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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 26 |
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Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: January 1988 Volume 26 Number 1, Pages 35–36 Recollections of Sunnybrook I have some personal recollections of growing up in the shadow of Sunnybrook. My father owned a dairy farm in Lower Pottsgrove, about a mile east of the Kepler place, "Sunnybrook Farm". It was always a matter of interest to read the billboard out on the highway - to see which orchestra would be appearing at Sunnybrook that week. It was a very impressive establishment! I was only four years old when Ray Hartenstine Sr. built the dance pavillion in the meadow of "Sunnybrook Farm", by Sprogell's Run. My earliest recollection of Sunnybrook is as the place where each year we attended the Rosen family reunion. The descendants of Henry Rosen (1734-1803) of Fairview Village settled in the German townships of Chester County, in East Vincent and East Coventry, and would meet for a picnic in late August each year in the Sunnybrook Park picnic grove. There were sliding boards and swings and see-saws to amuse the youngsters, while their parents renewed family ties. The sparkling creek each year was sure to claim at least one victim who dunked his dress-up clothes when he "fell" in! I was too young to attend dances at Sunnybrook before the war, and then the "war effort" led to the temporary suspension of operations from 1942 to 1945. A we11-remembered event, however, was the opening of Sunnybrook, with a local band for the senior class of Pottstown High School. The Senior Prom was held there on June 5, 1944. During the prom, word came that Allied troops had landed in Normandy and the invasion of France was underway. I also especially remember another night at Sunnybrook in 1950 when Barbara and I were there, just before our wedding, to hear the music of Art Mooney and his orchestra. My brother Donald was older than me, and he remembers working at Sunnybrook in the 1930s; parking cars and helping in the refreshment stand. He recalls that Minnie (Kepler) Buchert, Ray Hartenstine's sister-in-law, ran the refreshment operation with great dispatch. The items available were: cherry coke, lemon coke, hot dogs, chocolate cake, gum and lifesavers. Her husband headed up the ticket sales at the admission window, assisted by a man whose name, I think, was Kessler. With regard to the remote radio broadcasts, I have a tape of a broadcast by Horace Heidt and his Brigadiers -~ later known as Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights -- from the Hotel Biltmore in New York on March 25, 1937. During the broadcast, Heidt ticked off the stops he would be making on his coming tour or road trip:
The LeRoy Wilson whose band played for the Wednesday night dances was Harvey LeRoy Wilson, the band director at Pottstown Junior High School in 1940 when I attended there. Later he served as the band director at the senior high school in Pottstown during my years there. In 1952, I went to a concert at the University of Pennsylvania where he conducted the U of P band. His dance band also played at other local dance halls during the big band era. Arlen Saylor was also a local Pottstown product. He attended Pottstown High School at the same time I did, and was known for his trumpet playing abilities. After graduation from college he was band director of the award-winning bands at Boyertown for many years.
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