‘Veterans Memorial Park’ designation could switch site
Open space and cemetery on Allentown Road could house memorial for vets
TOWAMENCIN » A hidden parcel of historic open space in Towamencin will soon carry a new designation: Veterans Memorial Park.
The township’s supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday to take the next step toward shifting that designation, and a plan developed several years ago, from a park near Bustard Road to another near Allentown Road.
“The board authorized staff to prepare a resolution, because that’s what it will take, to officially identify the Tennis-Lukens open space as a ‘Veterans Memorial Park,’” said township Manager Rob Ford.
“There’s nothing there yet, but that will also help us in focusing on the planning, and possibly grant applications for funds,” he said.
According to township records and Reporter archives, the cemetery contains markers dating back to the early 1700s, and bears the names of Abra-
ham Tennis and Jan Luken, who bought 1,000 acres in June 1703 of what is now Towamencin Township that originally belonged to William Penn. The cemetery and open space are located on the south side of Allentown Road just west of Forty Foot Road, behind the Towamencin Village Shopping Center where several proposals for redevelopment or renovation have been made in recent years.
In 2007 into 2008 the township started the process of using roughly $756,000 in Montgomery County grant money, along with a local match of just under $200,000 from the Clemens Family Corporation, to buy the land from Clemens. Since then, the township established an early incarnation of a Veterans Committee with the purpose of renaming and reconfiguring Firehouse Park on Bustard Road near Rittenhouse Road, and by 2010 had developed a master plan for upgrading that park with a new pavilion, trails and a memorial, but those plans fell by the wayside as the township experienced a budget crunch and work began on widening of the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike directly next to Firehouse Park.
“They put off doing that there, not only because of a lack of funds, but the Turnpike widening project was going on for years,” Ford said.
“Since that time, the township acquired the Tennis-Lukens open space, and the old cemetery where there are Revolutionary War soldiers buried. Everyone thought, ‘Gee, that
would be nice, to incorporate the Revolutionary War soldiers’ graveyard,’” he said.
On Friday afternoon, butterflies floated above the grass between beams of sunlight, as American
flags — with 13 stars in a circle — fluttered atop gravestones, some with names clearly visible and others with lettering worn away by time. About a dozen family members are buried there, according to the manager, and about half are believed to have fought for American independence in the 1770s.
“It’s about 11 acres, and there’s a path along Allentown Road — you’ll see a sign that says ‘TennisLukens Cemetery,’ an old foot rail fence, and these old graves,” Ford said.
The land is currently mowed by Public Works staff, and recent Eagle Scout projects have cleaned up overgrowth and added a new flower bed, but little else has been done with the cemetery or open space, according to the manager.
“Beyond that, you’ll see the open field, and the open space. We own that, and the cemetery we took over because they were abandoned, so somehow we’ll put together a plan that highlights all of that,” Ford said.
Parts of the plan for the Bustard Road site could be adapted to the TennisLukens site, according to the manager, who said the newly revived Veterans Committee as well as the township’s Open Space and Parks committee have both endorsed changing the designation from the one to the other.
“How many thousands of cars drive by that site every day, and don’t realize there are soldiers buried in there from the American Revolution? We think this would be good, in the long run, to have veterans from our history be recognized in the park there,” he said.
Towamencin’s supervisors could formally vote to change the designation during their next meeting, at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 22 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.