Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: Spring 2004 Volume 41 Number 2, Pages 69–71

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In Memoriam: ELEANOR E. REILLY

Eleanor E. Reilly, a former member of the Tredyffrin Easttown History Club who had lived in Berwyn for 54 years, died on February 14, 2004 at New Seasons in Devon after a long illness. She was 84 years old.

Born Eleanor Green in Philadelphia, she had been a school teacher. Her late husband, James E. Reilly, was a trainman on the Paoli Local and after they moved to Berwyn she retired to raise her family.

She was a very active member of the Berwyn United Methodist Church and was also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.

Eleanor joined the History Club in 1996 and participated in club activities until her continuing health concerns precluded such involvement. She was a quiet, unassuming person with a love for local history. We will miss her.

She is survived by two sons, David and wife Helise of Malvern and James and wife April of Boothwyn, a daughter Ann Kristine Maurelli and husband Richard of Reading, a sister Marian Dennison of Philadelphia, and seven grandchildren.

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Ribbon Cutting at Conestoga High School

The completion of the renovation and expansion project at Conestoga High School was celebrated with a formal dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony on February 21, 2004. The $30 million project opened for students on September 9 with a new addition of 24 classrooms while work on supporting infrastructure continued through December. The construction has taken two years.

Visitors were invited to tour the new facility, and a short dedication ceremony took place in the Hobson C. Wagner Auditorium with remarks by Timothy Donovan, Principal of Conestoga, Peter Motel, Tredyffrin/Easttown School Board President, Victoria Ryan, Senior Class President, Emil Capetola, former district business manager who is also a graduate of the first class in 1956, and Tom Daley, of Daley & Jalboot Architects.

Conestoga High School opened in September of 1955 and was built by what was then the Paoli Area High School Authority, a consolidation of 6 school districts, which would also build the Great Valley High School in 1962, and then split into two separate K-12 school districts in 1966. Conestoga began with a student enrollment of 549 and a faculty of 35. It replaced the Tredyffrin

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Easttown High School, a block away to the east, which was demolished in 1970 to make way for enhancements to the adjacent Tredyffrin/Easttown Middle School.

Devon Wawa Closes

The Devon Wawa Food Market, erected in 1968 on Lancaster Avenue just west of Waterloo Road at the height of the convenience store building boom of the 1960s, closed on or about the first of February. The trend recently has been toward larger stores with added gas pump islands catering to the one-stop shopping customer. There is no space for expansion at the Devon Wawa location.

Easttown Township Tricentennial

The celebration of Easttown's Tricentennial continued on February 22, 2004 with a two-hour Music Jubilee at Conestoga High School. It was truly a coming together of the community, as the concert's music and dance selections ranged from colonial to contemporary and involved many people from school students to senior citizens. More than 300 participants from the community took part.

A special feature was the Tricentennial Community Band and Chorus, created just for the concert. In honor of Berwyn's "Church Hill," choirs from the original churches performed. Others included the Surrey Singers, the Sound Generation Barbershop Quartet, dancers from the Betsy Daily School of Performing Arts, and the Conestoga High School Camerata. The Conestoga Color Guard, and the Devon Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church Choir also took part.

The music was accompanied by narration and by art and photographs projected on a large screen. The program concluded with an inspired rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, with all the performers on stage and audience participation. The list of credits was extensive. A "healthy food reception," catered by Neapolitan Delicatessen of Berwyn, followed in Conestoga's new cafeteria designed in the style of a food court.

St. Luke's Lutheran Church

The congregation of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Devon, displaced by a fire on October 15, 2003 which heavily damaged core sections of its buildings, was able to return to its church sanctuary for Sunday services on February 8, 2004. The congregation, which is celebrating its 50th year, had been meeting at the Tredyffrin/Easttown Middle School in Berwyn since the fire.

State Supreme Court Justice Returns to Private Practice

Devon resident William H. Lamb, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, has rejoined Lamb McErlane PC as Chairman of the firm in which he had previously practiced for 37 years. In January 2003, Governor Mark Schweiker nominated Lamb for the seat which was subsequently confirmed. He served for one year and was the first Justice from Chester County in 147 years.

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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Tredyffrin resident Chubby Checker, whose 1960 song "The Twist" was one of the most popular dance records of all time, didn't make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at induction ceremonies on March 15, 2004 in New York. He used the occasion to stage a good¬natured protest outside the festivities in Manhattan.

He is peeved over what he considers a lack of radio airplay for the classic song and his new material. He told the Associated Press in an interview, "I don't get the air play that one in my position deserves." While the writer of the Twist," Hank Ballard, has been inducted into the Hall of Fame, Checker has not. Checker doesn't think it's necessary that he's inducted, but he does want a photograph of himself to welcome people into the Rock and Roll Museum in Cleveland, a request the Hall of Fame has not obliged.

Chinese Exchange Students

Conestoga High School welcomed three male students from the high school attached to Fudan University in Shanghai for a five-week stay in early February. The exchange program with the Shanghai school began with a visit by Tredyffrin/Easttown school administrators to China in 1997. Since then periodic student visits between the two schools have taken place.

Club Presents Map and Quarterlies

At its March 28, 2004 meeting, the History Club expressed its gratitude to the Easttown Library & Information Center for making their meeting room available for the Club's use. TEHC President Roger Thorne presented a framed copy of the 1946 Historical Map of Easttown & Tredyffrin Townships, Chester County, Pennsylvania designed by Franklin W. Wandless, a Club leader of that era.

In making the presentation, Thorne recognized the "unprecedented help and kindness received from staff members at the library in the form of assistance with technology, preparing the room for meetings, and many other instances." He added that the Tredyffrin Easttown History Club wanted to provide a tangible thank you for all the assistance.

Peggy Mahan, Director of the Library, was on hand to graciously accept the donation. In thanking the Club, she said, "I think its very exciting to receive something we can use in our new building." “It will,” according to Mahan, "be hung on the wall near the Chester County collection."

Later at the same meeting, a presentation was made to the History Department of Conestoga High School of a complete run—1937 to date—of the Tredyffrin Easttown History Club Quarterly owned by Mildred Kirkner. She has been a Club member for many years and is a 1939 graduate of the Tredyffrin-Easttown High School, a predecessor of Conestoga High School. The idea for the donation originated in a request made by John Herd, a history teacher at Conestoga. At the presentation, Thorne said that Kirkner "conveyed her willingness to contribute her collection of some 150 quarterlies for a worthy cause." The offer was accepted by Herd and several of his students who were on hand to receive the donation and to thank Kirkner personally.