Then and Now

SURREY SERVICES FOR SENIORS, BERWYN

Berwyn Grammar School
Lucy Sampson 1906 photo courtesy of TEHS


Surrey Services for Seniors
Photo courtesy of TEHS



Surrey Services for Seniors (LOWER) has been at its present location at 28 Bridge Avenue, Berwyn across from the Berwyn Fire Company since December 2000. Prior to that, the building housed the Paoli Branch of the southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the Red Cross for more than 50 years beginning in 1932. The original building on this site was the Berwyn Grammar School (UPPER) – also called the Easttown Grammar School – used between 1886 and 1926.

Another 1906 Lucy Sampson photograph of the Berwyn Grammar School showing children dancing around a maypole in the area of lower right corner of the above photograph can be seen on the home page of the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society at www.tehistory.org.

The Paoli Branch of the Red Cross purchased, with local contributions, an annex behind this original school building, which had been taken down, from the Easttown School Board in April 1943. The branch underwent several administrative name changes: Upper Main Line Branch (1959), Wayne-Paoli Branch (1971), Eastern Chester County Branch (1983), and was finally consolidated into two branches in Villanova and West Chester.

In the 1990s the building housed a series of offices and underwent a number of changes and additions.

When Surrey Services moved in in 2000 they renovated the old building. Surrey Services is a non-profit community supported organization providing transportation, activities, home care, and volunteer opportunities since 1981 for older residents from Bryn Mawr to Malvern. The banner over the upper window in the photograph below announces 25 years of service.

These 2 photographs were taken almost exactly 100 years apart and are an excellent example of how the use of this same location in our community has evolved over time.

 

Page last updated: 2007-03-21 at 16:25 EDT
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