"Aquatics" in Delco 125 years ago

One Hundred plus years ago Tinicum was the place to go on weekends to party. The above picture is of Darby Creek where there were numerous houses that are all gone now. The exact location of this picture is unknown. I was very lucky many years ago to buy a collection of glass plates of Tinicum Twp. This is a long story but very interesting!

Note: It is hard to imagine 125 years ago that Tinicum Twp. was the place to party in Delco some 120 years ago. Rich people from Phila. and the area came to Tinicum where there were yacht clubs etc. Parties were held on Friday and Saturday nights. The township had no police department then.

CHESTER TIMES 

 June 29, 1904

            NOBLE SPORT OF AQUATICS AND HOW IT IS ABUSED IN THIS COUNTY

            Nowhere in Pennsylvania is the noble sport of aquatics so splendidly enjoyed as in Delaware County, and nowhere in Pennsylvania is the pastime so much abused.  From the anchorage at Essington, the home of the Corinthian Yacht Club; from the shores of the Delaware at Chester and from the numerous tributaries of the majestic river, there go forth some of the most stately yachts that can be found plowing Pennsylvania’s great channel of commerce for men of wealth and leisure follow the sport, while there are many honest and sincere devotees of the splendid pleasure the broad bosom of the river, the bay or the lake affords.

            But upon the escutcheon of Delaware County yachtsmen there is a foul blot in the actions of some of the men who have made the neighborhoods of some of the owners of boats a veritable ante-chamber of the pit, and it is there men upon whom the eyes of the people of this county and the neighboring city of Philadelphia are just now centered.

            THE BOAT HOUSE COLONY – The home of the wealthy yachtsmen is at Essington, where one of the finest anchorages to be found in the United States gives room for a great fleet and upon any day of the summer or fall many boats can be seen leaving or entering the offing, or tugging lazily at their hawsers.  But at points removed from this anchorage many boathouses have been erected and to some of the owners of these places is due all of the disfavor into which yachting has fallen in the minds of many people and to whom must be charged the orgies that have aroused the indignant people to action.

            Along Darby Creek, stretching from the bridge over the Lazaretto Road almost to the mouth of the stream are upwards of one hundred boat houses.  By far the greater number are located near the draw bridges of the Reading Railway and the Southwestern trolley line of the Chester Traction Company.  Some of these houses are the homes of industrious and peaceful citizens who move their families there early in the summer and remain until September when the buildings are closed for the remainder of the year.  If all were of this class there would be no complaints of the Darby Creek boat house colony, but many roisterers have crept into the section and some of these men simply own or lease the houses for the purpose of spending Saturday night and Sunday in drinking and revelry.

            In the colony are a number of boys and girls, who greatly enjoy their summer life along the creek with occasional trips in naphtha launches out upon the broad bosom of the Delaware, but the scenes that youth is compelled to witness at some of the resorts on the Sabbath are not calculated to conduce to either virtue or immorality.

            AMMUNITION FOR THE FROLIC – Three large houses in Philadelphia supply the Darby Creek boat houses with liquor and each dealer runs a boat that forms the express wagon, for all stuff sent to the people in that colony must come either by boat or train, as the facilities for reaching the place by road are not of the best.  There was no drinking in evidence yesterday, but one of the piers of a draw bridge was piled with boxes filled with empty bottles, the silent testimonial of the previous Sunday’s thirst.  One of the members of the colony smiled when his attention was called to the display and he volunteered the information that the exhibit was a very small part of the liquid cargo that had been left on the Saturday previous.

            “This is the best station for the rum dealers in sight,” he said.  Whiskey and beer and other stuff comes to this place by the barrel.  They know how to swill rum to this part of the country.”

            THE GREAT DAY – There is little doing during the mid week but evidence of life is apparent on Saturday afternoon, when the members of the colony and visitors begin to come in.  Arrivals are very numerous as the afternoon wears off into the evening and by 3 o’clock the orgies are in full blast.

            But the big day is Sunday, when the fun goes with all of the abandon of the Bacchanals, and even those ancient celebrants might get a point or two if they would call at some of the boat houses along the Delaware and its tributaries on the Sabbath day.  There is no Sunday at Essington or anywhere on Tinicum Island that is visible to the naked eye.  It is true that the permanent residents of Essington attend the houses of worship, but the visitors to Essington and the near houses of the neighborhood do not go there for religious purposes, but many of them for a drunken frolic – and they have it.

            Very prominent among the callers at some of the boat houses are lady friends from Philadelphia, who come early and stay late – very often coming on Saturday evening and remaining until the following evening.  They are not church girls and they do not visit the haunts for religious pastime or missionary efforts for in the throng that can be seen there every Sunday are the denizens of the purlieus of the Quaker City.

            THE STORY OF A RESIDENT – This is the story of a resident told to a Times man yesterday:  “The majority of the people here are decent and respectable, for they come here to live, but some of these boathouses are only open on Saturday night and Sunday and a godless lot of men and women get here then.  That pile of boxes of empty beer and whiskey bottles tells why they come here and fights are frequent, for some men get drunk early and kick up trouble at once.

            While some men work in Philadelphia and come down every evening to their families, they send their wives and children back to Philadelphia on Saturday night to stay over Sunday.”

            “Why so?” queried the newspaper man.

            “Huh, you’re green.  Do you ‘spose there are any Sunday school privileges down here?  They’re things here that are not good for children to look at or hear and some of the men who send their families back to town are very careful to stay here themselves.  I ‘spose they are afraid somebody will run off with their houses if they go away.”

            THE POLICE CLUB – The monarchs of the Darby creek boat house colony are the members of the Police Club, formed by one of the redoubtable cops of Philadelphia and with a number of “stand pat” members of the Quaker City force on the roster.  This organization has the reputation of wanting to boss the whole creek and the efforts to accomplish that bit of statecraft recruits in some compliments that are more emphatic than ornate and in the threats to heave a few empty beer bottles across the channel if the cops do not stop their dictatorial methods.

            “You see,” said one of the old-timers, as he bailed out his boat with an old hat, “these here cops from the city think we countrymen don’t know anything about real life, but if there are to be any arrests as some people over yonder threaten to do, then the blasted measly cops should be first to be pulled in.  Some of them ought to bring their wives down when they spend Sunday at this place.  There would be a row in police family circles before the sun had set.”

            SOME OTHER RESORTS – But the most open orgies on the Sabbath are found around Bow creek where the devil seems to be loose in a carnival of vice, Sabbath breaking and evil.  Beer flows like water; baseball and profanity go on together and drunken men and drunken women stagger through the crowds, while gambling and various other devices to cheat the investor are very much in evidence.  This is just over the creek on the Delaware County side of the sluggish stream; but everything goes with apparently no effort to check the awful desecration of the day.

            Every Sunday the houses of ill repute vomit their inmates upon Tinicum and law and order are flung to the winds, while drunkenness and vice reign unrestrained, but how to check the evil?  That is the question that has been asked by a large number of earnest men, who stand aghast at the defiance of decency and decorum as they see the revelers turning the day of rest into shameless pastime.  It is said that an effort will be made to secure the cooperation of the portion of the yachting fraternity that stands for law and order, as the continuance of the brawls brings the entire aquatic community into dispute; but no efforts on this line have been made.

            AS A BOATMAN VIEWS IT – “It is true that we have beer and other drinks delivered here,” replied one of the boathouse owners in reply to a question, “and whose business is it?  We don’t harm anybody by having our little parties and as long as we keep to ourselves with our fun, I don’t see why anybody else should make such a big fuss over it.  Of course we don’t have a Sunday school convention here on Sunday and don’t conduct a prayer meeting, but what of it?  If any of the members of the club takes too much, I guess we are able to take care of them and that don’t need to concern anybody, as I see it.  Seems to me these church people are making a big fuss over what does not concern them.” 

            Asked about some of the people who formed the guests at some of the houses he replied nonchalantly:

            “We invite our lady friends down here, of course, and whose business is it but our own.  If they stay as our guests whose affair is it as long as we are not interfering with our neighbors?  We don’t bother the people over there in Essington and are as good as the big bugs over at the anchorage, who have so much to say about us.  We have a right to a good time and I don’t see why anybody should kick over what goes on here.  It is out of the way and does not bother any person who attends to his own business.”

            Yet there are people in this county who are entertaining the notion that it is somebody’s business and that somebody is likely to get hurt if the orgies are continued.