Other Times

100 Years Ago – 1917:

Though the month of August has in preceding years been listed in Chester as the quietest 30 days on the calendar of building activity, looking in every direction over the city has seen gangs of laborers and skilled mechanics busily engaged in constructing brick dwellings. Out at Ninth Street and Morton Avenue on a portion of the Simpson estate, formerly known as Fifth Ward Park, is being built 100 brick residences by General W.G. Price Jr.

75 Years Ago – 1942:

A 65-year-old Chester man, of 233 Market St., suspected of having been engaged in sales of marihuana weed, which until recently grew on a vacant lot near Second and Market streets, was arraigned before Magistrate Lowry in police court. He was ordered held for investigation by agents of the Narcotics Division of the FBI.

50 Years Ago – 1967:

The 1966 Delaware County major crime rate dropped by about 20 per cent from 1965 — even though murders and rapes jumped over 50 per cent, according to figures released by the FBI. The crime rate dropped in each of six Delaware County communities covered in the federal report, but murders more than tripled since 1965. There were 10 murders reported last year, all of them in Chester, against three reported in 1965, also all in Chester.

25 Years Ago – 1992: “Drivers will sit out there and honk, until we got out and move our cars, or they may push in our mirrors, and it really ticks me off when they move the mirrors on my truck,” said Mike Cartieri of Nether Providence. “They are a big nuisance.” He meant SEPTA bus drivers, who go up and down Ryanard Road approximately every 30 minutes. When he called SEPTA about rerouting business off the narrow street, he was told to get up a petition. His wife Teresa and neighbor Pat Deery collected 61 signatures (“everybody signed”) from Ryanard and Willow roads, and are waiting for something to happen.

10 Years Ago – 2007: One Parkside firefighter was clinging to life Saturday night and three others were injured, one critically, after an early-morning blaze gutted a townhouse in the Village at Green Tree complex and left four families homeless. The incident has left the 30-member fire company shocked and stunned. “We’re all dads and uncles. You read about it (but) not in our town. It’s not supposed to happen,” Parkside Fire Co. President Rob Powers said.