Only we old residents will remember when one could get on Greenwood Avenue heading to Trenton and stay on the road where it terminated at South Broad Street. Here's a rare photo of that area as it looked in 1939. I don't see the Scudder Foundry building in the photo, but I would bet that a visitor familiar with the area will point if out.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: tglover320@optimum.net
Thursday, March 22, 2012
1939: GREENWOOD AVENUE THROUGH TO SOUTH BROAD STREET
Only we old residents will remember when one could get on Greenwood Avenue heading to Trenton and stay on the road where it terminated at South Broad Street. Here's a rare photo of that area as it looked in 1939. I don't see the Scudder Foundry building in the photo, but I would bet that a visitor familiar with the area will point if out.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
2011: ONE OF MY VISITORS
I have been into bird watching for many many years and have quite an impressive list of LOCAL birds that I have added to my list. Above is an occasional visitor to the feeder outside my office at the library. He is a Rose Breasted Grosbeak and truly a beautiful bird.
1944: THEY TOLD ME I LIVED IN "THE STICKS"
Don't let that more recent photo of the Glover home at 131 Hartley Avenue fool you. That house didn't look anything like the one that reposed there during the war years. The front porch was open and we communicated with our neighbors whose porches were also open. During the war years, the Glover's had a mini farm with a gaggle of geese, flocks of "Rhode Island Reds," "Barred Rocks," and just plain white "Leghorns," along with nocturnal weasels, skunks, racoons, and other predators. Did you know that geese are as vigilant as a watchdog, replacing the bark of the dog with the shreaky, panicky, blare of a goose honk that would scare the daylights out of a city slicker. (Our reply to whomever chose to tell is we were from the sticks.) The above photo of Mom Glover feeding our chickens was a daily and nightly process with which we were all familiar. It was taken during the height of WWII here on the home front when we depended on them for our major food source. It was my mom who usually did the feeding. She knew those chickens, and they knew her as they would come scurrying across our yard as she came down the back steps with their food. Today it is more familiarly known as "the boondocks." Back then the term was "the sticks." We did live in the sticks and I am very proud to admit it. There was nothing like a trip over to Kuser's pond to catch tadpoles, frogs, and float on one of those huge old metal cement mixing "boats" and make like Captain Kidd. That little goose with a crutch was a pen and ink drawing I did in order to enhance the column. Sorry to say tha over the years, poor Herman lost a tail that was once there.
2012: A HELICOPTER VIEW OF THE VILLA PARK TENNIS COURTS
Early news accounts of this very desirable Trenton neighborhood had decided that Villa Park needed a park, and thus we had the name of "Lyndale Park." Over the years, the "Lyndale" has been dropped and most of us know of this legendary beauty spot as Villa Park Park.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
1886: GENESIS OF CHAMBERSBURG'S BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
I have combined these two graphics from the "BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH" folder. At first I was confused as far as the vantage point. The square tower is no more, and the view is believed to be at Chestnut and Hamilton with the main entrance apparently being on Chestnut. Perhaps a more knowledgeable local Burg area visitor can confirm. The Centennial School was located on Whittaker Avenue.2012: MY HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL (WEST-WATSON) WEBSITE
I have received many, many emails and guest book communications over the years from visitors with comments such as, "Mr. X turned me on to your website...", "I just found your site on Google and...." "My son just sent a photo from your website and I didn't even know it existed..." and so on. Welcome to all newcomers and I hope you all return often. The above graphic is from my Hamilton High School site. I have been going through it and spot checking. Fortunately, most of the graphics have not been removed from the site during last month's "Google Massacre." I invite all visitors to join those who already send information on their up-coming reunions. www.hhs51.blogspot.com
1945: "AND SO I GREW"
In yesterday's Trenton Times there was a pictorial article on the theater in Newtown that is struggling to stay afloat. An era is fast coming to an end. Hollywood will no longer be using 35 millimeter film for their use in theaters, opting for the newer and cleaner "digital" motion picture. Unfortunately the incredibly high cost of digital projecting equipment is a threat to that Newtown theater, as it is to those few surviving small town movie theaters. Reading that article brought me back to the WWII years when my best friend Don Slabicki and I both became infatuated with the silver screen. We were regular visitors to Lou Kozak's "Lou's Home Movies" on Chambers Street in Trenton. Lou was one of the nicest guys a 12 year old boy could ask for. When we told him we were the proud owners of 16MM silent film equipment, and that we were sadly lacking in the green to buy new film, Lou graciously donated scraps of 16mm films from the cutting room floor and from old and discarded movies. How we loved those old "Castle" movies. "News Parade of 1945" and others came into our hands a Christmas and birthday presents, and we viewed the same movie over and over and over. Ahh, just remembering those oh so innocent childhood years brings tears of joy.-
HI TOM...SPEAKING OF LOU'S HOME MOVIES, MY BROTHER LOU WAS CONSTANTLY THERE FOR EQUIPMENT. HE DID HIS OWN DEVELOPMENT AND LOU WAS A BIG HELP IN A LOT OF WAYS. LOU WAS AMONG THE BETTER PEOPLE IN THE TRADE. REGARDS.
- Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
1909 to 2012: COMBINING THE OLD WITH THE CURRENT
The old 1909 article and photo tell of the displacement of an old building on Elmer Street in the Burg. The two photos on the right are cut and pasted "Google Street View" photos. My imagination is challenged as I try to place that old building into one of the photos to the left. I am assuming we are dealing with the top photo which shows the side of the Roebling building as does the old news photo.
Aprilicity said...I wonder where they put the house??
Fascinating! :) 
Tom Glover said...THAT MAKES TWO OF US, APRIL REMEMBER, THAT NEIGHBORHOOD WAS MUCH LESS CROWDED BACK THEN.
TOM GLOVER
1913: CHAMBERSBURG ON A SUMMER AUGUST DAY IN 1913
Photoshop gives me the ability to remove all those little black "flecks" which we know of as "noise" in documents from the past. It also gives me the ability to bring the text up to its original deep black splendor. This 99 year old listing of community news includes names with which I am familiar today, including Whiteley and Braker, and of course, Israel Kohn who was obviously a partner in the late great Urken and Kohn's Department store which once occupied that familiar "flatiron" building on South Clinton Avenue in the Burg. Numerous old timers who visit this page will probably find names with which they are familiar.1913; CHAMBERSBURG NEWS
This is just one of numerous full page graphics that are being digitized and preserved. The graphic which follows this will show details of the "Three Horse" Chambersburg fire fighting equipment. If your monitor is large enough, you will probably be able to read the interesting articles and ads on this 99 year old news page.
1913: CHAMBERSBURG'S "3 HORSE FIRE TRUCK"
This news photo and the accompanying article from my "FIRE-FIRE RELATED" folder in the Local History Collection. It has been scanned, re-formatted and enhanced and the logo for the fantastic Med Havens Fire Museum over on the fire house on Perry Street in Trenton. A number of years ago, I was a tour guide on the Contemporary Club's annual "Four Tours of Trenton." One of the spots my tour included was Med Havens' Civil War and Fire Museum. What an incredible collection! Check out their website at http://www.trentonfiremuseum.com where you will find rare and priceless fire fighting implements.
1931: THE GREAT DEPRESSION
This family photo was taken during the depths of the "Great Depression." In our opulent contemporary society, it is somewhat difficult to imagine the hardships certain portions of the population experienced. The Glover family was among that portion. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Glover had 3 children at the time. Tom and Don were in the future. My aunt Ruth passed away, leaving my Uncle John and his 3 children. My father lost everything in the 1929 stock market crash when his business, "Gill's Express" went bankrupt. Both unemployed, my father and my Uncle John took "relief" employment with the WPA (Works Progress Administration) , a government sponsored work program for the destitute unemployed. I would guess that there aren't too many visitors to this website who were around during those dark and dreary pre-World War II years. The photo identifies the children who lived in that little house on the corner of Sylvan Avenue and Beal Street. With three bedrooms and three adults, utilizing two of them, the remaining bedroom and the unheated and uninsulated attic became the quarters for the six children. My brothers and cousin tell of sleeping in that attic in the winter and water actually froze in the glass on the window sill.
Even though I was yet to enter into this family until the year 1933, the stories I hear and heard from my mother, father and brothers tell of a pitiful story of survival.
Even though I was yet to enter into this family until the year 1933, the stories I hear and heard from my mother, father and brothers tell of a pitiful story of survival.
RALPH LUCARELLA said...
HI TOM....THE GREAT DEPRESSION WAS A PERIOD I'LL NEVER FORGET. I WAS BROUGHT UP DURING THAT TIME AND ALL THROUGH THE 30'S WAS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE. AMONG OTHER THINGS WE LOST OUR HOUSE ON BERT AVE. AND I WASN'T ABLE TO GRADUATE IN ORDER TO LOOK FOR WAYS TO HELP OUT. MY FATHER WAS WORKING FOR ONLY A FOOD ORDER WHILE WORKING TO BUILD JUNIOR 2. THE ONLY GOOD THING THAT HAPPENED WAS PLAYING WITH THE SCHROTHS IN 1936. BUT LIKE YOUR FAMILY AND MANY OTHERS WE SURVIVED.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
2012: TRENTON'S ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARADE
Thousands lined the streets just like the old days as the Trenton St. Patrick's Day parade was presented under the most spring like conditions ever. Usually, the day is brisk and sometimes windy, but yesterday was ideal. I took these 3 photos before my battery decided to die (I thought I had just re-charged it, but never considered that it was a month ago.) Above is a photo of the gathering crowd as they assembled. This photo was taken at 12:10 and the parade was set to kick off at 12:30. A delay occurred when the officers were late arriving from Mass at Immaculate Conception Church in Chambersburg. I took a few quiet moments to speak with the Lord, recalling the many happy years I spent as a parishioner at that magnificent building on South Olden Avenue. The lower photo is an amazingly accurate depiction of St. Patrick, as portrayed by Dennis Keenan's son, Tim; a true semblance of the revered Saint. - Anonymous said...
Tom,
Dennis' son name is Tim. - Tom Glover said...
MANY,MANY THANKS ANONYMOUS. I HAVE MADE THE CORRECTION. I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR TAKING THE TIME TO SEND IT TO ME.
TOM
Saturday, March 17, 2012
1983: MARGARET GAYDOS: ANOTHER OF MY 3 FAVORITE TEACHERS
TO ENLARGE THESE ARTICLES, PLACE YOUR CURSOR ON THE GRAPHIC, RIGHT CLICK, AND CHOOSE OPEN LINK IN A NEW WINDOW.
REMEMBER: TO ENLARGE GRAPHICS, PUT YOUR CURSON ON THE GRAPHIC, RIGHT CLICK, AND CHOOSE "OPEN LINK IN A NEW WINDOW."This morning, I received a guest book message from a fellow Hamilton High alumnus M. Herrity this morning. We sure have a lot in common. In today's "SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY" column in the Trenton Times, I recall Miss Louise Baird, one of the 3 teachers who had a life-long influence on me. The others are Miss Ruth Margerum, 3rd grade at Kuser School, and Miss Margaret Gaydos, who introduced me to Shakespeare, Longfellow, Tennyson, Whittier, and Kilmer, and many other things cultural. It seems that Mr. or Mrs. Herrity and I have a lot in common when reference is made to the late Margaret Gaydos. She was one in a million in her laid back and relaxed method of teaching. Above are two of the many columns I wrote as I retold my experiences of being a student at Kuser Grammar School. The two columns above relate to my final grammar school year way back in 1947. After a bit of investigation, I learned that Margaret had retired to San Diego and sent her a letter referring to the Kuser School Diary that I had been writing at the time. The graphic above is a response to that letter. My Christian faith leads me to believe that these people who had such an important part of my life will somehow be a part of the eternal life we are promised. Who knows? That promised meeting could possibly be in one of the rooms in one of those many mansions?
John 14:2:
"In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you." What a comforting thought!1988: FOR MY "VINTAGE" VISITORS: REMEMBERING LESS COMPLICATED TIMES
This post is for my more "vintage" visitors who remember "the simple life" we lived way back in the far distant past. I hope I succeed in tumbling some long forgotten memories out of the aforesaid visitors with reminders of the way it was before television, I pads, I phones, MP3 players, computers, the internet, and other technological advancements that have been made over these many decades. Somehow, I feel that this ever so brief visit to times that were much less frantic, much slower, and a time when families sat on the front porch on those long summer evenings and we knew each and ever neighbor. -
RALPH LUCARELLA said... HI TOM...I'M ONE OF THOSE WHO RECALL THE WAY THINGS WERE BEFORE ALL THE CRAZY CONTRAPTIONS. AND BELIEVE ME LIFE WAS MUCH SIMPLER AND EVERYONE SEEMED TO GET ALONG IN A FINE MANNER. NEIGHBORHOODS WERE MORE LIKE FAMILY AND WHEN YOU NEEDED HELP IT WAS JUST A DOOR AWAY. LET'S HOPE FOR THE BEST IN THESE UNPREDICTABLE TIMES. REGARDS.
Hey Tom:
Lots of good memories here,But wasn't the "Tropical Drink Shop" aka the Pina Colada place you mentioned located in front of the Lido Chinese Restaurant on the Skinny portion of Hanover St. at No. Warren?
And in that block of No. Warren St. was Satterwaites Feed and Grain Store. Every Easter season we waited to see the baby chicks hatching in the window, along with the cute little ducks.
Metropole Clothes was on the 2nd floor next to where the Arcade bowling alley, where I set pins for a nickle a frame. After working all night, Brother in law Joe Bastecki and I would splurge on a "Tomato Pie" at "Zotto's on the hill of Warren St.
BTW did you see where DeLorenzo's made National news with being named one of the best in the USA by Parade Magazine. Mar. 11th edition.
Warm good wishes
Mike Kuzma
- Omad said...
Ahh, Elsie Gallavan's. My mom took me shopping there every season and also for each formal. How I loved to roam thru her beautiful things. And you got personalized service; something unheard of today. Her son and my dad were great friends and we often vacationed with he & his wife. What a nice memory; something I had sort of forgotten about. Thanx again Tom.
- Sally Logan Gilman said...
Hi Tom: What a glorious day for a trip down memory lane -- we did our big weekly shopping at Giant Tiger -- between then, we walked to Hermitage Ave. and lugged groceries home from there. Such great names -- Castanea, Tattersalls and Cuticura. I so wanted black and white saddle shoes but my mother said a young lady did not wear black so I got brown and white saddle shoes. Thanks for such great memories. You never let me down. Regards.
Friday, March 16, 2012
1984: WALTER SCOTT LENOX OF LENOX INCORPORATED
The illustration is from the stationery of the Ceramic Art Company, an early entity in the story of Trenton's world famous Lenox China Company. I wrote this column way back in 1954 when my brother Bud's friend Elmer Peters worked for the company as an artistic decorator. I was particularly interested in the Kuser-Lenox connection.- Larry Hibbert said...
I am waiting and hoping that the rest of the article will follow. My great grand uncle Thomas H Hibbert worked there as an art decorator since before 1900.
- Tom Glover said...
SORRY LARRY,
I WAS INTERRUPTED WHILE POSTING THIS TWO PARTER ON THE LENOX COMPANY. I AM POSTING PART 2 ABOVE.
TOM
1910: THE NEW FANGLED HORSELESS CARRIAGES
In an ongoing project of restoring many lost graphics on the blog due to a "GOOGLE GLITCH," I have been hopscotching all over the years from 2005 when this blog began and up to the current date. I find that most of the missing graphics are from the 2009 and 2010 period. I have also been opening various folders in order to get an idea of how many of each I have posted and entered into the Hamilton Township Local Library Local History Collection database. I am currently working on the "POLICE-TRENTON" folder, where there are now 450-plus articles and photos. The above article is one of them, relating the outrageous speeding being done by certain horseless carriage drivers during the first decade of the 30th century.- Anonymous said...
Tom - Thanks for restoring the blog entries that were "glitched" by Google. This must be a tremendously hard job for you. Just know that we appreciate all the work you are doing.
Lakeside Girl - Tom Glover said...
I WILL BE RESTORING THESE PHOTOS FOR MONTHS, ELEANOR. AT THE SAME TIME I AM ENTERING IDENTIFYING INDICES IN THE "LABELS" AREA SO THAT A COMPLETE SEARCH WILL BE POSSIBLE.
TOM
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HI TOM....I BELIEVE CENTENNIAL SCHOOL WAS LOCATED WHERE ROMAN HALL RESTAURANT AND PARKING LOT IS NOW LOCATED. I MAY BE WRONG BUT MY MEMORY IS STARTING TO FADE. BEST REGARDS.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
RALPH:
BELIEVE ME RALPH....YOUR MEMORY ISN'T FADING. YOU HAVE BEEN A TREASURE CHEST OF INFORMATION THAT REQUIRED YOU TO DIG DEEP INTO THE MEMORY BANK. YOU DO IT VERY WELL. YOU'RE PROBABLY LIKE ME. REMEMBER 70 YEARS AGO BUT FORGET WHERE YOU PUT THIS MORNING'S NEWSPAPER.
TOM GLOVER
Wednesday, March 21, 2012