Talkin’ Music with Jack Who Shot Billy
December 6, 2014This & That by Jack Coll
December 21, 2014Taking That Ride to the Other Side
Taking That Ride To The Other Side
The Other Side Of Time That Is
By Jack Coll
I was just thinking, if I could go back and take a trolley ride down Fayette Street, and see the sights trolley passengers might have seen back in the 1920’s, and 1930’s, well if you don’t mind, I’m gonna take that trolley ride, if only in my mind!
Wouldn’t it be nice to jump on a Conshohocken Trolley Car just outside E. F. Moore’s car dealership at 12th Avenue and ride down Fayette Street, past the windmill at Eleventh Avenue, our trolley conductor Charles “Highley” Slavin, a former Conshohocken Councilman always stops in front of Bob Crawfords house at 1024 Fayette Street to see if Bob needs a ride down to his cigar store located at Second Avenue and Fayette Street. Next door to Crawford is Roy “Whitey” Ellam’s house at 1022 Fayette Street, Whitey stays busy during the summer months playing and managing baseball teams down south. As we cruise past the corner of Tenth Avenue I see members of the Wood family are out working on their gardens, it’s a beautiful house with the corner spiral.
William Little always kept his gardens looking beautiful at his house at 922 Fayette, Mr. Little is getting up in age, he built his Opera House at First Avenue and Fayette Street nearly 50 years ago. Wow I always admired Sal Laverty’s stone mansion at Ninth Avenue and Fayette Street, I understand he just sold it to Bell Telephone, a fellow by the name of Hartranft stated Bell Telephone intends on building offices constructed with red brick. On the opposite side at Ninth Avenue and Fayette Street, Mr. Talone has a set of blue prints for a movie house, we already have the Riant Theatre downtown but now Talone wants to build a movie house for the residents living in the upper part of the borough. At 906 Fayette Street is the Davis family, nice people, their daughter Dorothy married Jack McBride from East Tenth Avenue, McBride has been playing football for the New York Giants for several years now.
As we descend down the beautiful tree lined Fayette Street we all wave to Sam Webster at his dairy farm at the corner of Eighth Avenue, Sam has a barn full of cows at Eighth and Forrest Street, Sam’s been talking about turning the old barn into a rooming house for some years now. The town seems to be changing, across from Webster’s farm on the other corner of Eighth Avenue Alva MacKenzie bought Michael O’Brien’s property, I hear they are going to knock down the mansion and build a Masonic Lodge for the Mason’s, isn’t that something, losing a mansion at both corners, Eighth and Fayette and Ninth and Fayette is sure gonna change the look of things during my daily trolley ride.
Well at least we’ll have the Tracy Mansions on the other corner at both Seventh and Eighth Avenues, man those stone building are beautiful, they’ll never knock them down. Oh, there’s Jenny Lee in the front yard playing with her dog, it’s a shame about her husband John Elwood, Jenny’s husband passed away so young. I just don’t know what will become of the Lee mansion after Jenny’s gone.
Well there’s our house of education at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Fayette Street, it seems to me they just built Conshohocken High school a few years ago and they are already putting on an addition, I guess we have more kids living here now since they built it back in 1913.
There it is, just across the street from Conshy High, the pride of Conshohocken, the Harrison Mansion, I’ve always loved that mansion with the stone wall running down Fayette Street, leading into Jawood Lukens big stone house on the corner of Sixth Avenue. Jawood passed some years ago, now the Redmen use the building while their building is being constructed at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Harry Street, man that’s a big building on the corner. I understand when the Redmen move out Patrick Leary’s son Joseph will open a dentist office in the Lukens house, Joe looks like a fine young man I think he’ll do well in this town, I think he’ll be here for a while.
I see Howard Pedrick’s house on the corner of Sixth Avenue is still vacant after all these years, some time ago Howard got caught with his hands in the cash register at the First National Bank of Conshohocken, when he got caught he killed his wife and shot himself. No one in town likes to talk about it but I did hear a Doctor is looking at the house, might be nice to turn the house into a house of healing. Years ago they moved the O’Brien house from the corner of Sixth and Fayette Street, to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Forrest Street so they could construct the Methodist Church. In the middle of the block between Fifth and Sixth on the right hand side going down is one of the prettiest mansions in the borough, it’s the Jones estate and next to them on the corner is the Wood’s house.
The intersection of Fifth Avenue and Fayette Street is one of the most beautiful sights in the borough. With the Wood house on one corner, the beautiful stone mansion belonging to Samuel Davis on the other corner, Sam is a contractor and built many structures in town including Calvary Church at Fourth Avenue. I like the way Charles Lukens house sits back off Fayette Street on the other corner of Fifth Avenue , ya know rumors have been swirling about the federal government purchasing Lukens house and using it for a post office, seems silly to me we have a nice post office building down on First Avenue behind the Riant Theatre.
The Perot property on the other corner of Fifth Avenue, well now the Davis’s own it but I always call it the Perot Mansion, they have the most beautiful gardens that extend from the corner of Fourth Avenue all the way up to Fifth Avenue, when you ride past the property on the trolley in the fall the colors take your breath away. Going back across the street next to the Lukens home is the big house owned by Stuart and Margaret Maloney, Margaret is the daughter of Dr. Beaver who lives on the corner at 401 Fayette Street. I’ve heard rumors they might make Dr. Beaver’s house at 401 Fayette Street into some kind of restaurant, I don’t know what people are thinking a restaurant at 401 Fayette Street would never work, it’s so far away from our business district, and no one will ever want to walk up the hill to eat there.
Caddy-corner to Beaver’s house is Thomas McCoy’s Drug Store at 326 Fayette Street, Thomas McCoy’s son owns and operates a corner grocery store at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Harry Street. Next door to McCoy’s Drug Store is Dr. Hargraves office, sometimes you can see him sitting in his picture window with his pet monkey’s jumping around in front of the window.
Lewis Lukens old house is now the town’s library sitting on the corner at Third Avenue, and just across the street I see Charles Fullmer has turned the old Doctors office into a funeral home, nice building, rumors have it Fullmer is thinking about selling the funeral home to some guy named Ardell. I’ve always felt that once you cross Third Avenue all the beauty is behind you as you now head into the borough’s very busy shopping district. Well of course St. Matthew’s Church is a thing of beauty, so was Mr. Bowker’s house, his house was on the corner where St. Matthew’s Church is but they moved the house to Third and Harry Street to make room for the church, Bowker’s house is now the convent for the church and school.
Man in the 1920’s and 1930’s we had it all, except for a while we didn’t have any drinking establishments thanks to prohibition. It’s kinda funny with all the stories I heard over the years, old timers tell me that during prohibition Conshohocken had more booze available then we ever did when it was legal, makes one wonder.
As we start down the hill on the trolley car things get a little bumpy, automobiles get in the way of the trolleys more often, it used to be the horses and wagons in the way, now it’s these automobiles. In downtown Conshohocken we had Barber’s, Tailors, Shoe Repair Shops, quite a few eating businesses, I guess the shoppers needed a break to eat lunch. I’m thinking about jumping off the trolley at the Riant Theatre at First Avenue, I’ll need to walk down to the First National Bank of Conshohocken on the corner of Hector and Fayette Street and deposit twenty five cents into my Christmas Savings account, it’s important I keep up my Christmas Club so come December I’ll have $12.50 to go Christmas shopping with.
Yea, I’m gonna jump off at the Riant, first thing I’m gonna do is head straight to Neville’s Drug Store for a milk shake, he makes the creamy rich shakes and gives you the metal cup with another half a shake in reserve. If I feel like walking down to the bridge I’ll stop at Pater’s Bakery and while I’m down that far I’ll probably stop at Benny and Reds Barber shop for a trim and pick up a few things at Gabins Hardware Store.
Back in the day, taking that trolley ride was always an exciting trip for borough residents,
whatta-ya-say we take that same trolley ride today, if we could jump on a trolley and take that same route rumbling down Fayette Street, well, here’s what that looks like today.
First of all we wouldn’t be boarding the trolley in front of E. F. Moore’s Chevrolet, because it ain’t there no more. The windmill I talked about at the corner of Eleventh Avenue that was constructed as a gas station back in the early 1930’s was demolished in 1961 and is currently offices for a real estate firm.
Bob Crawford’s house at 1024 Fayette Street is currently Nationwide Insurance, the Wood house located at 1001 Fayette Street is still standing, and is a private residence. William Little who once owned and operated little’s Opera House and lived at 922 is currently an engineer’s office. The Davis family who lived at 906 Fayette Street is the current home of Jeffrey Grogan Architects. Sal Laverty who sold his corner property to Bell Telephone in the late 1920’s, allowed Bell Tel to construct a three story red brick office building at Ninth Avenue and Fayette Street, that building is now home to Susquehanna Bank. The blue prints that Leonard Talone had drawn up for a movie house on the corner at Ninth Avenue never materialized, but is the current site of Lenny’s Deli and Kimberly Gider’s Salon and Spa.
Sam Webster’s farm once located at the corner of Eighth Avenue is long gone and his barn at Eighth Avenue and Forrest Street is currently apartments. The property once owned by Michael O’Brien at the corner of Eighth Avenue was sold to Alva MacKenzie who in turn sold it to the Fritz Lodge for a Masonic Temple, MacKenzie himself was a member of the Fritz Lodge and a Past Master.
The mansions I talked about owned by the Tracy family once located at Seventh and Eighth Avenues are currently the former Exxon Station and Getty Station, in the 1950’s we were building gas stations
back then like we’re building banks today. Talking about banks Conshohocken High School once located at Seventh Avenue was demolished in the mid 1970’s is currently Santander Bank. And that beautiful Harrison mansion I talked about across from the school was demolished in the 1950’s to make way for Acme Markets super store, currently a CVS, for all your medical needs and then some. You can go into CVS, pick up a candy bar, get a flu shot, grab a gallon of milk, low fat of course, fill your prescription and pick up a bag of chips on your way out, now that’s living!
As we rode the trolley past the corner of Sixth Avenue 85 years ago we would have seen the beautiful stone home of Jawood Lukens, his house later became the Conshohocken Redmen Home, while their own building was under construction at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Harry Street. Dr. Joseph Leary, Dentist, whom I mentioned as starting his dental business there of course went on to provide dental work for generations of residents until his retirement. Again, the mid 1950’s were hard times on the Fayette street mansions as the Jawood Lukens house was demolished and a Sunoco Gas station was constructed, now the site of a corner convenience store.
Caddy-corner to the Lukens house was the former Pedrick house, Howard Pedrick as mentioned embezzled a ton of money from the First National Bank of Conshohocken, once located at Hector and Fayette Streets. When the missing funds were discovered Pedrick ended his own life but not before killing his wife. (You can read more about the small town shocking news of this murder-suicide in my up-coming book, “Conshohocken in Photographs and Short stories” due out in 2015.) Years later Dr. Paul Miraglia purchased the property and provided a lot of healing for the residents over the years. Miraglia’s house is currently Continental Bank. I mentioned the O’Brien house once located at the corner of Sixth Avenue where the United Methodist Church is located, well O’Brien’s house was moved to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Forrest Street back around 1905 and to this day serves as the church parsonage.
Next to the Miraglia house I mentioned the beautiful Jones mansion at 500 Fayette Street, well beautiful it still is and currently Ciavarelli’s Funeral Home. Next to Ciavarelli’s at the corner of Fifth and Fayette was the one time home to yet another Wood family, the building for many years served as offices for Dr. Katz and is currently mixed offices. Just across the street where Bob Wilson works as a doctor of a different kind at the Gulf Gas station healing sick cars of every make and model was the former site of the Davis mansion. Samuel Davis was a leading contractor in his day and his daughter-in-law Clara, who was a long time member of the Conshohocken Historical Society, would often talk about Samuel and his contracting contributions to Conshohocken.
On our trolley ride I mentioned the former site of the Davis, or Perot mansion once located at Fifth Avenue and Fayette Street with their beautiful gardens extending to Fourth Avenue and Fayette Street, the Fifth Avenue corner is currently Wells Fargo Bank. The gardens that extended to Fourth Avenue at one time gave way in the late 1950’s to what was then a beautiful state of the art baby blue Bell Telephone building, soon to be our borough hall.
The Conshohocken Post Office was the former site of Charles Lukens mansion, demolished in 1938 to make way for the current post office opened in 1940. Lukens stable, a stone structure facing Harry Street is currently used for offices. Next to the post office was the one time residence of Stuart and Margaret Maloney, Stuart was a chemist and inventor, an amazing individual, and Margaret was the daughter of Dr. Beaver who lived at 401 Fayette Street, Margaret made a few significant contributions to the town. (I’ll be writing more about Stuart and Margaret in the up-coming book “Conshohocken in Photographs and Short stories). Margaret and Stuart’s house that once stood at 405 Fayette Street is currently Bank of America. I mentioned Dr. David Beaver, a Civil War surgeon who lived actually at 403 Fayette Street but owned the property at 401 Fayette Street. In later years 401 was home for Bill’s Diner, Carl’s Diner, the 401 Diner, and current home of Pudges Steaks and Hoagies.
Thomas McCoy’s Drug Store, later Dougherty’s Drug Store is currently a deli, at 324 Fayette Street, one time home to Dr. Hargraves and Charles Hair Saloon, is the current site of Coll’s Custom Framing, (you really should try them, I hear they’re pretty good, and creative, and nice guys, and can frame anything you have, and they also do box framing, needlework, frame jerseys, and they are the best framers anywhere, and I think that about covers it, well over 35 hundred corner samples, acid free everything, conservation glass, and they’re really good, okay that’s enough.)
At Third Avenue the home of Lewis Lukens, current home to the Conshohocken Library, if you haven’t been there in a while you really should stop, they have great children’s programs. Just across the street the one time home of a doctor’s office, sold to Charles Fullmer who turned it into a funeral home, is currently one of Montgomery County’s premiere Funeral Homes, the Moore, Snear, Ruggiero Funeral Home.
The corner variety store at the corner of First Avenue and Fayette Street once owned by the Zimmer family, and later the site of the Riant Theatre, is currently the site of a three story office building.
I talked about jumping off the trolley at First avenue where the Riant Theatre once stood, I talked about walking down to Pater’s Bakery, of course Pater’s is no longer there, but if you could take that trolley along Hector Street today you could jump off at Jones Street and indulge at the Conshohocken Italian Bakery. I also talked about barbers, and tailors, and shoe repair shops, well we still have barbers, the tailor’s and shoe repair shops would be represented by Flocco’s everything you need store and eating establishments are plenty including the Great American Pub and the Conshohocken Boathouse.
There are no downtown drug stores anymore, in later years we had Rafferty’s, Dougherty’s, McClements, Masico’s and Zeock’s just to name a few, but family owned drugstores in Conshohocken are a thing of the past.
A trolley ride back in the 1920’s from 12th Avenue down to Hector Street might have taken you twenty minutes depending on the amount of stops you made picking up passengers along the way. Today that same ride in an automobile traveling at the speed limit of 60 miles per hour, catching all the green, yellow and early red lights would take you about 40 seconds. What’s that you say, the speed limit is only 25 miles per hour? Silly you, I know that’s what the signs read, but obviously you haven’t traveled Fayette Street in the past twenty five years if you think anyone reads those silly speed limit signs.
Case in point, if you start at 12th Avenue and catch all the lights at the 60 mph speed limit it takes you about 40 seconds to hit Hector Street, if you start at 12th Avenue and hit all the red lights on your way down the hill it still takes you about 40 seconds and god help anyone who dares crossing Fayette Street on foot.
Eighty five years ago if you walked out in front of a trolley driven by Highley Slavin he would slow down and offer you a pleasant good morning. In 2014 if you start across the street with a car two blocks up, you’ll likely to get a horn and a double middle finger good morning.
Have times really changed that much? I’m sorry to say but they really have, makes one yearn for days gone by, I don’t really think anyone of us would really want to go back and live in the dusty days with trolleys clanging down the middle of Fayette Street and factory soot clinging to our freshly hand-washed clothes hanging on the line to dry, but man it’s certainly okay to go back for five minutes if only in our minds!
Trolleys were approved in Conshohocken in 1893 and started service in early 1894, after 40 years of service the final trolley rumbled down Fayette Street on December 9, 1933. The old trolley tracks were removed in the early 1940’s, the country needed steel for the war effort, and Conshohocken was certainly a big part of the war effort. Just two years ago history was again presented when work on Fayette Street led to the removal of the old railroad ties that once held the tracks for the trolleys.
For more than 160 years the borough of Conshohocken has been a community in motion with a never ending face of change, most of the change for the good of the community, some not so good.
Overall, change is good, it’s good for the town, and it’s good for the young people who choose to live here. Young people today spend a lot of money to be part of Conshohocken, isn’t that a real credit to our forefathers, back in the 1920’s we lived here because we were born here, no-one ever sought out Conshohocken, no-one ever said hey, Conshohocken is the happening place, so how did we get here? WE can thank our relatives from the 1920’s, 1930’s and so on. We can thank our town fathers from 1850 thru today, we can also thank the young couples who seek us out, who come to Conshohocken and say this is where I want to live, this is where I want to raise my family, what a compliment.
With all this in mind, it’s still nice to take a trolley ride down Fayette Street, and look out at all the mansions, and wave to the great residents that lived here, life was easier, not as complicated, life was a little slower, and the shade trees that lined Fayette Street, well they seemed a little shadier, the ride was a little cooler because of them, yea, life was good, the trolley rides were fun, even if the ride was only in my mind.
Thanks for jumping on the trolley with me, I hope you enjoyed the ride. I’ll see you around town, I’m usually the one running for my life across Fayette Street, take it easy on me, I’m getting a little older now. Maybe we can slow it down to 45, or 50, give the walking man a chance.
( While all the places mentioned in the above article existed at one time or another, the time-line may not be correct and was written in that fashion for entertainment purposes.)
