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.
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.
First picture of Shadeland Ave shows how smart they were then. Planting many trees on side of road without power lines.
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