Then & Now: The 'Jacks' Bitner
- Stacy Schroeder
- Oct 8
- 2 min read
Honoring a family legacy through a senior’s rite-of-passage.
by Stacy Schroeder
[Originally published in the Fall 2025 issue of Mount Gretna Magazine. View the full issue to see this story in its designed layout, complete with additional images.]
One beautiful day last May, members of the Bitner family gathered at their former cottage in Mount Gretna.
Once again, Jack Bitner was going to sit on its porch. Jonathan Richard Bitner, rising Hempfield High School senior, that is — not John Donald Bitner, the well-known Gretna historian who once lived in this home.
The younger Jack selected this site for his senior photos to honor his great-grandparents, Jack and Jeanine Bitner. Current resident Elizabeth Hummer generously opened her doors (and porch) for an afternoon of reminiscing. The family chose spring, when gardens that still bear Jeanine’s hand would be in full bloom.
“It is nice to be able to form a connection with something as deeply tied to my family as this cottage is,” says Jack.
Jack was born in 2008 just two months before his great-grandfather died. The family has one treasured photo of the four generations of Bitner men together, with the elder Jack cradling his namesake.
The day took on an extra celebratory feel as photographer Bridget Milbrandt captured some family photos around the cottage. They also strolled to the nearby Mount Gretna Area Historical Society Museum, which includes a research center named after the family patriarch.
“Our Jack loves Gretna as much as his great-grandfather and wanted nothing more than to have his pictures taken in a place he loves,” says mom Emily Bitner.
Stacy Schroeder is the creative director of Mount Gretna Magazine. She grew up outside Mount Gretna and now has a cottage within the borough.
