Delco Real Estate 100 years ago and the latest History Mystery

 My latest History Mystery picture is below

This is the picture that was in the Delco Times yesterday. I did not know that the street, Runnymeade Ave. in Drexel Hill was renamed Shadeland Ave. This is the intersection of Huey Ave. and Shadeland Ave. looking toward Garrett Rd. This picture is from about 1920. Several people recognized the intersection, the first was John Mullen of Drexel Hill. Two other people also contacted me, Kathy Savage who lived on the street and Dennis McKnight.

 

NOTE; One Hundred years ago especially in the 1920's before the "Great Depression" the Times newspaper highlighted home builders and their latest building projects. They would do this several times a week and would do various section of the county for each article. The above article is from March 1924 and is for the eastern section of Delaware County.

   I do not know exactly where this postcard is. This is South Lansdowne Ave. about 1908. Note the one house on the right. This was taken during "Rush Hour".

LOL

CHESTER TIMES 

 March 15, 1924 

 PROSPECTS GOOD FOR REAL ESTATE 

Many New Homes to Be Erected in the Eastern Section of County

          With the announcement that two hundred new homes will be erected in the West Ward of Clifton Heights alone, the building proposition in the eastern end of the county should increase largely this year.

          The Cherry Grove Realty Company, operating on a large tract on South Springfield Avenue, will erect one hundred houses on their ground during the coming spring, summer and fall, according to an announcement this week by Howard M. Lutz, Esq., attorney for the company.

          `On North Sycamore Street the J. J. Redyke Company has a number of homes already under construction, and plans have been drawn for one hundred homes of the bungalow type to be erected this year.

          Builder John Morgan, who recently completed ten houses on Fairview Avenue, Clifton Heights, is planning to erect eight or ten more on North Penn Street.  The only obstacle in the way of immediate start of operations is the faulty drainage of the street, which causes the surface water to lay in a large puddle about seventy-five yards north of Baltimore Avenue.

          In the East ward of Clifton, in the vicinity of Broadway, where about thirty new homes were erected last year, builders are considering the erection of many more houses this year.

          The majority of these builders will build for their own personal use.  The large field formerly used as a baseball field, has been sold and divided into building lots.  With the exception of a few lots, the entire tract has been sold to private parties.

          Keeping step with the trend of home building is the erection of business places.  On Baltimore Avenue in Clifton, Frank Shee has under construction three large stores.  These are almost completed with the exception of the painting.

          On South Springfield Avenue, directly below Baltimore Avenue, stands a large building, three stories in height, owned by Samuel Bloomfield.  This will be encased with a new wall of brick and converted into a modern store and apartment house.

          In Lansdowne, despite the weather conditions of the winter months, building has been pushed along at a rapid rate.  On “Legion Terrace,” the picturesque stretch of ground on Wycombe Avenue, in the rear of the American Legion headquarters, a number of homes of the most modern type have gone up, and many of these are already occupied.

          In the northern section of the town, building is continuing with as much zest as ever.  Where large, vacant fields stood but a year ago, the sites are now adorned with attractive homes.  Even the fire department of Lansdowne realizing the rapidity with which the town has grown, has pointed out the necessity for better fire-fighting facilities in their plea for a new apparatus.

          Upper Darby continues to lead the county in building world.  The vast quantity of unimproved land has been a mecca for builders, and so rapid has been the work of erecting homes that more than 60 percent of Upper Darby’s vacant tracts of two years ago, have been improved and now accommodate houses.

          The Drexel Hill Realty Company, operating in the Aronimink section are not only constructing houses with great rapidity, but many lots have been sold to prospective home builders.

          Alexander A. Alessi, one of the county’s most active builders, who is operating just north of Bywood near Sixty-Ninth Street, has not lessened his force of workmen in the least during the winter, but is continuing along at his usual pace, and many new homes have been started since first of the present year.