Other Times
100 Years Ago – 1917: Thanksgiving passed into history with Chester doing its share to conform with the requisition of Present Wilson that the people lay aside their usual vocations and assemble in the houses of worship to raise a pean of praise for all the good that has come to us as a people. As a church-going community Chester has no equal, perhaps: Thanksgiving day proved this. If not individually, there was union meeting, with prayer, praise sermonic allusions to the war, to the bountiful harvests and to the hope for a speedy termination of the inter-continental conflict.
75 Years Ago – 1942: Tragedy hung like a pall over Boston today in the wake of the disastrous fire which, in the flash of an eye, swept the fashionable Cocoanut Grove night club late Saturday night, causing the deaths of 477. At least 185 persons were injured. Richard Nolan, 31 of Upland Street, Chester, is mourning the death of his fiancé, a resident of Boston suburban Jamaica Plains, in the blaze. Margaret Whitson, 18, of Oak Lane, Moylan, is believed to have been a victim. A student at Wellesley College, and her parents has received no word of her.
50 Years Ago – 1967: Three of eight youths who escaped from the Glen Mills School in Thornbury Monday night were back at the correctional institution today. The other five – four 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old – were still at large early today. State police in Middletown reported today that one of the eight youths had been apprehended and two others had been returned to the school by parents or other persons. No other details were available.
25 Years Ago – 1992: The Newtown Square Rotary Club is providing historical markers for 37 sites in the township. The project is expected to be completed in two years. The newest site to receive a marker is the Square Tavern on Route 252 at Goshen Road.
10 Years Ago – 2007: Aston commissioners recently adopted an ordinance prohibiting sleeping or residing in a motor vehicle parked in driveways or township streets. The ordinance states: “It shall be unlawful for any person to occupy or use or permit the occupancy or use of any automobile, motor vehicle, trailer, truck, van, pickup truck, camp car, recreational vehicle, other motor home, or vehicle as sleeping or living quarters whether on public or private property, outside a lawfully operated mobile park or auto camp.”