Days Gone By
100 YEARS AGO, 1924 » Automobiles fared ill yesterday around the busy 15th Street and Providence Avenue corner. Last night, about 6.15, one of the trucks belonging ot the garbage-collecting fleet took fire on 15th Street at a point right next to the Zeigerman Pharmacy. The blaze was specular while it lasted. In the gutter, escaping gasoline ignited and added to the display. The Good Will Fire company was on the scene in a jiffy and soon extinguished the blaze. One of the fine trees skirting the street was badly charred. The origin of the fire is unknown. The truck, filled to the brim with the victual refuse of the neighborhood, had been stalled all afternoon at the spot where it took fire.
75 YEARS AGO, 1949 » Delaware Countians who have just recovered from repeated reminders of how many shopping days they had left until Christmas heed this: There are only nine more days until the deadline on dog licenses. Despite the fact that there are an estimated 19,000 dogs in the county so far this year there are only 850 legal ones. Number one license holder is the four-year-old fawn colored boxer owned by Auditor General Weldon B. Heyburn of Concord Township. For the past several years the number one spot has gone to former Senator Heyburn’s dog.
50 YEARS AGO, 1974 » The door of the home of a Highland Gardens family was repaired Friday, eight days after police battered it open while seeking a murder suspect at the wrong house. The front door of the Frank Zdankowski family’s home at 2719 Price St., sported new glass and a shiny new knob after it was repaired by carpenters hired by the city. 25 YEARS AGO, 1999 » Chester’s 1999 budget, adopted Dec. 31, keeps taxes at the ’98 rate of 961.03 mills. That means the owner of a property with an average assessment of $481 will pay $462.27 in city taxes. There is a hitch — the $24.8 million budget counts on some $700,000 in concessions from the city’s FOP and non-uniformed employees. With no current contracts between the city and either union, those concessions are still very much up in the air.
10 YEARS AGO, 2014 » If you drive on the Pennsylvania Turnpike even occasionally and don’t have an E-Z Pass, then today might be the day to reconsider. That’s because as of 12:01 a.m. the price for driving on the turnpike went up, with E-Z Pass users saving about 35 percent compared to drivers who pay with cash.