uniform came lumbering up under a heavy load and was towed into the cool calm of the same table beneath a tree, where he chose Ice cream of them.

"Then came the next part of the program, and by far the most interesting to me. The first soldier finished his drink and asked the price. 'Not a penny from replied the pretty waitress. 'I have a brother in the Engineers and I hope some girl will do the same for other lad got a similar answer to his query as to price and both went away happy over the little attention shown and the better for this contact with the Red Cross, "I was wondering as my train pulled in," added the observer, "if we in Harrisburg couldn't do something like that on our depot plaza.". - The Harrisburg Telegraph, July 1918

This note was on the back of one of the A.R.C. postcards.  A solider had been fed in Williamsport on his way from Baltimore to Canada.

October 1919

The Williamsport Canteen Closed in October of 1919.  It had served 81,925, providing 5,897 meals.  The canteen had been open day and night.

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At the WWII Week-End on the test track on Berwick, we visited the USO stand, and it was here that I realized what those photos at Williamsport were.

When the United States entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Red Cross again provided resting places across the country, but it was not alone. Prior to the United States’ entry into the war, Franklin D. Roosevelt enlisted six groups—the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), National Catholic Community Service, National Jewish Welfare Board, Traveler’s Aid Association, and the Salvation Army—in the effort to provide recreation for members of the Armed Forces on leave. 3 In February 1941, these six organizations joined together and formed the United Services Organization (USO). Between the American Red Cross and the USO, over two hundred canteens were organized throughout the United States during the war, with the understanding that the Red Cross would cater to the men traveling under orders and the USO would cater to the casual soldiers. When there was not a USO present, the Red Cross would serve both. 

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"As a result of the official notification received at Headquarters of the Williamsport Chapter, the people of that city will soon have an idea of the great world war, when American Soldiers wounded on the field of action or taken ill at camps overseas are brought back to the U.S. Many are expected to pass through that city.  They will be given food, and surgical attention, if necessary, by the canteen branch of the Red Cross chapter in that city." - The Lewisburg Journal, May 1918

Mrs Cheyney of Williamsport Was Vice Chairman of the Pennsylvania State Canteen in 1919

Canteen Dance

June 1919 at Rolling Green

The Red Cross Canteen Workers in Sunbury Pa