Conshohocken History Slide Show – By Jack Coll

It’s The Conshohocken History Show
You Might Want To Catch This One

Ever wonder about Conshohocken’s covered bridge that was built in 1833, how about Club Rio, better known as Noah’s Ark built in 1994? In 1893 a trolley service was approved for Conshohocken, tracks were installed on Fayette and Hector Streets and the trolley’s ran until 1933. These will be just a couple of images brought to life on March 27, at the Conshohocken United Methodist Church/Jillian’s Cafe when Jack Coll will load up the slide projectors and tell stories while projecting Conshohocken images on two large screens.
Coll has been projecting these history programs for nearly 30 years, at one time Coll traveled throughout Montgomery County spreading the great history of our borough giving about 15-20 shows per year but has slowed down in recent years. Coll has rarely shown public programs in recent years with his time tied up writing numerous books with his son Brian. At times Coll has gone as long as two years without showing a program so if you haven’t seen the show it might be a good time to get out for an evening and come join your neighbors for some fellowship while gaining a little knowledge of the town we live in.
Coll promises to show a few never before seen slides along with some rarely seen photographs of the borough. If you’ve seen the program in the past keep in mind that he never shows the same program twice.
You can expect to see a full program of “How we got here!” starting with the Lenape Indians that once called the banks of the Schuylkill River in Edge Hill, (Conshohocken) home. For the record the Lenape’s renamed their home Guneuschigihacking pronounced Gueno Sheiki-Hacki-Ing. Guneu meaning “long,” schigi meaning “fine,” hacki meaning “land,” with the locative ing having the significance “at the long fine land.”
The building of the canal in 1824, and the arrival of the train in 1836 started an industry stampede that brought more than 10,000 jobs to Conshohocken by the early 1920’s. The industry led to a housing boom, followed by the formation of Fayette Street which by the 1940 had more than 240 retail outlets from Second Avenue down to the bridge, (this included retail stores along both sides of Elm Street, Hector Street and First Avenue). This will all come to life on the movie screens on March 27.
We will show you Fayette Street in all it’s one time glory, the demise of industry and the demise of our shopping district, the sites of what we now call “urban redevelopment” (if you inhale really hard you can still taste the dust) and finally the finished product, a product that has brought young adults into this borough by the thousands.
As usual Coll will have some interesting stories to share, a few funny stories and a few unbelievable tales while showing images throughout the evening.
Food and soft drinks are included in the price of $25.00 with a portion of the proceeds going to the Conshohocken Free Library. Tickets can be purchased at Coll’s Custom Framing at 324 Fayette Street or ordered by phone at 610-825-7072.
The doors open at 5:30 for food and social hour, the slide program will begin at 7:00, seating is limited so please get our tickets early.
Event: The history of Conshohocken in slides.
Place: United Methodist Church/Jillian’s Cafe located at West Sixth Avenue and Fayette Street.
Time: Doors open at 5:30, Program begins at 7:00
Price: $25.00 per ticket
Included: Food, soft drinks, door prizes, and program.

A portion of the proceeds will go to the Conshohocken Library to help with ongoing renovations to the downstairs meeting/multi-purpose room. New carpet, tables, chairs, paint, and new book-cases are a few of the things going on at the library.

See you there!