ShopMainLine.com

Welcome to Shop Main Line.com's Page of History!

When I decided to Create a Web Site for Main Line People, I thought it was Important for Everyone who Visited the site to understand what "The Main Line" is. Some People would think it's just the name of a train route, or "just another place in the Philadelphia area to live". I Feel it's much more than that, A lot of people in this Great Country forget that It All Started Right Here in Philadelphia (Founding Fathers, Independence Hall, The Year of 1776, Our Independence, Etc...). The Main Line area played a very important role in the Development of this country, and it's Important that our Children Know that, And understand Our Rich History.

The Problem was, there is no "online" history of the Main Line, After checking the Radnor Library I found a great book by LOYD PAKRADOONI and TIMOTHY M. MICHEL Named "GLIMPSES" (Radnor Library # 974.8 PAK). With Mr Pakradooni Gracious Permission I painstakingly scanned a good bit of the pictures and text from his book into the computer and created the Web Page you are now viewing. This is not by any means even close to a complete history of the Main Line, And only about half of Mr Pakradooni's book. That would require a whole Web site and Probably the better part of a year to create. At some point in the future I will try to develop a more in depth look into each towns history on the Main Line.

With That in Mind, I Hope You Enjoy the "little bit"
of our rich history that this Web page brings you!

Sincerely, Joseph Ciociola

NOTE: This Web page contains Copyrighted Material
and may not be copied in any way without the
expressed written permission of the respective Authors.

Also: Keep in mind that there are approximately Forty rather large Pictures that require approximately Five Minutes (at 56k baud) to Download to Your Browser, Hopefully while you are reading the text above and below most of them have finished loading into your Browser.

GLIMPSES

A Pictorial History of The Greater Main Line

D. LOYD PAKRADOONI
and
TIMOTHY M. MICHEL

Published by
INTERNATIONAL PRINTING CO.
Copyright © 1975, All Rights Reserved.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are especially grateful to the following organizations
and individuals for helping to make this book a reality:

Historical Societies

Chester County Historical Society	Montgomery County Historical Society
Haverford Township Historical Society	Radnor Township Historical Society
Lower Merion Historical Society (Kurtz Collection)	Tredyffrin-Easttown Historical Club

PUBLICATIONS

The Main Line Chronicle	The Main Line Times
The Suburban and Wayne Times

ORGANIZATIONS

Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation	The Merion Cricket Club
Devon Horse Show and Country Fair	Penn Central Railroad
The Episcopal Academy	The Radnor Hunt Club
Franklin Survey Company	St. Davids Church
Haverford College	The Upper Main Line YMCA

INDIVIDUALS

Craig Bouzarth	Bill Harris	Dr. Vincent McNally
John Chew	Mrs Robert H. Johnston	Dorothy Reed
Mrs. Robert I. Cummin	Bernard Kramer	W. Robert Swartz
Barbara Alyce Farrow	Mrs. James S. Maier	George Vaux
Mrs. Walter Farrow	Mrs. Stuart H. Mason	Mrs. Harleston R. Wood

The region that was to become the Main Line was first visited by Europeans in 1642, when two Dutch captains in the Swedish service crossed the area seeking to trade for furs with the Lenni-Lenape Indians. In these early days the Swedes and the Dutch struggled for control of the Delaware River Region. The latter were able to establish sovereignty in 1655 when Peter Stuyvesant lent his support. However, the fall of Stuyvesant's Nieuw Amsterdam (New York) to the English in 1664 gradually ended Dutch control.

Actual settlement only began after William Penn received his charter to Pennsylvania (Penn's Woods) from Charles II in 1681. Penn, a Quaker, was able to interest Welsh friends in his lands and sold them a 40,000-acre tract known as the "Welsh Barony" which included much of the Lower Main Line. A treaty with the Indians in 1683 secured the lands, and the Welsh settlers began to move in in earnest. By 1700 the Friends had organized Meetings at Radnor and Merion, had cleared farms such as "Harriton" and "Bryn Mawr" and had given us many place names like St. Davids, Tredyffrin and Radnor that survive today.

A Log and Cave Dwelling, Typical of Those Built by the
First Welsh Settlers When They Arrived in August, 1682.

The years before the Revolutionary War witnessed the arrival of English and Palatinate German settlers and the area's slow, steady growth. Mill, Darby and Cobb's Creeks were harnessed to power grist, lumber, paper, woolen and powder mills, and the roads stretching out from Philadelphia were served by an increasing number of inns. The rural life of the small Main Line communities was largely untouched by the Revolution though tempers occasionally ran hot. In 1777-1778, the area found itself a no-man's land between British troops in Philadelphia and the Continentals operating between Valley Forge, Brandywine, and Germantown. Controlled by neither side, the area was repeatedly picked clean by raiding parties and foragers


The construction of Lancaster Pike in 1792-1794 spurred increasing settlement. The arrival of the great Conestoga wagons and the opening of the Ohio Valley to settlement brought heavy traffic to the area's older roads. To alleviate this and to generate revenue from tolls, Lancaster Pike (Route 30) was opened in 1795. It was the first macadamized turnpike in the world and the first real turnpike in the new United States.	A Conestoga Wagon. Presented to Radnor Township Historical Society in 1964

City Line Toll House. This toll house was located on Lancaster Pike a few hundred yards west of City Line. Note the narrowness of the roadway. Built in 1871 this small building housed the gatekeeper and his family. Tolls were collected along Lancaster Pike The first American turnpike, opened in 1794. In 1917 the state took over the roadway.	Conestoga Mill Tavern, Rosemont, Pa. 1831. Conestoga Mill and Conestoga Road both are named after the great Conestoga wagons which lumbered by carrying the early pioneers ever westward. West meant Ohio in those days, not California. Parts of Conestoga and Old Lancaster roads were originally an Indian trail.

General Washington’s Headquarters, Valley Forge.	The Paoli Home of General Anthony Wayne His name perpetuated in the area by Waynesborough and Wayne, Pa.

Rapid growth and the appearance of the Main Line as we know it, came with the opening of the Columbia Railroad in 1832. The railroad was authorized as part of the "Main Line of the Public Works of the State of Pennsylvania". Settlements grew up at railroad stops. City Line (Overbrook), Elm (Narberth), Jones' Crossing (Wynnewood) Athensville (Ardmore), Whitehall (Bryn Mawr) Brookville (Radnor) , Eagle (Strafford) , and Paoli. General stores gave way to shops, schools and colleges appeared (Haverford 1833, Villanova 1842) and the last vestiges of the area's frontier character disappeared. By the eve of the Civil War, the Main Line had become a quiet area of prosperous farms and small towns.

Green Tree Inn, Malvern.

This Inn, in what is now Malvern, served as the
termination point of the original twenty-mile
section of the Columbia railroad which opened in
1832. The scene above is from the 1890’s

Morgan’s Corner (Radnor).

This Photo, labeled 1856, shows the Radnor
Station when it was still known as
Morgan’s Corner.

Whitehall (Bryn Mawr).

This early painting depicts the White Hall Station
and Hotel. The road visible is now Bryn Mawr
Avenue. The tracks were later moved to their
present location and Bryn Mawr Station built.
Legend has it that President Lincoln on his way
to his first inauguration spent a night here in order
to escape a supposed assassination plot.

Earliest Photo of Ardmore, Taken in 1860, Looking West.

At the time of the Civil War, the town was
known as Athensville, the post office was
Cabinet, Pa. And the station above was
called Anderson’s Crossings.

The New Bryn Mawr Station, Built in 1869.

The New Ardmore Station Built in 1870.

THE RAILROAD YEARS 1860 - 1900

THE UNION VICTORY ignited an unparalleled real estate boom along the Main Line, The Pennsylvania Railroad acquired the Columbia Railroad for $7,500,000, straightened the old railroad bed, and actively began to promote the area as a fashionable summer resort and as a desirable location for country houses. The Line's familiar train stations were almost all built in the decade following the Civil War, and several communities were founded or renamed to conform to the Railroad's master plan-Whitehall became Bryn Mawr, Athensville-Ardmore, and so forth.

As part of its effort, the Railroad encouraged the construction of several "Grand Hotels", of which The Bryn Mawr Hotel (now the Baldwin School) The Bellevue, and The Devon Inn were the most famous. The benefits of healthy, yet cultivated, country living attracted Philadelphia's social elite, and many acquired large estates, building manors and country seats in the neo-Elizabethan, neo-Georgian styles fashionable at that time. Businesses, schools and clubs quickly followed. Cricket, polo, golf, and fox-hunting were popular, and it was during these four decades that such institutions as The Merion Cricket Club and The Devon Horse Show appeared.


One of a number of grand hotels that appeared with the encouragement of the Pennsylvania Railroad after the Civil War. At that time, Bryn Mawr, Wayne and Devon were quite fashionable (and healthy) summer resorts for well-to-do Philadelphians. The Bryn Mawr Hotel, built by the railroad on Montgomery Avenue, opened in 1871, and without the tower is now familiar as the Baldwin School. It was designed by the famous Philadelphia architect, Frank Furness and offered 350 rooms for 250 guests. The hotel also had the first elevator on the Main Line, a pool room, bowling alleys, gaslights, and bathtubs.	Bryn Mawr Hotel.

The height of luxury, this beautiful hotel burned to the ground in 1900. It stood approximately where the AT&T Telephone Tower is today and could accommodate 200 guests.	The Bellevue Hotel, Wayne.

The Devon Inn Another of the grand hotels, The Devon Inn burned in the 1930’s after having been taken over by the then infant Valley Forge Military Academy. A cigarette sneaking cadet was blamed.	Devon Horse Show And Country Fair - May 25, 1935 An Annual tradition on the Main Line, the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair was founded in 1896 for the purpose of encouraging area farmers to improve the strains of riding and carriage horses.

Blizzard of 1898, Bryn Mawr

Remembered by a few, this storm stopped
these coal burners dead. Looking east from
the Bryn Mawr Station.

Wayne Station (Louella)

The Station and adjoining cottage were built in 1870.
That is a corn field in the foreground. Originally,
present day Wayne was a milk stop on the old
Railroad known as Cleaver’s Landing.

The carriage and delivery wagons were probably of local manufacture, since the Rosemont Carriage Works and Joseph J. Derham’s were both nearby. The store later became Lippincott and Eadie.	Lippincott and Shank Grocery Store, Rosemont, 1892

The Merion Square Stage continued to operate between Gladwyne and Ardmore until 1925.	The Gulph Road Ford, Merion Square (Gladwyne)

Berwyn Fire Company at the Turn of the Century.

Still a prominent landmark, the
Hanging Rock is said to have
sheltered General Washington
during a storm as his troops
made their way to Valley Forge
for the Winter of 1777 – 1778.
The photograph is circa 1900

Hanging Rock, Gulph mills.

"Woodcrest", The Dorrance Estate, St David’s

Built in 1902 by James W. Paul, Jr.,
it is now Cabrini College.

The Cassatt Mansion, Berwyn

It is now the Upper Main Line YMCA.

The 1880's also saw the emergence of Wayne and St. Davids as bona fide towns. Indeed, these towns are now considered to comprise the second successful planned, suburban community in the country. Wayne even supported an Opera house at the turn of the century.

These years were also witness to considerable technological change; as the horseless carriage, Edison's electricity, indoor plumbing and the telephone were gradually becoming commonplace. By 1900 the Main Line was rapidly growing into the string of pleasant suburban communities we know today.


From 1864 to 1870, J. Henry Askin, a West Philadelphia real estate promoter purchased 300 acres of land surrounding Cleaver’s Landing. He built a mansard roof mansion in 1866 and developed a small supporting community which was named "Louella" in honor of two of his daughters, Louisa and Ella. Askin’s "Louella" was short lived through, for in 1880 he was bought out and the town of Wayne was born.	Askin Mansion, Wayne (Louella)

The Louella Hotel, Wayne, 1890 The old Askin Mansion expanded to become a hotel in later days. It is still standing on Louella Court in Wayne.

Although it is hard to grasp, the older parts of Wayne and St. David’s were a turn of the century real estate venture. Undertaken by George W. Childs and Anthony J. Drexel in 1880, this venture is considered the second successful planned suburban community in the country. The promotional literature will sound familiar, even if the prices don’t.	Walnut Avenue, Wayne, 1888

Greatly altered, this opulent building’s shell still stands at Lancaster Pike and North Wayne Ave. Its upper floors housed the Opera House. Note the statuary. It was partially destroyed by fire in 1914.	Wayne Opera House, 1883 (Lyceum Hall)

Note From Joe Ciociola: This is not a "Union Meeting" as we would think of today, it's a Meeting about the Union of our Country! (the Civil War) Note the date (1862)

Bicyclists, Walnut Avenue, Wayne, 1885 Curiously, a Radnor Township bicyclists, Samuel Chew, was arrested for exceeding the legal limit of 10 m.p.h. in September, 1902	Baseball Group, Wayne, 1889

Atlantic Service Station, Wayne, 1934 Replacing the blacksmith and the feed companies were the service stations, the first of which appeared just prior to 1920. This station still exists at Aberdeen Avenue and Lancaster Pike.	Wayne Business Block, 1890 Note the conveniently placed hitching posts. Lancaster Pike was still a dirt road.

St. David’s, 1890

Seen from Midland Avenue and St. David’s Road, the St. Davids train station
is in the upper right section. Rich in trees now, the St. David’s of the 1890’s
still retained an open agricultural character.

Note From Joe Ciociola: The intersection in the Picture is Lancaster Pike
and St. David’s Road looking North (Lancaster Pike is the street running left and right)

Wayne Natatorium, Swimming Meet, 1897

Damming Gulph Creek created what was in 1895 the largest man made swimming pool in the country.

Radnor, Circa 1900

The farmhouse in the foreground was originally known as Nantmel Hall.
Later it served as the club house of the Old St. David’s Golf Club.
The fields behind were part of the Chew estate.
To the upper right rises Villanova College.

The Same View, 1975

Seen from the Roof of B. Altman and Company

The year was 1942, and the United Stated had entered World War II.

THE YEARS between the turn of the century and 1917 saw little apparent change. Life remained relatively uncomplicated. Yet, an astute observer would have noted the rapid decline in the area's farming, and recognized the eventual doom of the great estates in the permanent adoption of a Federal Income Tax in 1913.

America's entry into World War I stepped up the pace. 1918 not only brought Allied victory, it brought the influenza epidemic. This virus was responsible for far more deaths among area residents than Enemy fire.

The Twenties arrived and roared. Prohibition was in effect, but "hooch" apparently never tasted so sweet. These were boom times and the Main Line grew and thrived. 1928 saw the beginning of Suburban Square in Ardmore, the first suburban shopping center of its kind in America and a model for those that followed. (One of these later followers was the King of Prussia Shopping Center, which in the early '60's was briefly the largest in the world.) The stock market crash in 1929 temporarily halted construction, but Suburban Square officially opened in 1930. The crash and the ensuing Great Depression hurt the area greatly, yet life went on, albeit more slowly, and the Main Line endured.

Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, instantly galvanized the country. Many local servicemen were lost in the next four years and the area experienced and supported endless blackouts, War Chest drives, rationing, Victory gardens, and air raid drills. Victory, in 1945, was to signal the beginning of a new period of growth along the Main Line that still continues.

For a few years after the war, the Main Line remained quite rural in character, protected by its estates, golf clubs and many educational institutions. As late as 1948, sheep were grazing along Lancaster Pike on the Converse estate in Rosemont (now the Chetwynd apartments). Nevertheless, increased taxation and the mounting surge of people and light industry to the suburbs had begun, and with it the breakup of the large properties at an ever quickening pace.

The automobile had made the locality more accessible, especially after the opening of the Schuylkill Expressway in the '50's, and the Main Line towns fast became bedroom communities of Philadelphia. Growth brought higher taxes, local bureaucracies, supermarkets, more schools and colleges, planning commissions, apartment buildings and, most of all, many more people. The station wagon set had arrived.

This rapid growth was essentially unavoidable. The Main Line has not disappeared, it has merely changed with the times. The area's shared sense of community and appreciation of its natural beauty and cultural assets have contributed greatly to preserving and enhancing the Main Line's inimitable character. It remains for us today a unique and beautiful place to live in and enjoy

I hope you enjoyed reading about our rich history, and seeing some GREAT Pictures!
Any Comments Feel Free to E-Mail Joseph Ciociola at jc@ShopMainLine.com

Click Below For Shop Main Line.com's Main Page

NOTE: This Web page contains Copyrighted Material
and may not be copied in any way without the
expressed written permission of the respective Authors.