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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 27 |
Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: January 1989 Volume 27 Number 1, Pages 38–40 Notes and Comments
Annual Banquet At the Club's annual banquet, held in October just two weeks before the election, Bob Goshorn spoke on election campaign trivia and ephemera, "illustrating" his talk with various items -- scarves, hats, post cards, stereoptican slides, bumper stickers, pens and pencils, jewelry, puzzles, toys and games, posters, campaign biographies, T-shirts, and a variety of other items, as well as buttons -- from his collection. The banquet was held at the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Berwyn, under the supervision of Mildred Kirkner. TopCo-Founder of Vanguard School Retires Dr. Milton Brutten, one of the two co-founders of the Vanguard School in Paoli, has announced his retirement from active direction of the school, although he is continuing to serve as a member of the Board of Trustees and to work with children with learning disabilities. In 1959 Dr. Brutten and Dr. Henry Evans, both then members of the staff of the Devereux schools, opened the Vanguard School, converting Dr. Evans' garage in Paoli into a one-room school house. Its program was to identify children with physical or psychiatric learning disabilities and provide special programs for them. As Dr. Brutten later observed, "If you catch a child by eight or ten and get him or her in the right kind of school, the prospects can be glowing." Within a year the school was using six rooms in the Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli, and still had a waiting list of prospective students. Gifts and loans from friends and family soon made it possible to purchase ground on North Valley Road to erect a building of its own. In its new quarters the Vanguard School "just took off", and soon had an enrollment of about 500 pupils from all parts of the United States. In addition to operating three satellite schools in Florida, the School also became a "model" for similar schools in other states. With the acquisition of an adjoining 50 acres of land, the gift of Graeme Lorimer, who later became a member of the Board of Trustees, the School was again able to expand. (By this time, many of the students qualified for tuition assistance under the provisions of new guidelines from the Department of Public Instruction requiring appropriate programs for exceptional children.) The additional land also made it possible later to start a sister school, the Crossroads School, for pupils not so severely impaired, students with lesser learning disabilities, notably dyslexia or mild neurological impairments. Their stay at Crossroads is normally only about two or three years, after which they return to their regular school and class room. The Crossroads School operates on a non-profit basis, and accommodates about 70 pupils at a time. Altogether, since its beginning less than thirty years ago, more than 5000 children have attended the two schools. TopNew Interchange cm Turnpike Studied In view of the ever-mounting traffic through the "hi-tech" corridor in Tredyffrin Township, primarily along Route 202 and Swedesford Road, an advisory steering committee has been named by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. Its principal purpose is to study the feasibility of the primary design of a new interchange between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Route 29 near Devault. Among the members of the committee is Rep. Peter Vroon, who represents Tredyffrin Township as a part of the 157th District in the General Assembly. Rep. Vroon has estimated that the proposed interchange might divert as many as 25,000 cars a day from Route 202 as it passes through the township, but he has also expressed concern over the possible effect such diversion might have on other local roads. He also observed that the committee will investigate other proposed solutions to alleviate the traffic problems in the area, including widening Route 202 between the Schuylkill Expressway and Paoli. TopSt. Matthew's is 100 Years Old In 1988 St. Matthew's United Methodist Church, on Walker Road in Tredyffrin, celebrated its centennial. The church was chartered in 1888 as St. Matthew's Methodist Episcopal Church, and was originally located at 53d and Chestnut streets in Philadelphia. (At that time that area was still mostly farm and pasture land, and the church was frequently referred to as "St. Matthew's in the Fields".) By the 1950s many of its members had moved from the city to the suburbs. In 1958 the church itself moved, selling its city property to the White Rock Baptist Church and moving into Tredyffrin. Services were first held in a renovated farm house which was located behind the present church, and then, when that was outgrown, at the Valley Forge Elementary School until a new building was completed. Since then, an Educational Building and a parsonage have also been erected. The present pastor, the Rev. Richard S. Sarley, is the sixth to serve St. Matthew's in its presnt location. TopThank You Through a generous gift from Herb McCorry, of the Mack Oil Company in Berwyn, the History Club is bringing up-to-date its set of bound volumes of the Quarterly through Volume XXVI Previously only the first fourteen volumes had been bound. Linda McNeil, a member of the Club and also the media specialist at the Valley Forge Intermediate School, is supervising the project.
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