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Trench Art: Beautiful Remnants of War

Posted on March 27, 2019 by nphistory

In their free time, soldiers, especially during World War I, created folk art from discarded bullets, shell casings, and other materiel.

They kept their creations as souvenirs or gave them as gifts to loved ones when they returned from war.

Ryan Berley will share with us the history of Trench Art and show examples from his collection.

The Historical Society will also display the vase that local resident, Von Byre, brought home to his mother. The vase is part of the NPHS’s permanent collection.

Trench Art
Thursday, April 11 at 7:00 PM
Helen Kate Furness Free Library – Chadwick Auditorium

About the Speaker: Ryan Berley, Curator of the Rose Valley Museum at Thunderbird Lodge, has a life-long interest in antiques. He and his brother are owners of Franklin Fountain and of Shane Confectionery in Philadelphia.

The program is presented by the Nether Providence Historical Society and is free and open to the public. Please RSVP using the contact form below.

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Colonial Christmas Open House

Posted on December 11, 2018 by nphistory

You’re invited!

Join us Sunday,

Sunday, December 15, 2019, from 1 o’clock until 5 o’clock at Thomas Leiper’s 1785 Country Home.

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William Penn Weekend

Posted on September 24, 2018 by nphistory

The last weekend of September, local historical organizations will commemorate the 300th anniversary of William Penn’s death with a schedule of activities celebrating his legacy of tolerance.

  • Thursday, September 27: Lecture at Lima Estates, 7:00 PM
  • Friday, September 28: Colonial Music Presentation, 6:00 to 7:30 PM at Newlin Grist Mill
  • Saturday, September 29: Bus & Car Tour of Historic Sites (contact Delaware County Historical Society for details: 610 359-0832).
  • Sunday, September 30: Self-Guided Tours of Historic Sites

Nether Providence Historical Society will have a display of Sharpless family history at Chester Meeting House (520 East 24th Street, Chester) on Sunday afternoon from 1:00 until 3:00 PM.

The John and Jane (Moore) Sharpless (Sharples) family were the first permanent English settlers in what became Nether Providence, in 1682 on a Penn land grant. They are buried at the Chester Meeting House. A son, after finishing the house his father started, “Wolley Stille,” on today’s Harvey Road lived in a house on Providence Great Road from 1700 until 1720, now known as 322 North Providence Road.

Other sites open Sunday afternoon are the Pusey Plantation in Upland, and the Delaware County Historical Society Library and Museum in Chester, and the 1724 Court House next door.

Come visit local history sites this special Penn weekend, especially our Sharpless display at the Chester Meeting House!

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Centennial of The Great War

Posted on September 21, 2017 by nphistory

2017 is the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I.

Saturday and Sunday, through September and October, we will exhibit in the Leiper House dining room artifacts and ephemera from the era. The Leiper House hours are 1:00 to 4:00 pm. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

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An Oyster Cart on Every Street Corner?

Posted on April 13, 2017 by nphistory

Celebrated historian Nancy Webster will present A Brief History of Popular Street Foods, an exploration of sidewalk cuisine from American Colonial times through present day. Some will be familiar (we’ve been frequenting hot dog and pretzel vendors for ages) and others will be surprising.

Bonus: Samples of old-fashioned street foods will be available for tasting!

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: A highly engaging speaker, Nancy Webster was named Delaware County Historian in 1988. The Principal Planner with the County Planning Department for 25 years, she was head of historic preservation and won state and national awards. A Delaware County native, Nancy holds a BA from Harvard, and a double MA in American history and museum curatorship from the College of William and Mary.

Uniquely qualified to speak on this topic, Nancy is a member of the Historical Foodways Society of the Delaware Valley and chairman of the Foodways Committee of the international Association for Living History.

The program is free and open to the public: Thursday, April 27 at the Helen Kate Furness Library on Providence Road in Wallingford, starting at 7:30 pm.

RSVP:

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Nancy Webster Publishes Colonial Cooking Article

Posted on January 6, 2017 by nphistory

Early American Life - Feb 2017Well-known local historian, Nancy Webster, has an article in the newest issue of Early American Life.  Entitled How the Lesser Sort Ate, it is about colonial cooking for every-day people. The women could not cook all day because they had many other jobs to do, including raising children. Nancy writes about what cooking tools they had, what foods were available when, and even sharing of food. The article grew out of a recent presentation Nancy made at a meeting of the Historic Foodways Society of the Delaware Valley, held in Warminster, PA.

The article is not posted on the magazine’s website, but you can pick up a copy at Barnes & Noble.

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Colonial Christmas Open House

Posted on December 7, 2016 by nphistory

LeiperHouse

You’re invited to The Friends of the Thomas Leiper House’s
annual holiday celebration,

Sunday, December 18th from 1:00 until 5:00 pm.

521 Avondale Road, Wallingford

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Program: Helen Kate Furness – Portraits of a Life

Posted on October 17, 2016 by nphistory

Rogers FamilyThe library that bears her name has been a center of community life for more than a century, but who was Helen Kate Furness?

Join us for a look at the life of Helen Kate through her portraits.

Our speaker is Harwood Johnson, a member and past President of the Furness Library Board of Directors.

Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 7:00 pm at The Helen Kate Furness Free Library, 100 North Providence Road, Wallingford

The program is free and open to the public.

RSVP here:

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100 Years Ago Today – Flower Show at Bickmore Farms

Posted on April 17, 2016 by nphistory

Chester Times, April 17, 1916.

Chester Times, April 17, 1916.

The April 17, 1916 Chester Times carried a report of a horticultural exhibit at Bickmore Farms where Milton H. Bickley had a large nursery operation on his property at Palmer’s Corner (the corner of Providence and Rose Valley Roads).

The flower show became an annual event to which the public was invited every year on Palm Sunday.

Milton Horace Bickley owned, along with his father, a drug store at 4th and Market Streets in Chester. He purchased the 102-acre Cedar Lane Farm from James Miller in 1913 and called it Bickmore; a combination of his last name and his father, Mortimore Bickley’s first name. There, he raised a variety of flowers in 19 large greenhouses (300′ x 75′). There was a 75′ smokestack for the furnace used to heat the greenhouses.

The family also ran a poultry farm on the property. In 1916, there were regular advertisements placed in the Chester Times announcing “we have just installed a big hall incubator and decided to do some custom hatching. You can bring, or buy your eggs from us. We also have baby chicks for sale.”

Milton Bickley died in 1937.

In 1944, W. J. Messmer, a Chester florist, purchased the Bickmore nursery on the south side of Rose Valley Road. The purchase included 60,000 square feet of glass-enclosed greenhouses.

By 1954, the 15 acre site had been purchased by the Wallingford Development Company. When the nursery buildings were razed to make way for 22 houses, it took two blasts of dynamite to level the smokestack. The neighborhood was named Bickmore Hills. The first of the split level houses were completed by July and offered for sale at $15,590.

Bickley Druggist and Apothecary at 4th and Market Streets in Chester

Bickley Druggist and Apothecary at 4th and Market Streets in Chester

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Program: An Armchair Tour of Crum Woods

Posted on March 6, 2016 by nphistory
Oak Knoll

Oak Knoll

 

Have you happened upon the ruins of an old fountain and steps while walking along the Leiper Smedley Trail? 

Have you wandered the Swarthmore College woods and wondered about the trees and flowers you saw?

Mike Rolli, of the Crum Woods Restoration project at the College, is a graduate of Longwood Gardens’ horicultural program and has done much research into the historic significance of Crum Woods.

He’ll talk about the former Oak Knoll estate (which was razed to make way for the Blue Route) and its formal gardens. And, he’ll teach us about the diverse ecosystem that’s right under our noses in Crum Woods, one of the last remaining forested areas in Delaware County. Roughly 3.5 miles of walking trails extend over more than two hundred acres.

Click this link for an excellent map of Crum Woods Trails. The woods are open to visitors from sunup to sundown. Remember to “leave no trace” and keep four-legged companions on leash.

The program, presented by the Nether Providence Historical Society, is free and open to the public.

Wednesday, April 13th at 7:30  |  The Helen Kate Furness Free Library

100 North Providence Road, Wallingford

To register, complete the contact form:

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