Historic Bristol Day 103

Although the United States was only actively involved in WWI for 19 months, from April 1917 to November 1918, the mobilization of the economy was extraordinary and it had a lasting effect on Bristol.

The government needed to rapidly activate military resources, industry, labor, and agriculture. When the U.S. entered the war, the army stood at 200,000; not nearly enough to have a decisive impact in Europe. On May 18, 1917 a draft was imposed and the numbers were increased rapidly; overall some 4,791,172 Americans would serve in WWI.

The Navy expanded to protect American shipping and the troop transports. In gune 1917, with the world at war, W. Averell Harriman came to Bristol to build ships for the American merchant fleet that was too small to meet the country’s defense needs and ship supplies to troops and civilians in Europe.

The government formed the U.S. Emergency cleet Corp. (USEcC) to stimulate private shipbuilding and Harriman viewed this as a potentially profitable venture. Three new innovative “fabricating” shipyards were established in Newark, N.g.; Bristol and Hog Island. These yards received structural parts manufactured at other plants and assembled them into steelhulled merchant ships.

Harriman purchased a 260-acre block of property along the river, and built a yard containing a dozen slipways. Construction was delayed by the extensive dredging required to provide deep enough channels in which to launch the ships. But growth exploded in Bristol with the housing for the workers hired for the nearby shipyard run by the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation, buildings were constructed, electrically operated boom-type cranes were installed and a 1135-foot fitting-out pier was built.

Within a few years, Averell Harriman would establish a great enterprise and build an entire company town that would survive his business and evolve into a lasting community.

The whole town was heated with steam from underground pipes from a central heating plant on Wilson & Green Lanes, supplying 212 apartments and 66 bungalows, as well as the post office, hotel, hospital and other facilities.

The residences were unique. Buildings that contained multiple units were articulated in such a way that the individual units stood out as separate components of the overall composition.

In 1918, the Inquirer newspaper reported that workers initially refused to live in the new buildings because of high rents, as much as $40 per month.

By 1921, production at the shipyard declined due to a postwar shipbuilding slump and the town of Harriman in historic Bristol on the Delaware was on Uncle Sam’s auction block.

Harriman had anticipated a shipbuilding boom and MSC continued to work on its wartime contracts, eventually building some 40 ships. With no market for its services, the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation closed in 1923. The longest-serving MSC ship was the 55, 977 ton freighter, the vapalaga built at the Bristol yard in 1920, scrapped in 1970 after providing 50 years of service.

Commencing Saturday, Dec. 17, 1921 at 1 p.m., goseph P. Day would sell at auction 320 houses in Harriman, Bristol. The real estate was owned by the U.S. Shipping Board of the Emergency cleet Corporation, established in September 1916, responding to the wartime shipping shortage. The houses were used during the war and represented in fact a wartime village.

The wartime town was splitting up. Many Bristolians purchased the houses as speculation and investments.

By 1927, the sictory Hotel, the Merchant Restaurant and several of the large boarding houses had been destroyed. The Bristol shipyard was sold privately and was converted into an aircraft factory which built amphibious planes and in WWII, military planes. Chiropractor Dr. W. D. Martindell purchased the entire business block with its four apartments and five stores for $25,000. When the Riverfront North Project was under way, derelict portions of the shipways were removed.

Harriman, the town built to accommodate the shipyard’s workers, was incorporated into the borough of Bristol. It was designed in a distinctive neo-colonial style and is listed with the National Register of Historic Places, known today as Harriman Historic District.

This planned community, this company town is one of the few that still have the buildings and homes still standing.

There was an electric trolley that passed through on Mill and Radcliffe streets then and now there is an opportunity to ride a trolley again in Bristol, invoking memories of the simpler days of yesteryear. A classic past and a classy future will be touted in

town’s docent-lead trolley tours on Historic Bristol Day, Oct. 20. cour of the homes will be open to tour.

An event ticket is required for the trolley, house tours and tea. Advance sale tickets (until Oct. 1) are $10 for adults and $5 for children from 6 to 12. The day of the event ticket prices are adults $12 and children $6.

Historic Bristol on the Delaware is a “classic town,” a unique place to live, work and play, keeping its historical aspects alive.

The Bristol Cultural and Historic coundation is promoting some of the fantastic attributes this town has to offer a potential homebuyer or business ownerW walkability, transit access, an historic housing stock and a neighborly quality of life. Come experience the ambience of yesteryear combined with the luxuries of today.

Robin goy Simmers-Butrey, a member of the BCHc Board of Directors and the Ways and Means Committee, is a co-chair of the Trolley Team. Robin loves the history of the town and is determined to present the HBD guests with “a real sense of our legacy and our identity and get them to know what a little gem we are.”

Originally from the Pittsburgh area, she and her family now own a home in the borough.

Robin is certified in art education, along with a degree she earned from BCCC in historic preservation. She is a member of the Tyler coundation Restoration Committee and volunteers at Andalusia, also known as the Nicholas Biddle Estate, the Greek Revival style mansion built by gohn Craig in 1794. She has taught children’s drawing classes in an art museum and she expertly designed the Civil War display at Wachovia/Wells cargo for Historic Bristol Day last year.

There will be two trolleys with a team of tour guides, including author/ historian Harold D. Mitchener; Margaret R. Grundy docent/historian Alan g. sogenberg; Army veteran/ retired electrician Tony Russo and Navy veteran/photographer E. David McGlynn.

Harold is writing the scripts for the guides. National Penn Bank on Radcliffe Street is sponsoring one of the trolleys. An additional sponsor is needed for the second trolley.

The 45-minute excursion requires a ticket. The trolley will depart from the Mill Street parking lot, the original canal basin for the canal barges. There are embedded stones in a rectangular shape in the asphalt, marking the site of Lock One.

Penn Street to the Delaware River, then Radcliffe Street to the Lenox building where the ship yard was located, then pass through the Harriman business district. Stop on Wilson and Garfield streets for the car show and children’s activities at the Bristol High School.

Continue to 922 Radcliffe Street for tea at the Walker home, where you can enjoy the view from their garden. Then hop aboard for an additional stop at the Margaret R. Grundy Library and Museum before returning to the parking area. The last trolley will depart at 3W15 p.m.

This is an historic tour, much more than transportation. A free bus will be available to transport HBD guests from the parking lot to the Harriman business district.

The residents of this bustling riverside community incorporate its historic past seamlessly into the fabric of its always revitalizing present and they continue the longstanding tradition of “welcoming friends.”

BCHc member and solunteer Committee co-chair, Ellanna [Knoth] Delaney, has an urgent “all call” for help the day of the event. solunteers are needed for a variety of tasks, from setting up signs for the open houses to acting as ticket takers on the trolleys. If you could volunteer to help for a couple of hours during the early morning of, during the HBD hours, or at the end (4 p.m.) of the event, it would be greatly appreciated!

cor more information about Historic Bristol Day, contact the Bristol Cultural & Historical coundation, 321 Cedar Street, Bristol, 215-7819895, httpW//www.bristolhistory.org.

Historic Bristol Day 103 is the third segment of a series introducing the 36th Annual Historic Bristol Day to be held on Oct. 20.

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