Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: April 1999 Volume 37 Number 2, Pages 71–72

Notes and Comments

• Local School District Superintendent to Retire
• Bank Opens Branch in Devon
• Paoli Acme Relocated
• MOO...ve Over. May Rilma
• Firefighters Honored for Century of Service

Page 71

Local School District Superintendent to Retire

Tredyffrin/Easttown School District Superintendent Theodore W. Foot has announced his retirement effective December 28, 2000. Foot, the ninth superintendent to serve the district since it was formed in 1908, said he intended to take a sabbatical year beginning December 28, 1999 during which time he would officially remain as superintendent. The district will be headed by an acting superintendent, yet to be named, during Foot's sabbatical.

Bank Opens Branch in Devon

First Financial Bank cut the ribbon for its eighth and newest branch at 414 Lancaster avenue in Devon (former site of Burger King and later the Silk Road Chinese Restaurant) on March 4, 1999. Downingtown-based First Financial, founded in 1922, becomes the fourth bank on the Lancaster avenue strip in the Devon community.

Paoli Acme Relocated

Loyal shoppers at the Acme supermarket in the Paoli Shopping Center were rewarded on February 10, 1999 when a long-awaited replacement was unveiled. A 66,000-square-foot state of the art Acme superstore, constructed along Leopard road (Route 252) in an expansion of the shopping center, replaced the older store opened the week before Labor Day of 1954 which had become a community landmark over its almost 45-year existence on Lancaster avenue.

Page 72

Shoppers at the new Paoli Acme, treated to an array of tempting, mouth­watering foods, also found their favorite checker, Polli Bitterman from the Berwyn store, now assigned to Paoli to serve them. Berwyn's loss becomes Paoli's gain.

MOO...ve Over. May Rilma

Among the artifacts preserved in the History Club archives is a framed photograph and tribute to a prize-winning dairy cow named May Rilma, who was bred and born on the famous Chesterbrook Farm of Alexander J. Cassatt, one of his famed Guernsey herd. The late Bob Goshorn once featured her world- record 19,673 pounds of milk produced in the year ended April 30, 1914 in a Quarterly article.

Times change, even on the farm. Chesterbrook is now better known as a bedroom community in the Great Valley, and this spring the Holstein Association USA, Brattleboro, VT, noted that Lucy, an eight-year old at La-Foster Farm in Ohio's Rowan county, produced 75,275 pounds of milk in a 365-day period recently. That's almost three times the normal pro­duction for a typical Holstein. And it's almost 7000 pounds more than the previous record.

Oh, well, our May Rilma had her day in the sun, but that was some 85 years ago!

Firefighters Honored for Century of Service

A pair of firefighters, Warren Davis, 77, and Gus Durante, 78, with 100 years of service between them at Berwyn and Paoli Fire Companies, were honored at a dinner and award ceremony in Berwyn on January 29, 1999.

Davis, a native of Berwyn, joined the Berwyn Fire Company in 1946. He was the department's chief engineer for more than 30 years, while also serving as a firefighter. In 1 991, he joined the Paoli Fire Company, where he remains active today as an engineer.

Durante, from Paoli, also joined his local fire company in 1946. Five years later he transferred to the Berwyn Fire Company. At Berwyn, he served as a trustee, was elected to the board, and was chosen as a vice president. He also helped establish the company's ambulance service.