Success is sweet for RLPS Architects with assist from HSR

Santa Bell Beach

One of the more out of the ordinary requests we have received for help came from Jeffrey J. Kirchner, AIA, of RLPS Architects in Lancaster, PA in November who wanted some old postcard images of the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City so that his firm could build a gingerbread model of it for its annual holiday gingerbread display. Here’s a better late than never update on the progress of that group effort.

After Mr. Kirchner explained his project I sent him high-res images of at least four different Ocean City beachfront hotels. He sent me these photos of the completed project on Jan. 5 with the explanation that the “background buildings are “very loose” interpretations of the Flanders and the Bellvue.”

Santa Bell Beach is complete with a boardwalk, carousel, ferris wheel, souvenir store, first-aid station, eateries, and shops, and is populated by snowpeople. There are lifeguards, volleyball players, vendors, sunbathers, boardwalkers, and one guy has a metal detector.

There’s probably way more to the story of why this company has done these elaborate panoramic scenes for the last 20 years, so I invite comments of participants or visitors to the displays.

Sorry that it took so long to follow-up on that development. In fairness, Jeff did invite me to Lancaster to see the display, but I was content to have helped from a distance.

Please let us know if there is ever anything about history with which we can help you. – John McCormick, Gaslight News editor

Happy New Year…almost

So I’m a bit behind the times.

There’s something about the end of a year and the start of another that gets us in a reflective mood.

When I get my hair cut, the topic of “What’s new with the Historical Society?” usually accounts for at least a portion of the conversation during bi-monthly visits to my favorite tonsorial artist.   Jeff, who cuts my hair, can trace his family tree back several generations and track their moves from Palmyra, to Riverton, and finally to Riverside.

Jack Ford and Friends: Jack Laverty, Dick Laverty, Tom Laffey, Joe Gropp, Ron Meyers

He showed me this photo of his father and some friends taken many years ago on Cinnaminson Street in Riverton.  An arrow on the photo and caption on the back identifies Jack, Jeff’s dad, but with both of Jeff’s parents now passed away, which of the others is which is unclear. I’m taking suggestions since Jeff is expecting that someone may know of his dad’s childhood chums.

Perhaps while kids are still off from school and as friends and family gather over this holiday break, conversations may drift to stories of long ago when the kids were little and parents and grandparents were young. Younger ones inevitably inquire about what life was like when you were their age.

You might want to try a virtual family visit to our recent  Museum for a Day to show youngsters about earlier times in Riverton  and to help the adults with some visual aids to accompany their “Good Ol’ Days” soliloquies.

Mrs. Mary Yearly Flanagan again shares here some of her grandfather’s photos which not only chronicle the progress of the Yearly Clan, but also help illustrate some aspects of everyday life in early 20th century Riverton.

 

Consider recording some of those moments with that new camera, smartphone, iPhone, iPad, a Fisher-Price camera, anything really, but capture them while you can because you sure can’t go back and get them later. You’ll look back on them years from now and wonder where all the time went. I can’t be the only senior for whom it seems that time has actually accelerated exponentially with each passing decade.

This website has plenty of images, text, and even some video clips which might help show the current generation how former generations lived, worked, played, and helped make Riverton the town that they have today.  Photos from a previous Joseph Yearly Photo Gallery, your own family album, other vintage images, or a screening of Glimpses of Palmyra and Riverton in the 1930s or The Romance of Riverton, will also serve the purpose to  illustrate the times of earlier generations.

The result of such an epic Riverton Retrospective may just leave everyone thinking, “You know what? These are the good old days.”

Mark them well, as we warp-speed into 2012. Please pause and comment on your own good old days, whenever they may be.  – John McCormick, Gaslight News editor

 

There’s one more present under the tree – The Positive Press is now online

another charming vintage postcard from Moore's Postcard Museum at postcardmuseum.wordpress.com/

I hope that Santa treated all of you boys and girls of all ages well this year, as he did those of us at our house.

There is one item left under the tree that you may find yourself enjoying throughout the New Year, particularly if you are a former resident of the Riverton-Palmyra-Riverside area and you care to keep tabs on goings on in your old hometown. Just in time for 2012, The Positive Press, a free community newspaper published in Riverside, has recently become available online.

The Positive Press masthead is its mission statement: Positive hometown news delivered free

True to the newspaper’s commendable title and masthead declaration, “HOMETOWN NEWS DELIVERED FREE TO EVERY HOME IN THE TRIPLE TOWNS,” publisher/editor Regina M. Collingsgru dispatches neighborhood news for Riverside, Delanco, Delran, Palmyra, Riverton, and Cinnaminson with a decidedly upbeat tone. Well… that’s five towns. Even better.

This month’s 40 page ad-supported December 2011 issue is fairly typical of the enjoyable monthly publication whose objective is to print only positive news and stories. Inside, readers will find community news, human interest stories, articles by several historical societies, news of interest to veterans, plus school, church, and senior news, and a community calendar of upcoming events.

Especially noteworthy features include the eighth monthly serial installment of Joseph P. O’Donnell’s “The Shoe Leather Express,” the inspiring story of survival and valor of World War Two prisoners of war, and “Back in Time,” Will Valentino’s popular nostalgic column which looks back fondly at Palmyra’s yesteryear.

The online edition further includes more information and photos that didn’t make the paper due to timing or space limitations. A cool value-added benefit for advertisers is the extra online exposure to potential customers that includes a link back to the company’s website.

Please check out The Positive Press and tell your friends “across the miles” who will no doubt thank you for its upbeat messages and reporting of events guaranteed to counteract the gloom and depression of the 6 o’clock news.  Publisher Regina M. Collingsgru welcomes reader input (as we do as well, here at the Historical Society of Riverton), and the miracle of the Computer Age makes it possible for contributors to send information, comments, stories, and news from almost anywhere.  – John McCormick, Gaslight News editor

P.S. I recently blogged at length about the our December 3rd Museum for a Day, but HSR President Gerald Weaber also posted a story about our one-day show at the New Leaf from his perspective along with 40 image photo gallery on the Programs & Events page here.

 

 

Riverton Museum for a Day on the Candlelight House Tour 2011

graphic credit: Bernard & Jean Markovitz

One Society member commented that the homes on the December 3rd Candlelight House Tour December were “…historic and all quite beautiful.”  This extraordinary biennial event invites the public inside some of the most distinctive homes and buildings in historic Riverton to raise funds for the Riverton Free Library.  Hundreds of admirers of 19th century architecture came from throughout the greater Philadelphia and South Jersey area to view the historic buildings all beautifully decorated for the holidays which included five private homes plus the Porch Club, Christ Churchand The New Leaf Tea Room and Gift Shoppe.

Click here for the PDF file of the Official 2011 Candlelight House Tour Brochure.

Curator Mrs. Cheryl Smekal welcomed scores of visitors to our limited-engagement museum.

Mrs. Phyllis Rodgers, proprietor of The New Leaf,  generously offered space to the Historical Society of Riverton (HSR) to host its popular Museum for a Day exhibition,  a traveling display of local Riverton artifacts, photographs and ephemera from its archives.  

The showing offered a special opportunity for its exhibit curator, Mrs. Cheryl Smekal, to display women’s period clothing and furnishings as well as rare objects belonging to prominent Riverton families. Mrs. Smekal organized the event with assistance and guidance from Society Board members Mrs. Pat Brunker, Mrs. Nancy Hall, Mrs. Phyllis Rodgers and Mr. John McCormick.

Can you guess the name or the use of these household items which might have been found in homes of the early 1900s?

A table covered with 16 household objects common to the earlier 1900s which beckoned to onlookers, “Can You Guess…?” sometimes created traffic gridlock as museum visitors seriously debated the various uses to which some of the more puzzling objects might be put.

 

John McCormick, Gaslight News editor, blogger, collector of Riverton objects and lore hopes to interest more people in contributing information and images to the Society.

John McCormick was on hand to answer questions from collectors and the public about memorabilia and collectible ephemera. John, a retired educator and local historian, offered  reproductions from his vast collection of local historic images with street views from local Burlington County towns. 

 

A display includes photos and artifacts from various business enterprises and a vertical wall banner which outlines the history of the New Leaf building.

John devoted a section of the show of artifacts to The New Leaf at 606 Main Street since that address has played a number of roles in Riverton’s business section since it first was the location of Ezra Perkins’ butcher shop about 1900.

You can view a PDF file of that banner that outlines the history of 606-608 Main Street here.

Always of special interest to collectors are the vintage post card reproductions photo-restored by John McCormick featuring Dreer’s Nursery, New Jersey shore resort towns like Long Beach Island, Ocean City, Stone Harbor, and other locales like Burlington, Trenton, Moorestown, Mount Holly, Palmyra, and Riverside.

One collector visiting the Society’s Museum for a Day was delighted to see that John had added considerably to what he had available at Victorian Day 2007, and he pulled up a chair and devoted over two hours to browsing the vintage postcard reproductions.

Pat Lynch and Nancy Hall peruse the gifts available for the history enthusiast – Ruff Copy, Historic Riverton, History of Riverton Fire Co., Romance of Riverton, back issues of Gaslight News, History of Palmyra, repro maps and photos.

The Society appreciates Mr. McCormick’s generosity in sharing his collection on the HSR web site and blog for people of all ages to enjoy.

While an adult visitor may recall and perhaps even reminisce with the website’s content, a child seeing those same images and stories may see for the first time how life in his or her hometown was so different a hundred or more years ago.

We commend The Friends of the Riverton Free Library for their successful house tour program which reminds us that our magnificent, historic homes in Riverton can be restored to their past splendor rather than sold as apartment conversions.

The Candlelight House Tour significantly contributes to the rediscovery of Riverton by visitors and homeowners as a special place to live. The following photo gallery of our Road Show Museum will suffice until the HSR can secure a permanent solution to display the wonderful collection to which so many Rivertonians have contributed over the years. 

– Gerald Weaber, President Historical Society of Riverton

 

Let’s do this more often.

HSR Board Members Mrs. Cheryl Smekal (left) and Mrs. Nancy Hall (right) make displays ready for our Museum-for-a-Day

A longer entry follows than most, but it’s been awhile and I have some catching up to do.

A week ago Saturday (Dec. 3) evening from 4-9 p.m. the Historical Society set up shop at the New Leaf for a one day only exhibition of seldom seen treasures from its collections and the consensus among visitors was, “You should do this more often.” People stopping by during their Library sponsored six-stop Candlelight House Tour examined the various displays and often left us with as much information as they took away.

Daniel Goffredo as scanned and restored
I set up my laptop to run the Riverton Veterans Honor Roll Album which reminded our hostess, Mrs. Phyllis Rodgers to loan me a copy of her father’s service photo.

One woman who came through our Museum-for-a-Day found some vintage postcard reproductions that evoked a memory for her, and she paused by my laptop to look at the veterans’ photos, some of whom she knew.

McDermott Bros L-R – Bill, Paul Carl
The conversation drifted to Irish Row when we came to the photos of the McDermott brothers. (I only recently obtained these photos of Carl and his two late brothers when he answered our website appeal asking for veterans’ photos)

I have since updated the Riverton Veterans  Honor Roll Album to include the names added this past Veterans Day and scanned in several more photos of vets. If you can help by adding a photo or clipping to go with any name on the Memorial please contact me so that we can add it to the online album. Regular visitors will recall that eligibility for inclusion on the Honor Roll now reads:

Any present or former resident of the Borough of Riverton, living or deceased, who served on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States of America, during a time of war, is eligible to have their name placed on the memorial.

Charles Miller Biddle Residence, 207 Bank Ave., Riverton, NJ courtesy brynmawr.edu
Charles Miller Biddle Residence, 207 Bank Ave., Riverton, NJ courtesy brynmawr.edu

She casually mentioned that her mother had been a house maid for the Biddle household and that she had lived on Cinnaminson Street.

I showed her some of Joseph Yearly’s photos of Riverton’s own Irish Row stored on my computer and she became very animated, adding a running commentary. She pointed out people and places she knew in Mr. Yearly’s photos. I will have to get them posted after the New Year. We may hear some more from a Riverton Irish maid’s perspective in an upcoming post when the woman locates some of her late mother’s possessions.

Ezra Lippincott wedding party, Niagara Falls 1862

HSR Board Member Mrs. Nancy Hall is a granddaughter to Ezra Lippincott, one of Riverton’s founders. She brought a treasured family photo of granddad’s wedding party at Niagara Falls in 1892 to display.

Later at home, I scanned it and did some restoration on it, but I was a nervous wreck working on a glass photograph. The result is at left. Where are all the tourists and souvenir stands?

display of local antique bottles

Mr. Bill Hall, Nancy’s husband, related a story about his days selling Millside Farms milk. It seems that the creamtop bottles with many of us are familiar were not just a novelty but also served as a salesman’s pitch in the days before homogenized milk.

After witnessing Bill beat up some fresh real whipped cream from the few tablespoons of high-octane milkfat which he had poured of from the top of that cleverly designed bottle, the lady of the house was often convinced to try his product.

former location of Cole Dairy raw milk depot at 501 Main, three Cole bottles in foreground

The milk bottle display must have prompted Mrs. Helen Mack to ask about buying a copy of the remarkable interview we did with Mr. Francis Cole last year about his experiences as a young man working in his family’s raw milk business at 5th and Main right in Riverton during the 1930s.

I had none for sale, but she did motivate me to post the video which Mr. Cole so graciously recorded with us in August 2010, partly because it so perfectly illustrates why the oral histories of Riverton’s people are part of what makes Riverton’s history.

Francis “Franny” Cole August 2010

You can see the November 2010 Gaslight_News article about the interview, but until now I had difficulty posting the huge video file. So here it is in three parts, about 30 minutes total.  Mr. Francis Cole Remembers Cole Dairy Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. If you would like to leave a comment about Franny’s interview, I’ll be sure that he gets to see it.

Another woman visitor has her ancestor’s Civil War diaries and wants to know if the Society is interested and would we take care of them? WOULD WE? I pointed her toward Gerald and am hopeful that we can connect with her again.

Since the nation is observing the  Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, the HSR has made it a goal to try to document Riverton’s role in that conflict. Can any family historians out there with Riverton roots help with supplying individuals’ names, anecdotes, documents, etc. which might help us reconstruct what must have been varied responses of citizens? We are interested in Civil War veterans, of course, but also want to research the actions of women, Quakers, and how various groups and the business community contributed to the war effort.

One man spent at least two hours carefully examining the vintage postcard reproduction prints that we brought in to sell. Like a kid in a candy store, he pored over nearly every image category in the boxes until he settled on a handful of pictures to buy. During lulls in the museum traffic I went over and talked with him about his selections. He had a story about every picture.

What is it about these old photos and artifacts which induces us to reminisce and wax nostalgic? The times to which we look back may not be more comfortable or safer than now, but being in the past, at least they are known.  The recollections that I saw seemed more wistful and pleasurable and not melancholy, even though the holiday season can also a time for reflection and remembering those whom we miss.

At one point I heard Bryan Rodgers say emphatically, “I want it back,” as he gestured toward what was in his hand.

I looked at him puzzled since he obviously already had it, but he went on to explain.

“I want back what is in the picture – the town’s train station.”

Riverton, NJ PRR Station late1930s
Now I get it. Yeah, I know. Wouldn’t that have made a great permanent museum.  I do get jealous when I see that the Riverside and Moorestown stations have survived. Bryan and Gerald and I all agreed that it would be cool for Riverton to have an old train depot like those towns, and we wondered what happened to it.

Later, at home I consulted Betty, as I always do on such matters, and opened my file of Gaslight Newsback issues. The waaay back issues.

There on page 3 of the May 1980 issue was another one of Betty Hahle’s long-running and informative”Yesterday” columns. The answer is there if you care to look.

Business District of Palmyra, N.J., Broadway Theater marquee at left

In it, our first and only official Riverton Town Historian, the late Betty B. Hahle, also describes the Broadway Theater in Palmyra since the Society had recently shown the Romance of Riverton film to a capacity crowd at the Porch Club.

There are many more pearls of wisdom and historic information hidden away in those back issues. If there is interest among readers we can post more issues, perhaps scanned with some word recognition software so that readers can search the contents. What do you think?

The problems and dilemmas of historic preservation are not confined to Riverton, nor were they concluded decades ago. One person’s redevelopment and renewal is another’s demolition of culture and tradition; one’s preservation is another’s impeding modernization and dwelling on the past. It’s finding a balance which can prove elusive, and decisions once made may be regretted later. Staying informed about the history of one’s community is a step in the right direction.

Say, I really do wish we could do this more often.  – John McCormick, Gaslight News editor

P.S. I’ll have many more photos of our Museum-for-a-Day displays posted shortly under the Programs & Events section.  As always, leave a comment, a question, or correct an error that you find.

 

Who will you look up in this 1928-1929 Riverton-Palmyra phone book?

vintage Bell telephone ad from May 1939  Popular Science  Thanks to http://blog.modernmechanix.com
Riverton-Palmyra phone book cover, c 1928-1929

I promised two weeks ago to post a scan of Carl McDermott’s c.1928-1929 Riverton-Palmyra telephone book, but I knew that I’d better do my homework first. When I speak to Carl, it reminds me of that Kevin Bacon game—Six Degrees of Separation— because, like so many Rivertonians, he can probably be connected to someone you know in just a few steps, or degrees.

Carl’s mother gave birth to him at 721 Cinnaminson Street—on Riverton’s own Irish Row—90 years ago this past October. His mother, Mary McDermott, worked for the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company as one of Riverton’s switchboard operators for 35 years.

Mary McDermott, 2nd from left, 1926

Here are Mrs. McDermott and some co-workers as they appeared in the 1926 film, The Romance of Riverton, which Town Historian Betty B. Hahle helped preserve some years ago. Click here to view a 33 second clip from the 43 minute video that was made from the rescued film.  The following description of that scene appears in the booklet that accompanies the DVD:

The Price building, on Broad between Church Lane and Main on Broad, was erected in 1891, on the former site of the Episcopal Church and churchyard. Many businesses started here. The Telephone Exchange moved to the 2nd floor soon after the turn of the century, and soon occupied both the 2nd and 3rd floors. Four young ladies shown near Church Lane are: Mary Bell, Mary McDermott (who identified both groups), ( ? ) Hanson, and Betty Steinbach. The telephone operators are: Hazel Woolford, Ethel Hanson, Mrs. Radcliffe (supervisor), Ruth Hanson, Oc1ey Ebert, and Frances Reidenbaker.

As a lad during the late 1920s, Carl spent several evenings at his mother’s side one summer on the third floor of the Price Building, now the upper level of Zena’s dining rooms at Broad and Main. Working evenings alone, she had been alarmed by someone trying the locked door at the back door to the fire escape, so Carl and his two brothers took turns at guard duty and slept on a cot.

vintage Bell telephone ad from Oct. 1927 Popular Science  Thanks to http://blog.modernmechanix.com
vintage Bell Telephone ad from Feb. 1929 National Geographic Thanks to http://blog.modernmechanix.com

While safeguarding his mom from midnight prowlers, young Carl picked up some on-the-job operator training. She showed him how she listened through her headset for the caller’s request for a number, and then manually matched a cord to a jack in order to connect the parties. She also recorded times for some calls on yellow slips of paper.

 

This story all unfolded because I remarked to Carl about the short phone numbers of only 2-4 digits and I asked how the caller dialed the number.

Here’s the listing for Schwering’s Hardware Store, an establishment which has served the region since 1922.

listing for Schwering’s Hardware in Palmyra, NJ

“Dial! They didn’t dial,” Carl explained. The caller rang for the operator and they told her the number of whom they were calling. I won’t even try to explain a party-line and a world without call-waiting, voice-mail, and texting to the smart-phone generation.

For others like me who may need a refresher on the state of communication technology of the late 1920s/1930s I included these great old telephone print ads from periodicals of the day, courtesy of modernmechanix.com.

Click here to download the Riverton-Palmyra phone book , c. 1928-1929. Two pages/one sheet on Palmyra are missing. Thanks so much to Carl for letting me borrow his phone book so that it could become part of our website. (revised 12/5/11 some viewers reported difficulty with original link)

Now, who will you look up in the pages of this old phone book? – John McCormick, Gaslight News editor

 

Thankful for a postcard Grand Slam and much more

Riverton - Broad & Main - 1905
An antique automobile, a steam locomotive, a railroad station, AND a trolley – all in one postcard! I call that a GRAND SLAM and the HSR is fortunate indeed to have this scan of a 1905 real photo postcard of Broad & Main Streets in Riverton courtesy of collector Mr. Nick Mortgu.

Nick has contributed scans of dozens of his vintage postcards to our online archive of historic Riverton images, but this one is truly extraordinary and rare because it has three modes of transport plus the train station in the same frame.

Times may have changed, but the roofline of the building that is today Zena’s is unmistakable to anyone familiar with Riverton. In 1905, the building served as the offices of the Public Service Corporation of NJ which supplied the gas to the borough.

1905 Sanborn Insurance map detail

This detail of a 1905 Sanborn Insurance Map shows the placement of the station on Broad near Main.

1905 postcard message

Any guesses on what those  few missing words of the message say?

 

December 5, 1905   My Dear Nancy,  We are still alive. Why don’t you answer my letters. You must excuse me for not writing but this is… Good by Mildred.  This is the Riverton station.

 

I have straightened, cropped, and adjusted levels on a slice of the postcard image, but that is about the limit of my restoration ability on this image. Click on it to enlarge it and step into a moment frozen in time – 1905.

Riverton Grand Slam slice
I’d love to see those tiny cracks Photoshopped out so if a reader has the skills, please contact me.

We thank Mr. Mortgu and all of the contributors of images and comments for helping to make this website grow in content. We also thank the donors who have given the HSR their treasured historic items so that our archives may become a specialized repository for preserving Riverton history.

We are grateful too, for members who continue to support our mission to create an awareness of our heritage, to discover, restore, and preserve local objects and landmarks, and to continue to expand our knowledge of the history of the area.

If you can help this endeavor by becoming a member of the Historical Society of Riverton, by contributing content to this website, or by donating items to the organization, please contact us.

courtesy of Moore's Postcard Museum

Since the theme for this post seems to be me being REALLY thankful, here’s a holiday wish from Lora over at Moore’s Postcard Museum who recently expanded our inventory with many great vintage Atlantic City and Ocean City postcard scenes.

Happy Thanksgiving!  – John McCormick, Gaslight News editor

Added 12/18/2011 – Shortly after I published the above post, professional historian and HSR member Paul W. Schopp added a comment which greatly amplifies the information that I wrote, and I have added it below because comments often get missed. Every blog post, and often some of the media, have a provision to for the reader to leave a comment photos.  Paul’s comment follows:

While the 1905 Sanborn does, indeed, depict the building that today houses Zena’s as Public Service, that corporation had only just assumed control of the office there. On 21 September 1899, the River Shore Gas Company incorporated with an address of Broad and Main streets, Riverton. The new utility company has constructed the one-story building to be its office and retail store for gas fixtures and appliances. Initial capitalization consisted of $75,000, but less than a year later, the stock had increased to $140,000 for construction purposes. Another increase occurred in April 1901 and the stock now totaled $168,000. In February 1903, the conglomerate known as the South Jersey Gas, Electric and Traction Company—forerunner of Public Service—gained control of River Shore. Public Service Corporation then consummated a lease of the South Jersey Gas, Electric and Traction Company on 2 May 1904. Hence, the reason why the 1905 Sanborn lists the building as the property of Public Service.

 

 

Trains, Boats, Planes, and Fire Engines photographed by Jos. F. Yearly

Joseph F. Yearly and grandson Joseph B. - Little Joe - with RYC on right July 20, 1940

The rare images posted of the J.T Evans Coal & Lumber Building from Joseph F. Yearly’s picture album were only a part of the exceptional photographs which chronicled milestones of the Yearly Clan through the first half of the 20th century.

A fortunate by-product of that family photographic record is that it also documents how the scenery changed over time for the people in those photos, and it helps us imagine—or possibly recall–the Riverton of long ago.

Don’t think that family photos are of no interest to anyone else. Old photos, diaries, journals, scrapbooks, ledgers, even common advertising materials, bills and receipts, postcards,newspapers, and other such ephemera items can be invaluable clues to the historian when trying to understand the characteristics of a place such as Riverton.

If you care to respond to any photo, add information, or ask a question, please leave a comment. – John McCormick, Gaslight News editor

Rev. 12/18/2011 – You have to be pretty sharp to find factual errors in old newspaper accounts, but professional historian and part-time HSR fact checker Paul W. Schopp is just that good. After I published the above text and images, Paul wrote to say that the Yearly photos are “a great collection images” and then he very generously added a good deal of factual information about several of them which may enrich your understanding and enjoyment. He pointed out a couple of errors: hence, this minor revision. To see Paul’s comment, just mouse-click on those tiny letters at the bottom of this post where it says “Comments.” JMc

Explore these hi-res photos of a procession at Broad & Garfield

J.T. Evans truck - detail from undated Broad and Garfield photo

I always learn something new about Riverton every time I speak to Carl McDermott. An expatriate of Cinnaminson Street, Riverton’s own Irish Row (Mar. 2010 GN ), Carl celebrated in October his 90th birthday at Riverton Country Club with 123 friends and relatives.

He and his wife Doris now live in Palmyra, and from time to time he leaves a comment on something that he finds here. On the post about the construction of Riverton’s War Memorial he pointed out that he had installed the electric for its illumination. Shortly afterwards he provided me with photos of himself and his two brothers, now passed, for display in our Veterans Photo Album. It was Carl who gave me the idea to interview his friend Franny Cole on the subject of Cole Dairy ( Feb. 2011 GN )which once operated at Fifth and Main Streets.

On a recent day the topic of our conversation was the pictures of the J.T. Evans Coal & Lumber Building from Joseph F. Yearly’s photo album that he was looking at on this website. He invited me to see a couple of photos and an old Riverton telephone book in which he thought I would be interested. Would I?

The photos are apparently of a funeral for a political or military figure which took place in Palmyra, date unknown. Writing on the back of one (not Carl’s) indicates that Palmyra mayor George W. Wimer is walking beside the band wearing a bow-tie and hat, and that the location is Broad and Garfield Streets.

Broad & Garfield - - Post # 136 - Mayor George Wimer bottom right with bow-tie and hat

Ray Fichter, the last man in the band on the right, married Marg McDermott, which is the reason that someone gave the photo to Carl.  As with other artifacts of uncertain provenance which have appeared here, we could use a little help from our readers on this one.

A George N. Wimer served as Palmyra’s mayor 1928-1931, so the “W” must be an error.  Inspecting more closely, I discovered a J.T. Evans delivery truck which I have also posted with the other Evans images sent in by Mary Flanagan.

Once I confessed to my friend Harlan, a fellow postcard collector, of losing myself in these old scenes. He said that he was finally glad to know that he wasn’t the only one.

Broad and Garfield

I post these two high-resolution scans made from the original 8x10s so that any others with such an inclination may do so. If you have an observation to share, please leave a comment. Kindly contact us if you have anything that you wish to give to our archives or loan for documenting and scanning.

I’ll save the scans of the Riverton-Palmyra phone book, c.1928-1929, for a future post and there are also more photos from the Joseph F. Yearly photo album in store. Be sure to come back again. – John McCormick, Gaslight News editor

Rev.11/17 My friend Will Valentino of the Palmyra Historical and Cultural Society writes: “I wish I had some info on the funeral.  William Morgan died in 1929 and it was a pretty big deal. He was considered the emblematic Father of Palmyra at that time and Wimer was at the funeral .” You can read his award-winning local history column, “Back in Time” now published in the monthly community newspaper, The Positive Press. – JMc

Thank you to Moore’s Postcard Museum for over 90 additions to HSR’s online postcard album

Flanders Hotel - Ocean City, NJ
If a search for vintage postcards brought you to this website, then you will enjoy the blogger that I found, quite by a happy accident, while trying to help an architect in Lancaster, PA with his request for an image of the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City so that he could use it as a model for his firm’s annual holiday gingerbread display.

This is the short story of how a casual decision to aid the designers at Reese, Lower, Patrick, & Scott Ltd. in their creative Christmas confection resulted in a windfall of classic shore images for the HSR, most from the early 20th century–the “Golden Age of Postcards.”

I found a marvelous website called Moore’s Postcard Museum where I found two scans of the Flanders Hotel and emailed them to the architects to help them in their design project.

While I was there I browsed through the postcard categories which includes Halloween and holiday cards, artist signed Clapsaddle, Dwig, and Twelvetrees, Chicago World’s Fair,  and zodiac/months of the year cards. This blogger explains on the “about” page that the collection started with a shoebox of vintage postcards inherited from her grandmother.

I left a complimentary note in a “enter your comment” box and asked if I could display some of the images of shore points on our website.

The blogger promptly sent me an email giving permission and then sent several more emails with the following attached files. Enjoy a trip back to old Atlantic City and Ocean City via this bonanza of vintage images courtesy of Moore’s Postcard Museum. Visit the site directly to read the author’s knowledgeable bits that accompany each card. I already bookmarked the site as a favorite. The pictures will also be placed on the images pages under Atlantic City and Ocean City so you can easily find them on a return visit.

Readers, if you have one image, one story, or a hundred we would love to hear from you and add your voice to this burgeoning online archive. If I hear back from RLP&S about how that gingerbread Flanders Hotel turns out, I’ll let you know.  – John McCormick