A new Delco Mansion !!!

The above mansion was known as "Marex on the Hill. and it stood on Baltimore Pike between the Springfield Mall and Smedley Park on the same side of the pike. It was torn down in the 1960's.

Note: It is hard to imagine today but from the 1870's thru the 1920's Delco was the place well to do Phila people moved to. Many built summer homes here while others lived here full time. The Chester Times and other local papers talked about mansions being built all the time. People liked Delco for the country feel, farms, lakes to swim in, and golf courses many more then today etc. Even in the 1920;s Delco was considered mainly a farm community and a great place for a summer home or to live here full time because they were still close to everything.

CHESTER TIMES 

 June 19, 1908  

            A NEW MANSION 

 Mr. Graham, a rug manufacturer of Philadelphia, is having erected in Springfield Township along the Baltimore Pike a large and handsome mansion, which will be one of the most costly in this county.  The Philadelphia Engineering Company has the contract for the erection of the building.  The old blacksmith shop, which has stood at Swarthmore Avenue and the Baltimore Pike for over a half century, and in which John Taylor has been continually and successfully conducting a horseshoeing and blacksmithing business for 52 years, has been razed to make room for the large and beautiful lawn which will adorn the front of this residence.  Mr. Taylor worked in the building until the fireplace in the shop was torn down.  Many of the best blacksmiths in this county learned their trade in this old shop with Mr. Taylor, and many of them are gray-haired men today.  Mr. Taylor, who is nearly 70 years of age, will now retire from blacksmithing. 

I would like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas!!

Still a few copies left!!!!