Days Gone By
100 YEARS AGO, 1924 » William Taylor, a visitor from Williamsport, Pa., reported to the police yesterday that he had been robbed of $65 by a colored woman in a house on Fayette Street, in the Bethel Court district. Officers accompanied the man to the place but the house was unoccupied and the woman, whose description Taylor gave, had disappeared from the district.
75 YEARS AGO, 1949 » A Sun Oil Co. tanker which three hours earlier had discharged a cargo of crude oil at Marcus Hook, shortly after 2 a.m. today collided with another ship in foggy, darkened Delaware Bay near Cape May, N.J. Oil-fed flames immediately flared up from the forward dry cargo hold of the Pennsylvania Sun, 153,000 barrel capacity Sun Oil tanker, in which was stored cans of lubricated oil to cardboard cartons, taken aboard at Marcus Hook. Thomas W. Roberts, a seaman, of 56 Barker Ave., Sharon Hill, was knocked overboard by the impact. He was picked up however, by members of the S.S. Great Falls Victory, standing by to take off Pennsylvania Sun crew members, if necessary.
50 YEARS AGO, 1974 » The Delaware County Republican Board of Supervisors (War Board) is bracing for perhaps its toughest primary election encounter ever, while initiating for a torrid ballot confrontation in November. The Watergate scandals, President Nixon’s possible impeachment and inflation are amongst the dilemmas the War Board had nothing to do with, but must reckon with.
25 YEARS AGO, 1999 » Newtown Square Historical Preservation Society members say another priceless link to the township’s historic past will be severed forever if a developer goes forward today with plans to raze a barn and alter an adjacent dwelling on property with ties to the family of Revolutionary War General “”Mad” Anthony Wayne. Society President John Grant noted a person believed to be the developer’s legal counsel has informed the society, however, that a small barn on the site will remain, as well as the oldest section of the Iddings House.
10 YEARS AGO, 2014 » It’s the place with the funny name where people hold doors open for you, the sandwiches are fresh and the coffee is warm, and on Wednesday, Wawa convenience stores will celebrate 50 years of serving up everything from hoagies and coffee to milk and cigarettes. The first Wawa convenience store opened in April 1964 on MacDade Boulevard in the Folsom section of Ridley Township, where it still stands today. Since then, more than 600 stores have been built in six states.