We really need to clean up this place more often.
Funny what turns up when you just turn over a couch cushion. Well, not really – we don’t actually have a couch. Or a clubhouse, for that matter.
But metaphorically speaking, the housecleaning in our storage area these past few months has turned up more than just loose change.
For more than a year, our HSR Archives Committee has taken advantage of our COVID-induced meeting inactivity to organize, catalog, and archivally store items in our collection. In taking stock, they have found some happy surprises. (See more in GN #186 May 2021, GN #187 Aug 2021, GN #188 Oct 2021, GN #189 Dec 2021)
Four recent cases in point:
#1. New glass plate negative
Archivist Keith Betten turned up an orphaned glass plate negative that he figured was of Bank and Main and gave it to Board Member and Borough Historian Roger Prichard to see if he could get a scan of it.
Roger reports that indeed it is – and quite a wonderful little time machine. He explains:
Scanning glass plates isn’t entirely successful unless you have the advanced equipment that the Conservation Center does, which we used for the collection of 19 plates last year. (See Issue #186, May 2021)
But I was able to get a usable scan from my flatbed, and here it is. (It is a passable web-resolution scan; the Conservation Center will do better.)
The date is unknown and could be in quite a range, though generally turn-of-the-century. It can’t be any earlier than 1882 when the Fitler family bought the house and rebuilt it, as you see here.
Not sure what’s the latest it could be… the town had dirt streets well into the 20th century, and I don’t know how late the last oil-burning street lamp was removed (see at extreme right).
In his book, Tale of Three Towns, Lloyd Griscom wrote, “In 1880 some fifty oil street lamps were installed on the few streets constituting Riverton at that time. Lemuel H. Davis organized this project, which was supported by popular subscription. Ann Holvick was named as a lamplighter at $7.50 annually per lamp. These lamps survived until 1908 when the Borough replaced them with picturesque gas lights.”
Former HSR President, newsletter editor, and Borough Historian Betty Hahle wrote that the first gas street lamp was installed on Lippincott Avenue, near Broad, in 1908, as a test, or exhibition piece. Shortly after that, inspired by the success of the new lighting system, Riverton installed 51 lights and Palmyra, 60.
Here’s a crop of just the street lamp (a Dietz #3 Tubular Street Lamp model later renamed the Pioneer).
Who was the photographer? That’s a mystery to me. The whole feel of it is different than the collection in the box, but it’s about the same era. It’s also about the same era as the 5×7 album prints we got from eBay that I suspect were taken by W.R. Ellison (next door at 403 Bank).
Photographer David Lothrop (who lived in Iris and Rich Gaughan’s house) was also very active at this time and did take photos of Bank Avenue houses. We got several among the great things that Miller Biddle gave us back in the Fall and I have yet to scan), but those were much more formal, not artistic/atmospheric like these.
There’s more detail on the plate than my scanner can pick up because of haloing on the thick glass plate so we should plan on paying the Conservation Center to scan it one of these days.
Thought you’d all enjoy this little excursion! -Rog
Yes, Roger, thank you for a step back in time. It must be cool for a homeowner to see a photo of their house from 100+ years ago. If you have a 50plus-year-old picture of your home that we could add to our collection, please send it to rivertonhistory@gmail.com.
Meanwhile, your Gaslight News Editor looked back to other times we wrote about the gas street lamps. Here’s a summary:
In his book, Tale of Three Towns, Lloyd Griscom wrote, “In 1880 some fifty oil street lamps were installed on the few streets constituting Riverton at that time. Lemuel H. Davis organized this project, which was supported by popular subscription. Ann Holvick was named as a lamplighter at $7.50 annually per lamp. These lamps survived until 1908 when the Borough replaced them with picturesque gas lights.”
Former HSR President, newsletter editor, and Borough Historian Betty Hahle wrote that the first gas street lamp was installed on Lippincott Avenue, near Broad, in 1908, as a test, or exhibition piece. Shortly thereafter, inspired by the success of the new lighting system, Riverton installed 51 lights and Palmyra, 60. (Also see March 30, 2011 post Welsbach Gaslamps Are Century-Old Fixtures Here)
#2 An Early Map Finds Its Way Home, Archivist Keith Betten explains:
At the very end of January this year a curious document found its way to the “desk” in the HSR’s Archival Area. A note which accompanied it indicated that it had somehow been included with the used books and media items regularly offered for sale on Sunday afternoons in the basement of the Riverton Free Library.
When a patron offered to purchase the item, which appeared to be an old, hand-drawn map, the sales volunteer on duty, Janice Pappenberg, indicated that she didn’t know how that particular document had wound up on the bookshelves there but was pretty sure that “we don’t sell old maps”. She set it aside, and that is how it eventually found its way to the “Archives Desk.”
Great save, Janice!
When it was carefully unfolded, from right to left (south to north), the hand-drawn images at first held the possibility of an important link to Riverton’s early history; featuring a side-wheeler plying the Delaware River close to the shore, and a steam locomotive, with billowing smoke approaching a railway station, but when fully unfurled, it revealed that it depicted the confluence of the Rancocas “River or Creek” and the Delaware River.
It, in fact, depicted properties “adjoining the town of Progress” (now Riverside, NJ) based on a survey of the area made by Benjamin H. Lippincott, on October 6th, 1853. Because the document did not conform with “Riverton only” accessions policy developed by the Archives Committee, and approved by the HSR board, it was presented, to and was gratefully received by Riverside Historical Society president, Alice Smith, at their archives and museum on February 10th. That society intends to have it restored and prominently displayed.
Ed. note: We hope to get a better image than this cellphone snapshot.)
#3 A “new” photo of RFL (Appeared previously in GN #186, May 2021)
Former RPS Librarian Mrs. Pat Solin actually relished the job of delving into the Library’s catacombs to inventory items. So it was with a certain glee that she sent us a hi-resolution scan of an undated and uncaptioned photo that she found. (See the original at left; photo-edited at right)
While a group email among Board Members awaited a consensus about its origin and date this Editor was motivated to post it along with a number of other vintage and modern views of our favorite library. (See them all here.)
#4 Riverton Laundry 1944 Calendar Keith Betten explains:
Pat Solin has completed a masterful organization of the extensive files of the Historical Society of Riverton, ranging over the course of more than fifty years since its founding, and I continue to organize our “Images of Riverton” collection, which includes vintage and contemporary photographs, slides, video and digital formats of people, places, and events.
In early February, I happened upon a relic from a Riverton business, probably issued in the 1940s. During that time, the Riverton Laundry, a fairly extensive operation located in East Riverton, seems to have produced what has to be termed “rather risqué” calendars for selected customers and maybe for the boys overseas.
The calendar page is gone, but the image, in vivid color, was saved. Typical of the (pardon the expression) “girlie calendars” popular at the time, it will become a part of the HSR’s “Private Riverton Businesses” archival collection.
Ed. note: Keith says “…probably issued in the 1940s” because coincidentally, HSR member Jerry Mooney brought to our attention a 1943 pinup calendar of his that also advertises the Riverton Laundry.
Here are some Riverton Laundry ads from The New Era.
Thanks to our ability to search through 50+ years of our newsletters, I found this acknowledgment on page 4 of GN #125 Jan 2007.
“Trish and Geno Mori recently donated a calendar from the Riverton Laundry. The date is unknown as the calendar part has been removed, but the top portion of the calendar has a lovely nude female figure on it.”
Mystery solved!
Should you find any Riverton-related items during your spring cleaning, please consider donating them to the Society. I am weary of hearing someone say, “Oh, I had one of those. Threw it out.” Some of our best finds have been rescued from the trash.
