Days Gone By

100 YEARS AGO, 1924 » Extensive repairs are being made to West Fourth Street, between Morton and Engle streets. Numerous depressions in the street that have annoyed many motorists are being leveled. This street is used more than any other in the city by autoists. It is the main highway between Philadelphia and Wilmington and thousands of cars from outside the city use this route daily. The condition of the street, in spots, has been the subject of criticisms for many months past, and the repairs before the advent of summer weather, when countless thousands of autoists pass through the city, will be appreciated.

75 YEARS AGO, 1949 » Chester Zoning Board of Appeals today set next Wednesday at 10 a.m. for a hearing on the proposed garden court apartment project tin the first ward. An overflow crowd is expected to appear in the council chamber. Since plans were announced that the project would be located on the

Frederick A. Howard estate, West Elkinton and West Parkway avenues, neighbors have lodged strenuous protests. They appointed a committee to present their objections and have employed an attorney, Joseph W. deFuria, to represent them. The development calls for the erection of 54 buildings. Each structure will contain four dwelling units for a total of 216 apartments. Neighbors have expressed fear the development will decrease the value of their properties.

50 YEARS AGO, 1974 » Midnight tonight is the bewitching hour for taxpayers. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service office at Fifth Street and Avenue of the States, Chester, the state income tax office in Chester and Upper Providence as well as private income tax services are expecting a heavy turnout today from taxpayers who have procrastinated until the last minute.

25 YEARS AGO, 1999 » An initial plan for a 320,000 square foot “Market Place at Granite Run” shopping center, with a Target anchor store, has been downscaled to 136,000 square feet of retail space, including a 50,000 square foot Genuardi’s supermarket. Project attorney Guy Messick said the revised plan of the Chicago-based BGP II Inc. for development of the 40-acre site on West Baltimore Pike, across from Granite Farms Estates, is in response to strong opposition of residents and Middletown Township officials to the original proposal.

10 YEARS AGO, 2014 » Carolyn Dumaresq, the acting state Education Secretary, formally recognized the academic achievements of a pair of Springfield schools Monday. Dumaresq presented the Springfield Literacy Center and E.T. Richardson Middle School with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Academics.