Saving Taxes in Delco 100 plus years Ago, No Schools, no sidewalks no schools etc.

The above postcard is from about 1915 showing an unknown section of Rose valley Road. Many well to do early residents moved to the boro to save money on taxes by not having basics like sidewalks, paved roads etc.

 

NOTE

It is hard to imagine today but Rose Valley one of the smallest Boros in Pa. did so much to save on taxes. No paved roads, no schools and no sidewalks  etc. to save taxes for it's 500 plus residents. Many people 100 years  were surprised at the effort the boro went to save on taxes for residents.

          CHESTER TIMES 

 August 23, 1930 

ROSE VALLEY, SMALLEST U.S. BOROUGH, COLLECT TAXES

          The smallest borough in the United States, where there is no public school; where property owners are forbidden to lay sidewalks in front of their property; and where the borough council is composed of very wealthy men, exists in this county.

          Rose Valley, three miles from Chester, with its population of 300, and its background of culture and art, is probably one of the most unique, as well as one of the most beautiful settlements in this State.

          The colored chauffeur, of one of the borough’s wealthiest residents, the latter burgess, is the constable and as such represents the majesty of the law in the town.  Stores are absolutely forbidden, paved streets are banned, and for many years, the taxes collected have remained in a bank unused.

          This modern Utopia was founded as a single tax colony in 1901 by William Price and Frank Stephens, but after several years, a difference in opinion regarding the management of the colony led to Stephens’ withdrawal.  He later went to Arden, Del., and there founded a single-tax colony and carried out his own ideas.

          Price, however remained, a colony of painters, sculptors, and other devotees of the arts.  Two abandoned mills, each almost 200 years old, became the rendezvous for the Rose Valley Folks, as they call themselves, and meetings, plays, and social gatherings were held nightly in the old stone mills.

          One day several years later, Jasper Deeter, a well-known actor, passed through the quaint settlement, and was struck by the beauty of one of the mills, and the idea of producing plays, with artistic rather than mercenary success in view, became imbedded in his mind.

          With $9 in his pocket and countless ideas in his mind, Deeter started the Hedgerow Repertory Group, and in 1923 the first plays were presented to an audience consisting mainly of Philadelphia art lovers and residents of the Valley.  The company has continued successfully since that time, until today it is known throughout the country, and has numbered Ann Harding, Emerson Tracy, Eva LeGalliene, and Paul Robeson, amongst its players.

          The theatre is perhaps the outstanding feature of Rose Valley, today, and the colony has gradually grown up around it, attracting numerous artists who now make the place their home.

          In their efforts to retain the rustic atmosphere, the borough council of Rose Valley banned sidewalks, businesses of any description, and even paved streets.  There is no public school within the borough limits, the children attending the Wallingford school.  When the residents wish to attend church they also have to leave the borough.

          Arthur Rich, colored chauffeur for Maurice Bower Saul, millionaire attorney and burgess of the borough, is constable and the only law-enforcing officer in the borough.  What Rich does when he makes an arrest is problematical, for there is no magistrate to sentence his prisoner.

          The residents emphatically state that they have no wish to modernize the borough, wishing to retain the quiet peaceful surroundings, which make the place one of the most unique of Philadelphia’s suburbs.