On July 9, officials from Elizabethtown and Letterkenny, in County Donegal, Ireland, signed a Twin Towns Agreement in Letterkenny. Both towns committed to building historic, cultural and business ties. A week later, at the July 16 Borough Council meeting, Mayor Phil Clark welcomed the delegates home, according to the borough's minutes.
What the agreement will actually mean is being worked out at two addresses on Market Street. One is an Irish pub that is coming to 28 S. Market St. The other is the oldest building in Elizabethtown, at 56 N. Market St., and nobody has decided what will happen to it.
The Agreement Lapsed Once Already
The tie to Letterkenny is older than the July signing. Elizabethtown and Letterkenny first signed a Sister City Agreement in 2002, and the borough marked the Donegal connection over the next few years with murals and New Year's Eve celebrations.
That agreement ended in 2014, when Ireland dissolved its local councils as part of a nationwide reform. Every partnership Letterkenny had made went with them. For about a decade, Elizabethtown didn't have an Irish twin town on paper.
LancasterOnline reported that the revival began with photographer Kim Winey. She was working as social media manager for Discover Elizabethtown and pitched a pen pal exchange to Donnan Harvey of the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter. That's how she learned the old partnership was gone. She told Borough Council, and the process of reaffirming the connection began in July 2024. Harvey spent five days in Elizabethtown over St. Patrick's Day weekend in 2025, including a celebration with the Elizabethtown Area Historical Society.
This summer, nine people from Elizabethtown traveled to Ireland to restart the agreement. The group included Borough Council Vice President Jeff McCloud, Council President Jeff Winterborne, and Teresa St. Angelo, director of the Winters Heritage House. Per the same report, the trip was self-financed and used no taxpayer money.
The first agreement faded once the murals and celebrations wound down. This time, the people behind it have said plainly that they want more. Mayor Clark told LancasterOnline:
"There needs to be more communication, and ways to celebrate our connection that are more than just historical."
Two buildings on Market Street will show whether the agreement manages that.
28 S. Market St.: A Storefront on Its Third Tenant in Three Years
Inspiration Brewing Company opened in Ephrata in March 2025, in the former Pour Man's Brewing building at 284 S. Reading Road. It is now preparing an Irish-themed brewpub at 28 S. Market St. in downtown Elizabethtown. The storefront has changed hands a lot lately:
- Funk Brewing Company taproom. The space had been Funk's Elizabethtown taproom until early 2024. The Beer Thrillers reported in February 2024 that it had officially switched over to Pine Creek Spirits.
- Pine Creek Spirits. It announced its closing on June 29, 2025, according to The Beer Thrillers.
- Inspiration Brewing Company: Elizabethtown Pub. That's the name abc27 reported in June 2026.
This pub isn't just another taproom swap, because the beer list is tied to the agreement. Breweries in PA reported that the Elizabethtown location will add a traditional Irish stout called "Letterkenny," named for the twin town, and will bring back the brewery's award-winning Irish Red Ale. Brewing will stay in Ephrata. LancasterOnline listed cottage pie and stout stew among the planned dishes.
The pub will be bigger than a typical downtown taproom. Plans call for about 4,000 square feet, seating for roughly 120, two bar areas, and a 1,200-square-foot event room for private gatherings. Long term, the brewery wants to book local and traveling bands there for small concerts. Owner Brian Mills has his own ties to the town. In the brewery's announcement, carried by Breweries in PA, he said: "Having previously lived here and volunteered with the Elizabethtown Fire Department, returning feels like coming back to a second home."
As for timing, the June and August announcements both aimed for September. As of mid-October, the brewery's Elizabethtown location page still reads "Coming September 2026," and its Elizabethtown menu page says "Coming Soon." Check that page before you head downtown for a pint of Letterkenny.
56 N. Market St.: Where the Donegal Story Began
Walk about half a mile up Market Street and you reach the building that explains why Elizabethtown has an Irish twin town in the first place.
LancasterOnline recounts that John Harris built the Black Bear Tavern on the banks of Conoy Creek in 1745. Barnabas Hughes, newly arrived from County Donegal, bought it in 1753. Hughes went on to lay out the streets of what became Elizabethtown and named the town after his wife. The former frontier tavern and trading post still stands at 56 N. Market St. It is the oldest building in town. The borough has owned and maintained it since 2018, and its fate has not been decided.
Clark, who spent 16 years on the board of Preservation Associates, the nonprofit that runs the Winters Heritage House, hopes the renewed interest in the town's history will help the borough find a way to preserve and reuse the building. No plan has been announced yet.
The Donegal thread runs farther than one building. In Ireland, the delegation visited the Ulster American Folk Park, which includes a small stone house Samuel Fulton built in 1724 from Lancaster County fieldstone. It stood near Donegal Springs, close to Donegal Presbyterian Church. In the mid-1970s, the house was taken apart stone by stone and rebuilt at the park. "Here in Ireland was something built by the hands of someone from Donegal and it was just a couple miles from where we live in Elizabethtown," McCloud told LancasterOnline.
That history is easy to drive past. Clark told LancasterOnline that people "tend to think it's all German" when it comes to this part of the Susquehanna Valley. The Scots-Irish settlers moved on within a couple of generations, and by around 1800 they had left little behind except place names: Donegal, Derry, Londonderry, Raphoe, Coleraine, Drumore, Leacock and Banbridge.
What Would Make It "More Than Just Historical"
So far, the people involved have named ideas, not programs. Clark and others have floated athletic and student exchanges, possibly involving the Elizabethtown Area School Board and Elizabethtown College. Winey described the goal to LancasterOnline as "taking the knowledge that we gain, whether in person or online, back to our own communities, organizations and businesses to better our towns."
For now, the business partnership written into the agreement shows up most visibly in a stout recipe at a pub that is still getting ready to open. The historic side rests on a borough-owned building with no decision yet. You'll find the most concrete local programming about the town's early history a few blocks east of Market Street.
Where to Spend the Season With That History
The Winters Heritage House Museum at 47 E. High St. is run by the same nonprofit Clark served for 16 years, and its director was part of the Letterkenny delegation. Its events page lists the rest of the fall and holiday season:
- Spot of Tea & 250 Years of History. A three-session series on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. at the H.U. Coble House, running October 21 through November 18. Check the listing for session dates.
- 36th Annual Heritage Craft Show. Friday, November 13, 4 to 8 p.m., and Saturday, November 14, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Pajama Story Nights. 6:30 to 8 p.m., running through November 20.
- Holidays at Winters. December 11 through 19, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with extended hours on Saturday, December 12, from 4 to 8 p.m.
Plan a regular visit around the museum's calendar. Fall hours are Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., plus 4 to 8 p.m. on second Fridays. Regular tours pause November 4 through 13 and December 3 through 9 while staff set up for events.
The biggest downtown date of the season belongs to GEARS. The Elizabethtown Holiday Parade steps off Saturday, December 5, at 4 p.m. and runs along Market Street from College Avenue to Hummelstown Street. This year's theme is "Santa's Workshop."
When the 2002 agreement lapsed, the paperwork stopped with it. This time, the most lasting result could be a building on North Market Street, depending on what the borough decides to do with it.
Our team has spent about four decades watching Market Street storefronts change hands, and the fate of 56 N. Market St. is one we'll keep following closely. If you own a home in Elizabethtown and want to know where your property stands while downtown changes, John Smith Team is glad to talk it through. Request a Free Home Valuation, and we'll give you a straight, local answer.
