This was the unknown picture that was in the Delco Times this past Thursday. One person thought the house stood at 5th and Monroe Sts. but that was not the case. I drove out there today and the picture did not match. Another reader thought the house once stood on Jefferson St. opposite Monroe St. but had been torn down. Looking for an address please!!
History / Mystery
I do not know how many of you caught the article in the Delco Times
Newspaper the “new series” starting on Thursday, January 25. New editor, Keith
Mayer, was very nice and after listening to Colin Ainsworth emailed me and gave
me a call. Colin does several things for the paper including the “100 years
ago” on page 2 which he has been doing for awhile. Colin helps me locating old
newspaper articles etc. I have 1000’s of Delaware County pictures I have
collected in 50 plus years and a number are unidentified. Some are pictures from
family photo albums where no one took the time to write down the location. Of
course when the album was first put together everyone knew the address, BUT 100
years later no one knows. I always suggest to my friends etc. to take the time
and go thru these albums and talk to grandmom and granddad and get the
information from them for future generations. The other problem is old
postcards.
Postcards were the rage 100 plus years ago. You could get postcards of your house, street, family etc. Even professional made cards from 100 years ago can be very hard to identify the exact location. A 100 year old postcard might be titled, “Chester Pike in Ridley Park”. The problem is that 100 years ago there may only be 2 or 3 houses in the picture and today they could be gone making the postcard very hard to identify. Other postcards sometimes have no identification at all. Just the title “ a scene near Chester Pa.” which just shows a dirt road with no houses or buildings on the postcard at all. Some postcards advertised businesses which could also be a problem. I have a postcard that advertises a builder who worked in Llanerch, Haverford Twp. The postcard shows 2 houses he had built and says nothing else.. One hundred years ago Llanerch only had about 40 houses in it and everyone knew the all the houses in Llanerch. Today there are 100’s of houses in the Llanerch area. It is fun tracking down locations of old pictures but it can also be very frustrating. I’m hoping that my readers will take the time and look at my pictures in the Delco Times and share them and help to identify them for future generations to see what Delco was like 100
Of COURSE this is time consuming
and can be BORING. Two police officers have been very helpful, Andy Graff of
Springfield and Matt Hufnal of Haverford Twp. I’m looking for postmen, police
officers etc. people who know their town’s streets, blocks addresses etc. I want
my pictures 75 years ago to be recognized exactly where they were, looking for
all the help I can find. Thanks Keith
Email me at, keith106@rcn.com
Below is the CORRECT Date for my talk at Ridley Township Library.
Last week had Monday February 6 and it should have said Monday
February 5th!!
Hope to see you there!!!
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