Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: January 1995 Volume 33 Number 1, Page 2

Foreword

Page 2

Fifty years ago, during World War II, Bob Goebel was contributing to the morale of our area's men and women in the service through a monthly newspaper that brought them local news from home and served as a news exchange for those in uniform in all parts of the world. An "autobiography" of The Berwyn Post, culled from its pages, was presented at our club meeting last September and is the first feature in this issue.

Jeff Groff's presentation on the country houses on the Main Line of the last three decades of the 1800s and first three decades of this century, illustrated with a number of slides, was the program at our annual banquet in October. A resident of Strafford, Mr. Groff is the executive director of the historic Wyck House in Germantown, but in addition to his interest in colonial homes he has done a great deal of research on the estates of the Main Line. We thank him for his permission to include his presentation here.

The Newtown Square and Paoli plank road was a short-lived effort to improve the roadway between the Lancaster Turnpike at Paoli and the West Chester Pike at Newtown Square. Its brief history is reviewed in our next article.

And, finally, Dave Wilson recalls for us some of the vicissitudes -- and pleasures � of travel by horse and wagon or sleigh in the days before the automobile took over. His recollections were transcribed from tape for us by Elizabeth Goshorn.