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In its February 12th issue, the Chester Times reported on Dick Clark’s new home and the Nether Providence School Board meeting.
The Clark family lived at the corner of Dogwood Lane and Plush Mill Road until 1964, when American Bandstand moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. It wasn’t to be the property’s last ‘brush with greatness’. In 1966, Ingrid Jacobson married singer-songwriter Jim Croce in the backyard. Rabbi Louis Kaplan of Ohev Shalom officiated. Ingrid Croce confirmed the location of their nuptials in her response to a 2010 email: “My family and I did live in Dick Clark’s home in Nether Providence and Jim and I were married there, on a little bridge over the creek. It was on Dogwood Lane.” Jim and Ingrid Croce were a folk duo before Jim’s solo career took off. Their son Adrian (AJ) is a performer and recording artist in California.
The School Board meeting article reports that the Board approved an increase of $200 in starting teacher salaries. In 2010, the latest year for which values are available, the relative worth of $4,000.00 from 1959 is $29,900. Starting salaries in the district are currently about $47,000, depending upon qualifications. Mr. Giles’ comment that the District did not have “firm salary scales” is certainly not true today. District teacher salaries are clearly defined on a stepped scale. Also of note in the article is the mention of a “study for a possible merger with Media.” Media School, which at that time had a large number of tuition-paying students from outside the Borough, would eventually merge with the Rose Tree Union School District, but early in the process the idea of merging with Nether Providence was explored.
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Filed under: Articles, In the News | Tagged: American Bandstand, Dick Clark, Jim Croce, Nether Providence, ohev shalom, Pennsylvania, Strath Haven, Wallingford, Wallingford Swarthmore |
Nether Providence Historical Society 
This is really cool. Wendy and I went to Springfield High with Ingrid and Phyllis Jacobson and met Ingy and AJ in San Diego some years ago. She and Jim lived in Media for awhile when he taught guitar at Skip’s Music over the Plumstead Inn. It was cool to see the old photos. She was very pretty then, and still is.
Tom Hibberd