Dear Readers: Mrs. Susan Dechnik, HSR Board member and one of my former teaching partners at RPS, writes today’s entry to accompany all of the great photos that she took at our recent meeting. – JMcCormick
lady’s chatelaine style engagement card holder
Pres. Gerald Weaber introduces the presenters
Mr. Cristiano displays a pipe and two purses
Co-presenter Greg Cristiano sports a handsome bearskin coat and a former undertaker’s hat
a complete vintage bathing outfit
Ms. Butler models a hat fashioned from an entire pheasant
Ms. Kate Butler of Decotique.com
man’s bowler hat
Mrs. Elsie Waters brought her grandmother’s mesh purse
pipe and case
“bear” purse with compact could be attached to a belt
vintage button shoes
What can a purse tell about history or a hat about the man who wore it? Ms. Kate Butler of Decotique.com and Mr. Greg Cristiano, proprietor of Teardrop Memories.com, brought their eclectic assortment of heirlooms and collectibles to the March HSR meeting to show us. They shared their extensive knowledge of antique apparel in the informative program, “Ladies and Gentlemen’s Accessories of the Past Victorian, Edwardian, and Depression Eras.”
Ms. Butler’s collection included antique purses, millinery, footwear, and vanity collectibles. From handbags to hats and everything in between, including a Victorian-era bathing costume, Kate served up a richly illustrated account of how familiar objects changed through the centuries.
Greg Cristiano, Ms. Butler’s collaborator for the male portion of the fashion discussion, spoke authoritatively about mourning attire, mourning mementos, and men’s clothing items and accessories. Among other things, he brought a 19th century undertaker’s hat, a full-length black bearskin coat, and several unusual decorative mourning items constructed from the hair of the deceased loved one.
In the interactive part of the program the pair invited audience members to have vintage fashion items which they had brought evaluated. Often, the article came with a story connecting it to the owner’s relative, to which the presenters then added expert knowledge about the function and history of the piece. The lecture proved to be a fun and engaging way to relate to history and show how changing fashions and personal items can tell a fascinating story. Click here to download a video clip from the presentation. (It is less than two minutes, but it is a 102MB file.) – Mrs. Susan Dechnik, HSR Board Member
Dear Readers: Most of the images that you have seen posted here are ones which I scanned from collections belonging to other collectors – serious collectors – of vintage real photos and postcards. It is through their generosity which has made this online exposition of digital images and information possible.
Riverside Souvenir Folder
However, the Historical Society is not without its own resources, so I descended into the HSR archives last week and picked out some items which haven’t seen the light of day since they were cataloged and placed into our file cabinets which are stored in a warehouse somewhere in Area 51.
Here is the first installment in a new web feature called “From the HSR Archives.”
The file folder marked 82.03.31 contained this item that I had not seen before – at least, not all in one piece. In order to give you a really good look at it, go the the Riverside Images Page and find five very large separate images in with the other Riverside pictures.
Here is the real story, however. The documentation which lists the manuscripts and artifacts in our modest archive shows the following notation, “November 29, 1982 – Received from Mrs. Grace Coles Collection of items of local history belonging to Mrs. Ruth Schmierer.” The accession list starts with 83.3.1 and ends three typewritten pages later with 83.3.36 which means that Mrs. Coles donated 36 separate items to the Society.
This Riverside Souvenir Folder may have been donated to the Society 29 years ago, but to me, it’s like I just opened it for the first time. I suspect that may be the case for at least some readers of this column. For my part, I must express a heartfelt “thank you” to the donor.
Just a cursory perusal of this HSR Accession List tells me that many incredibly generous and civic-minded people have contributed to our real Collection (as opposed to my virtual digital collection) over the years. It is my privilege to bring their legacy to an audience via the Internet, even as we hope for a permanent home in which to house and display our Collection. These materials serve as wonderful nostalgic reminders as well as being irreplaceable primary source references for scholars.
Please help us in our mission to discover, restore, and preserve local objects and landmarks, and to continue to expand our history of the area by joining the Historical Society of Riverton. And, if you are able to contribute one real item or a trunkful, just a scan or a real photograph piece of ephemera, a comment or a memoir, please know that you are adding more to our community’s understanding of Riverton history and enhancing our ability to tell it, just as so many other greathearted people who have preceded you.
Come back again to explore more treasures from the HSR archives with me. – John McCormick, Gaslight News Editor
PS. Our HSR Publicity Chairperson Mrs. Susan Dechnik took a number of photos and wrote a short summary for the presentation given at our March 23, 2011 HSR meeting. You can find her synopsis of “Ladies’ & Gentlemen’s Accessories of the Past Victorian, Edwardian, and Depression Eras” along with a dozen captioned photos and a video clip on the Programs and Events page.
Ask someone what things in town they think symbolize Riverton, and somewhere in that top ten list will probably be the Riverton Yacht Club and the old-time gas streetlamps. Here are both in the same photo, taken on a sunny August day in 2007.
There is just no place else which has this picture postcard look.
We here in Riverton may be “used to” the gaslamps illuminating our streets. To an outside visitor, though, it must seem as if a Hollywood set dresser has placed these nostalgic fixtures throughout this charming town in order to evoke an elegant Victorian mood.
Whereas most American cities had gaslit streets in the early 20th century, only a handful have retained the type of old-fashioned gas streetlights which have become such an integral part of many people’s memories of Riverton.
It is hard to imagine Riverton without its cherished gaslamps. Yet, there was a time during the late 1970s when it looked like Riverton’s gas streetlamps would be snuffed out for good.
Welsbach lapel pin
In November 2007, Mr. Jeff Cole, a HSR member and Riverton resident, presented a comprehensive presentation on the Welsbach Street Lighting Company which manufactured the original lamps. In it, he traced the history and development of the Welsbach Company, explained the technology of the incandescent gas mantle, told of the battle against the state Board of Public Utilities to keep the lamps, and showed some his collection of Welsbach publications and collectibles.
Jeff is uniquely qualified to assemble such a project since he is the grandson of Mr. Robinet Cole, a Riverton resident who worked at Welsbach for a remarkable 68 years. In a true Horatio Alger story if there ever was one, the elder Mr. Cole worked his way up from being a 15 year-old office boy to the president of the company.
In case you have wondered about those gaslamps, or missed that Historical Society meeting almost four years ago, here is that same PowerPoint and the notes that explain the slides. Click here to download the 43.4 MB PowerPoint slide show and click here to download the PDF file of explanatory speaker’s notes. In addition, several rare publications used by Jeff in the preparation of the project can be seen in greater detail by clicking on the following links:
A handsome example of an original gaslamp post refinished by homeowner, Mr. Harry Richman
As always, we welcome your comments, additions, or corrections.
John McCormick, Gaslight News Editor
The schooner Lucy Evelyn, built 1917, beached at Beach Haven, NJ (1948-1972) where it served as a unique gift shop. Destroyed by fire, 1972.PS – Despite these damp chilly days which have no business being here at the end of March, my thoughts wander to warmer temps and past summers at the shore. For me, it was LBI. I worked there several summers through high school and college at Surf City Hotel, first as busboy and then as a waiter. Look on the Images page for recent uploads of 87 Long Beach Island images, 40 Ocean City images, 10 Seaside Heights images, and 5 Avalon images. Those great linen-era postcards depict a number of things which aren’t there anymore, and most pre-date even my serving days at Surf City Hotel during the 1960s.
Welsbach torchWelsbach torch – top view
PPS – 06/13/2012. A visitor named Anthony has a torch stamped “Welsbach Street Lighting Company of America” and he left two comments about it below. Since then, he sent in two photos which we display here in the hope that someone may be able to offer more information about it.
Cinnaminson National Bank as shown in the 1909 Christmas Issue of The New EraGee, you don't look a day over seventy.
Mrs. Patricia Solin reports that years ago she found a wooden coat hanger in her first floor coat closet at 406 Main.
Clearly stamped “Cinnaminson Bank and Trust Company,” the sturdy hanger may have been a promotional give-away. Or, maybe such hangers were for the use of employees or patrons at the bank.
Dr. Alexander Marcy, Jr. as pictured in the Riverton Gun Club book
Since the hanger came with the house, Pat guesses that it may have belonged to the original owner of the house, Dr. Alexander Marcy, Jr., who was one of the bank’s organizers in 1907, and on its Board of Directors.
We can only conjecture now, as the evidence is only circumstantial, but this hanger may well be over 100 years old.
The former bank is modern office space today
Declining to list the artifact on eBay or sell it at a yard sale, Pat has generously donated it to the HSR archives.
Someday we hope to have a home in which to properly display the holdings of the Historical Society. Until then, this virtual showplace will have to suffice as our museum.
Please share your Riverton stories, big or small. You are just a phone call or Internet connection away. – John McCormick, Gaslight News Editor
If you like to look at old photos and postcards, then download the script that accompanies this PowerPoint slide show so that you can sort out the many places and players as you leaf through this huge 115 slide production, full of all kinds of historic facts and images about Riverton, NJ. First shown at the January 2008 HSR meeting, this presentation does not contain exhaustive details on any one topic. Instead, it contains a little bit about a lot of different topics related to Riverton. (This presentation spawned two shorter spinoffs,”A Short History of Riverton Public School,” which is already posted and “A History of Dreer’s Nursery,” which will be featured later on. )
Regular readers of this column will recall the earlier posting of the shorter January 2007 slide show. This one duplicates some information found in that one and introduces more that I had learned in the interim. Topics in this 2008 sequel include:
Dreer Nursery - Victoria Trickeri Lily Pond
Old New Era newspaper clippings relating events from the past
Many vintage family photos, school portraits, and Riverton postcards
A short history of the famous Dreer’s Nursery
News accounts of the Japanese beetle scourge as well as a Riverton sighting of the Jersey Devil
Reports of internationally ranked swimmers involved in meets at the Riverton Yacht Club and a 150 mile bicycle race from NYC to Riverton
Dozens of views of local historic maps, ephemera, and real photos of places
A complete small 16-page booklet about Sacred Heart Church written in 1904
Information and photos about the men of the celebrated Riverton Athletic Association and the renowned “Riverton Nines”
A description of the exclusive Riverton Gun Club and its high-stakes live pigeon shoots
Discover these things and more that you may not know about Riverton, and please consider the slide show’s ending message, “You can help preserve historic images and information.”
If you can help in this endeavor, please contact us so that we may increase the utility of this digital archive and make it available to a larger audience. We welcome your submissions for Gaslight News articles and blog postings, and invite you to support the Historical Society of Riverton by becoming a member.
Riverton Ball Club 1872 Fred Moore, veteran of 23 seasons in centerThe Phillies are playing in Clearwater now, and fan anticipation is high as the team prepares for another run at the World Series. With the re-signing of Cliff Lee, the Phillies now have in Halladay, Hamels, Oswalt, and Co. what may arguably be the one of the best starting pitching rotations ever assembled in the history of major league baseball. Years from now, a generation will look back fondly upon these as the “good ol’ days.”
Few today can remember grandparents’ tales of Riverton’s heyday of baseball during the late 19th century, but there was a time when the “Riverton Nine” was so highly regarded that Henry Chadwick, the “Father of Baseball,” recalled an 1890 game in which they played as one of the best he had ever seen. A June 4, 1895, New York Times article stated, “During the old days of baseball, perhaps no amateur club in the country was so well known as the Rivertons.”
1890 map detail showing Riverton Ball Club Grounds
The team first organized in 1865, and played in Biddle’s apple orchard. When the interests of the group grew to include the sports of cricket and tennis in 1881, they leased land from the Miller Grounds and improved it with about 250 train carloads each of Pennsylvania sod and soil.
1890 Sporting Life graphic
Baseball, particularly, flourished in those days and the players ultimately outgrew even that setting. Consequently, in 1885, they purchased 6¼ acres of the Lippincott property and moved there in April, 1887. In 1894, the more inclusive name change to the Riverton Athletic Association seemed appropriate for the band which was just then adopting the next new American craze—bicycling.
The newly invigorated association built “…one of the finest quarter-mile (bicycle) tracks in the world” with stands that seated nearly 3,000 spectators. (For more details see the September 2009 issue of Gaslight News for Pat Solin’s feature story, “The Fine Grounds of the Riverton Athletic Association”).
Riverton’s Bicycle track – undated photo from Ed Gilmore
In 1895, the club hosted the New York Times Tri-State 150-Mile Relay Bicycle which included 163 cyclists. All preparatory aspects of the event were closely followed in the pages of the New York Times for weeks preceding the event. The race started out from the offices of the Times in New York City and climaxed with the winner crossing the finish line at Riverton’s own quarter-mile track.
Riverton’s long and illustrious sports tradition includes much more, of course: the sailing competitions and regattas at the Riverton Yacht Club, founded 1865; the live-pigeon trap shooting competitions held at the famed Riverton Gun Club (1877-1906); the individual efforts of athletes in national swim meets held at the Yacht Club during the 1920s; the play of men and women golfers of the Riverton Golf Club; as well as the stunning performance of 1923 women’s AAU track phenomenon, Frances Ruppert.
Look for images representing some of these accomplishments on the Images Page. We welcome the submission of photographs, programs, printed material, schedules, team rosters, and personal anecdotes or family stories which may serve as topics for future postings. John McCormick, Gaslight News Editor
As reported in the Feb. 2011 issue of Gaslight News, announced by flyers displayed around town, and through a recent postcard reminder, the general membership meeting and program will be held at Riverton School next Wednesday.
If you enjoyed the old postcards on the Images page, you’ll see that there are lots of new, well… old, really, additions.
7 more Palmyra images added; now 75 total
1 more Riverside image added; 32 in all
new category added – Wildwood/Cape May, NJ – 25 images
new category added – Mt. Holly, NJ area – 23 images
new category added – Camden, NJ – 97 images
new category added – Burlington, NJ – 30 images
Check back again and see what’s new. – John McCormick, Gaslight News Editor
This entry is short on verbiage and long on visuals. I just uploaded four additional Palmyra images (bringing the total now to 69), several dozen more Moorestown images (to make a total of 131), and 154 Stone Harbor images.
Yeah, I know the masthead says Riverton Historical Society, but I have some friends who are serious postcard collectors who let me scan their cards, and I just can’t keep these beauties to myself. Here is a list of the many people who have so generously contributed to this digital archive.
Please consider either donating to the Society, loaning for scanning, or providing a scan or photo of your item of local historical interest to what we hope will be a valuable regional resource. Check back again, because I have tons more to display.
I started collecting images and information about Riverton’s early days to use in instructing my middle school students at Riverton School on local history. When I couldn’t buy on eBay, I borrowed from other collectors who generously loaned me items to scan.
The result was a virtual collection of hundreds of vintage images from which I reproduced prints and enlargements to raise money toward the purchase of a digital projector for my classroom. While my first goal was to help my students learn about their town’s local history, I soon learned that even many adults had not seen the images in this expanding digital compilation.
When Priscilla Taylor and Patricia Brunker approached me during Victorian Day 2006 festivities and drafted me into the Historical Society of Riverton, I mistakenly thought that one needed to live in Riverton to join. Au contraire, mon frère. There is no residency requirement. In fact, only about 60% of the addresses on the Gaslight News mailing list are for Riverton; the rest of the locations range from New Jersey to California and Maine to Florida. Rivertonians, current and former, are a far-flung lot. Hence, my wish to bring the show to the Internet. (Here’s a membership flyer, or go to the Contact page.)
screenshot of presentation title frame
Since joining the HSR, I’ve been tapped to do several presentations; some solo, some collaborating with others. I have never charged the HSR a speaker’s fee. In a classic case of “you get what you pay for,” or perhaps hoping that I’ll one day get it right, the Board continues to invite me back.
This was the first presentation that I gave to a HSR meeting in January 2007. Billed as a show of vintage postcards and photos, it played to a SRO crowd in the Riverton School Library, a feat not duplicated since. Maybe there was nothing on TV that night. For whatever reason, the turnout both surprised and gratified Bob Bednarek, the president at that time. Me, I was just nervous, as you may hear.
Topics include The New Era, Dreer’s Nursery, Vintage Postcards and Photos, and Local Maps
However, once seen by the group of people who venture out for a particular meeting, the program’s content, however worthwhile, just languishes in the hard drive of my computer. While I have always wanted to post these presentations on the Internet, the large file sizes that result from creating PowerPoints from the vintage postcards and maps, graphics, and animations which illustrate my talks have been problematic.
Computer wunderkind Mike Solin once again shows his old teacher new tricksShort story: I told Mike Solin, my former Riverton School student, now computer consultant, of my wish, and he figured out how to add that feature to the WordPress template that he continues to tweak to meet our needs.
Following is the link to download the large PowerPoint file for that first program containing images and information about historic Riverton. To be fair, it’s really more eye candy than in-depth information—the reason for the freshman course title of this blog post. I would learn at that first presentation, and on successive ones since, that when coming to address the Riverton citizenry on their history, I could expect to receive schooling in such matters myself.
Although I cannot find my handwritten presenter’s notes which explained the slides, somehow, through computer crashes and changeovers, I found on my hard drive a rather poor quality audio file recording of that evening’s program, complete with no small amount of audience participation. You may want to download the audio file and listen as you advance through the slides.
You can hear that my lecture certainly benefited from the many recollections and personal anecdotes furnished by the group. I have come to value the fact-checking, insights, and historical perspectives contributed by people in the audience.
Then, as now, I invite viewers to comment on the presentation, particularly if they would note an error or provide more information. One mistake in this presentation was my identification of a long-gone building that I thought was the Evans Lumber Building; it turned out to be the Woolston Carriage Works.
Click here to download the 74.3MB PowerPoint slide show, “HSR slide show 1-29-2007.” Click here to download the 52m, 06s 24.1MB wma. audio file which I recorded as I gave the presentation that evening. You will hear that my solitary “talk” instead turned into more of a town meeting, with the slides serving as an itinerary for a group excursion down Riverton’s Memory Lane. You are invited along, and it’s not too late for you to add your voice to the chorus.
John McCormick
I welcome comments from this larger audience and I’ll be glad to try to answer any questions that you may have. Please contact me if you can add to our knowledge base by donating relevant items, by loaning items so that we can scan them, or by sending text or image files as email attachments. – John McCormick, Gaslight News Editor
Alumni, staff, parents, and board members marked the 100th birthday of the present school buildingAs her AVA guy, I themed much of the design of the slideshow around Mrs. Kloos’s personal memories. Mrs. Kloos invited “class participation” as she reminisced about her alma mater and her thirty-three years as a teacher in the school. – JMc
On January 19, 2010, sixty former students, staff, and interested community members assembled in the Riverton School gym to observe the 100th birthday of the present school building. Retired teacher, Mrs. Mabel Kloos, showed a PowerPoint presentation called “A Short History of Riverton Public School” created by myself which was very much enjoyed by those in attendance. You can read the March 2010 issue of Gaslight News for a fuller recap of the events of that evening.
Since then, several people have expressed regret that they had missed it. Now, if you wish, you can replay the entire slide show from that night.
Click here to download the PDF file of notes that go with the slide show and you’ll also have the narrative which explains the images as well as prompts for the animations and advancing the slides. – John McCormick, Gaslight News
please consider the slide show’s ending message, “You can help preserve historic images and information.”
