Other Times
100 Years Ago – 1918: Prompt discovery of a blaze in one of the rooms, occupied by M.S. Halley in the “Ship,” at Graham and Welsh streets, Chester, about 9:20 o’clock this morning, prevented a serious conflagration. The fire, caused by leaving some wet wood on the stove to dry out, was noticed by one of the inmates of the “Ship” tenement.
75 Years Ago – 1943:
Bursting at its municipal seams now, Chester before the end of the year will have an industrial city within a city – a mammoth shipbuilding enterprise with 42,000 employees. This was the picture depicted today by A bill has been passed by the New Jersey House of Representatives which would kill the latest effort to develop Chester port facilities. Legislation repealing an earlier bill authorizing the Delaware River Port Authority to develop ports at Chester and Camden N.J., was approved by a 53-8 vote. The bill has moved to the New Jersey Senate, where easy passage is anticipated.
25 Years Ago – 1993:
Chester Police Chief James Clark said he will pull officers out of Chester High School at the request of the Chester Upland School District. Clark said he received a letter from school board President Robert Sellers saying that security would be handled by private guards and that four of five officers currently patrolling the hall would no longer be necessary. Sellers’ request to keep one officer at the high school was rejected in a hand-delivered letter by the chief.
10 Years Ago – 2008: Eddystone council approved the purchase of a tract of land owned by PECO for construction of a new firehouse. The $50,000 cost will be funded through a federal Community Development Block Grant. The land at Seventh Street and Eddystone Avenue is slightly less than 1 acre. a high official of the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. During the Depression, the shipyard was reduced to 2,500 men. Shipbuilding, as it is known on the east coast, is a skilled job. While news readers have been regaled with stories of west coast boats “built” in 4 ½ days, east coast ships are not turned out in the fashion. Tankers require several months, with the intricacies of cargo compartments and other time-consuming finesse. West Coast craft, as heralded by the Kaiser interests, are fabricating jobs, not so much different from the Detroit idea of auto building. 50 Years Ago – 1968: