Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives


Source: April 1995 Volume 33 Number 2, Pages 83–86


Notes and Comments

Page 83

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The History Center

The formal opening of The History Center of the Chester County Historical Society in West Chester on April 29, 1995 will mark the culmination of the Society's observance of its centennial.

Actually, the Society reached its 100th anniversary in 1993, at which time its "Historic Vision" campaign that made The History Center a reality was started. It was in April 1893 that a group of ten well-known West Chester men founded the Chester County Historical Society. Originally located in the West Chester Public Library, it soon outgrew those quarters and moved to the Normal School [now West Chester University], where it remained until 1937. It then moved into its own building, the old Horticultural Hall, on High Street.

Despite renovations in the early 1940s and in 1975, after fifty years these quarters too were outgrown, and additional space was again needed. When the old YMCA building on High Street, across Evans Street from Horticultural Hall, was offered for sale in 1987, the solution was at hand. In late 1988 the property was purchased and architectural planning for its renovation, including a restoration of its original 1908 exterior, begun. In the fall of 1993 the fund-raising campaign, which was to bring in more than $4,500,000, was launched, and with the opening of The History Center the project has become a reality.

Page 84

The addition has more than tripled the available space, from about 15,000 square feet to more than 50,000 square feet. The administrative offices and library are now located in the new section, with the museum in the old Horticultural Hall area. An enclosed walkway over Evans Street connects the two buildings.

The library, which re-opened on January 16th, is on the first floor of the old YMCA building, with about two or three times its former space. There is now seating and work space for 36 visitors, compared with space for only 12 persons formerly, and more of the library's material is now stored in the "open" stacks, readily available for research. For the "closed" stacks, specially-designed movable compact storage that takes only about two-thirds as much space has been installed, with room for growth. The microfilm area is now separate from the reading room, and an additional microfilm reader-printer has been added. A work room, in which the staff can begin cataloguing and indexing material previously relatively unavailable and in storage, including the famed Albert Cook Myers collection, in some 350 boxes, some 80 boxes of architectural records, and 40 boxes of material recently received from the Chester County Hospital, has also been added.

More than five million items were moved in relocating the library.

In addition to the library, an enlarged museum shop is on the first floor of the old "Y" building. On the second and third floors are the staff offices, a classroom, two conference rooms, an auditorium [in the old gymnasium] which can accommodate 250 to 300 people, a large conservation work room, and storage space. The basement also provides additional storage space [in the old bowling alley], and office space for the Volunteers.

The museum will now occupy the whole of the Horticultural Hall building, with storage space on the third floor. It will include nine galleries instead of the previous five, with four expected to be used for temporary or changing exhibits and five for permanent exhibits. (It is hoped that some of the changing exhibits will be timely in their content and shown for only short periods of time. They will also provide an opportunity to feature items from the collections never before exhibited.)

During the renovation work in the construction of these galleries, some 40,000 items had to be moved out of Horticultural Hall for temporary storage in the new building.

Five exhibits will be ready for the opening in April. Visitors will begin their tour of The History Center with an introductory exhibit that explores three centuries of Chester County history, with material from a variety of the Society's collections. They will then move across the bridge to the re-designed decorative arts gallery. Other exhibits in Horticultural Hall will include a photographic exhibit, "All in a Day's Work", a look at people at work in various trades and occupations from the 1860s through the 1940s; an exhibit, "For Victory", featuring the home front during the second World War, in recognition of the 50th anniversary of World War II; and an exhibit, entitled "To Everything a Season", focusing on the art and paintings of Ida Ella Ruth Jones, a Chester County Afro-American artist who was active during the middle third of this century.

Page 85

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Daylesford Railroad Station Razed

The old train station -- or perhaps more properly, the old shelter -- at Daylesford was torn down in February after it had been declared unsafe and in danger of toppling over.

As soon as it was discovered that the structure was in hazardous condition, it was decided to tear it down. As Terry Woodman, the assistant township manager for Tredyffrin township explained, "They [SEPTA] were concerned that if we got another snowstorm, the weight of the snow on the roof of the building could cause it to collapse and slide into Route 30."

The demolition work was started on February 18th at about four o'clock in the morning, when traffic on Route 30 was light, and the station was simply pulled down towards the highway. By noon the building had been demolished and all the lumber and scrap material cleaned up and carted away, with nothing remaining to suggest that a building had stood there only eight hours earlier.

SEPTA, it was reported, is planning to build a new shelter there shortly for its commuters.

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Veteran Berwyn Dentist Retires

William H. Stevens, D.D.S., took down his shingle in Berwyn last August 1st after practising dentistry at 682 Lancaster Avenue in Berwyn for more than 40 years. "Doc" Stevens came to Berwyn in 1953 from Coaldale, in the coal regions of Pennsylvania, with his wife Laura and two children, Fred and Linda, to take over the practice of his uncle, Fred Stevens, who was retiring at that time.

Just out of Temple University School of Dentistry -- like many war veterans his attendance made possible through the GI Bill -- he set up practice with the second hand equipment of his predecessor, which he used throughout his career.

He always worked alone, giving his patients his full attention without the aid of an assistant. "When I first started," he said, "there was no point in having one because I didn't have enough patients and, frankly, I couldn't afford one. And then I got so used to it that I just continued." Working alone had its compensations, however, as it permitted flexibility in scheduling and arranging appointments.

"Doc" Stevens' fishing trips to Canada are a legend in themselves, and his office, decorated with a deer head trophy, "attested to his hunting skill." He was also one of the organizers of the Upper Main Line Church Bowling League at Devon Lanes in 1958 -- it still meets on Friday evenings -- and in recent years he has also taken up quilting, with his work much admired at local shows.

Page 86

The Stevens family has long been members of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Berwyn. The church maintains a sister-church relationshipo with a congregation in Devon, Jamaica, a contact that made him aware of the need which existed there for dental care. Upon his retirement Bill Stevens therefore chose not to sell his practice, although it would likely have been financially rewarding to do so; instead, he donated his dental equipment to the First Missionary Church in Kingston, Jamaica. Although some of it dated back 80 years, it was still quite serviceable -- and was welcomed by the recipients.

Through a volunteer effort, the equipment in Berwyn was disassembled, put in crates, and shipped ahead. On October 28th he then accompanied a group from Trinity to Jamaica, where he helped to set up and install it in a dental clinic in Kingston.

Last February word was received that the clinic had begun serving its first patients. At the worship service on February 19, 1995 at Trinity, "Doc" Stevens was recognized for his wonderful gift to the less fortunate in Jamaica.

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