Lititz, Pennsylvania

Episode 115 / 18 April 2019 / 146 min / full

A Game Of Pray, Marry, Kill

"It's Litits, Pennsylvania... This is in Lancaster County... this is Amish Country." about 0:06:48

The case: Murder of Michael and Kathy Borden (November 13, 2005). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2019

Population

9,269

Median age

46.1

Median household income

$58,375

Median home value

$185,000

Two-bedroom rent

$1,075

Cost of living

103

Religious

about 50-50

Violent crime

▼ less than half

History, in brief

• Lititz was founded by members of the Moravian Church in 1756. about 0:09:17
• It was named after a castle whose Czech name was Litice. about 0:09:21
• The Moravians were original exiles who fled from Moravia to Saxony in 1722 to escape religious persecution, and eventually came to Pennsylvania. about 0:09:50
• They came for missionary work and to escape persecution, and were big on personal piety, missions and music. about 0:10:16
• For over a century only Moravians were permitted to live in the town. about 0:11:27
• Only members of the congregation were allowed to own houses until the mid-1800s; the lease system that let members lease land to outsiders was abolished in 1855. about 0:12:14
• During the American Revolution a big house in the town was used as a hospital, and many soldiers died there and were buried there. about 0:12:57
• Linden Hall School, the oldest all-girls boarding school in the United States, was founded in 1746, a decade before the borough was incorporated, and sits on 47 acres next to a church. about 0:14:11
• Ben Franklin enabled the village to honour its pacifist convictions, and a declaration of Congress allowed the residents to continue their ban on bearing arms. about 0:14:59
• The first recorded Independence Day observance was in 1811, and religious residents called it merriment and disliked it; a community-wide observance did not come until 1818. about 0:16:50
• The town holds a Queen of the Candles pageant and fireworks display, with wooden beams and trestles fitted with candle sockets and the first candle lit by the year's pageant winner. about 0:17:42
• Lititz marked the 250th anniversary of the naming of the town in 2006. about 0:19:00
• Its sister city is Kunvald in the Czech Republic. about 0:19:42
• In 2013 Lititz was announced as the winner of Budget Travel's America's Coolest Small Towns competition among 15 finalists. about 0:20:41

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