Parkesburg Yesterday

Parkesburg Today is indebted to Kathi Rendall and unofficial Parkesburg historian Kerry Glenn this morning for the contents of this post.  Kathi posted the three post cards below on Facebook yesterday and Kerry's subsequent comments were worth capturing on these pages.  Thanks to both!

Post card courtesy of Kathi Rendall

Kerry Glenn's comment:

See the "Bell Telephone" sign two doors west of the Bank? That's where the town's switchboards were prior to 1933. Two of my Great-Aunts worked there as Operators - Helen Varnes and Irene Cromleigh.

Post card courtesy of Kathi Rendall

Kerry Glenn's Comment:

A few of those old tourist cabins are still there - and another is next door at the former "Piston Poppers" cycle track. Cement post is the Lincoln Highway mile marker, installed in 1928.

Post card courtesy of Kathi Rendall

Kerry Glenn's comments:

1916 Seagraves. When my Grandmother & Grandfather (F. Roy and Mae Varnes Connell) returned home from their Honeymoon trip in 1925, the Fire Co. pulled up in front of their house one evening, sat them up high in the back, and drove them all over with the siren wailing and the bell clanging.

My Grandfather was Fire Chief at the time, and they came up in the fire truck to 520 Second Avenue prior to the monthly Fire Co. meeting, put them on the truck and drove around town, then dropped her off at home again and they drove back over to the old Fire Hall (State Street) and then had their meeting. 

Just For Fun - Follow Up

Yesterday's Just For Fun posting featured the above picture and asked three questions:

What is it?
Where was it originally?
Where is it now?

Kathi Rendall was the first respond when she posted this comment:

"Sign at Boyd's Corner, showing Lincoln Hwy travelers the way to Parkesburg and it is now at the point"

We all knew however, even though he was officially disqualified from answering, Kerry Glenn would weigh in with the definitive answer.

And come through he did!  Halfway through the day I had two Facebook emails from Kerry which I share with you this morning.

January 3, 1957 newspaper clipping. "Boyd's Corner" no longer exists - it was the intersection of Penna. Route #122 and the Lincoln Highway in western Chester County. It was closed off in 1961.

 
By Kerry Glenn

This was "Boyd's Corner," in Sadsbury Township, Chester County, Penna. in 1957. It was the intersection of Penna. Route # 122 and the Lincoln Highway - U. S. Route #30. 

Upper left is the Lincoln Highway heading east towards Coatesville, and lower right is the Lincoln Highway headed westward towards Lancaster. 

Lower left is then - Route #122 (now Compass Road) headed north towards Compass, and upper right is then - Route # 122 headed south towards Parkesburg. 

House in the center of the picture surrounded by trees was the one-time "Black Horse Inn," built in 1794 as a tavern stop for travelers on the Philadelphia-Lancaster Turnpike (now Route # 30), and ancestral home of the Boyd family from 1794 until it was sold and passed out of the ownership of Boyd descendants in 2001. 

Marquis de Lafayette

The Marquis de Lafayette, french hero of the American Revolution, stayed overnight here in the front east-side second floor bedroom on the night of July 24-25, 1825, while on his farewell tour of the United States. His team of horses and carriage were kept in the barn across the road (beside the Texaco station), which was demolished in March of 1959 to make access for the new on-ramp for the current Route # 30 by-pass. 

This barn was so solidly built - legend has that it boasted an eighty-foot long main support beam - that it frustrated the efforts of the Pennsylvania Department of Highways engineers to demolish it. It took several attempts, and when it finally gave way, the stone walls fell outward and blocked the roadway until they could be removed! Sounds like the Boyd's barn was seeking revenge against the short-sighted officials who should have found a way to preserve this VERY historic barn rather than destroy it. 

The intersection was closed off then and only the segment of the former Route #122 to the lower left remains in use today. Route # 122 was then re-designated as Route # 10 and was re-routed to a new alignment a quarter mile west of Boyd's Corner, where it now borders no less than a -- WAL*MART!!! 

Gym wall at Parkesburg Point where the sign now hags

In the right-hand side of the intersection, there was a lighted arrow-shaped sign with yellow letters that read "PARKESBURG" and pointed in it's direction - if you stare at this long enough, you can find it. Supposedly the sign is in a youth center building in Parkesburg now.