Bee Dee Street

Learning about your community yields all sorts of surprises. Take a look at the image on the left that was one of the initial plans for the part of La Mott west of Sycamore Avenue. It includes the public school that is now known as the La Mott Community Center. You can see, and this by the way is only part of the original planning document, that what is now B-D Street was originally going to be called Bee Dee Street. On the right is a photo I took of the community gardens and this view shows the intersection at Graham Lane and B-D Street. I don't know why and when the street name spelling changed, but obviously it did. As a child, we understood that the street was named after a pack of Bad Dogs that roamed the street or Benjamin Davis, who ever that was.

Please note that on the image on the left the school is called Camp Town Public School. This is one of a few original documents that a neighbor gave me the opportunity to digitally photograph. It is also one of the only documents that I've ever seen that has the original name of the village of Camp Town. Sometime after the after the Civil War when the land was known as Camp William Penn the area was planned with the names of the owners of various parcels of land and the street names. Notice also the one street is called "Beach" and in actuality became "Beech" Avenue.

On the other side of this small map, which is about 5" x 8", Edward Davis' name appears. (Actually, the name reads as E. M. Davis.) I make the assumption that this is Edward M. Davis, Lucretia Mott's son-in-law. Anyhoo, on this side of the map, he refers to the date January 1, 1885. The document itself is not dated, so perhaps it was prepared in 1884. Best as I can figure, he was instrumental in planning part of the village. I've not seen a map that refers to the village east of Sycamore Avenue, but perhaps there is one in existance somewhere.

Do you know how any of the streets in your community got their name? What urban legends exist about the area where you live?

Estelle Burley Anderson (1920-2010)

In my last blog post, I reported my Cousin Stanley's death. A few weeks after Cousin Stanley died, his older sister Cousin Stelle pasted away. It was a challenging time for the family.

I spent a lot of time with my Cousin Stelle between sharing a meal at Applebee's in Jenkintown or stopping by her house for a quick chat. She was so interested in family and local history as am I. We shared the same Burley relatives and I was always so entralled to hear tales of her father, mother, siblings and the rest of the family. She was also a 'Washington' through her mother and I enjoyed hearing about that side of her family as well. One of her relatives, Robert Washington, lived right next door to my Uncle Miltie (Milton) and Aunt Alice Jones. It's an interesting experience be directly or indirectly related to so many people in one neighborhood.

One of the last times that my mother and Cousin Stelle and I went out to dinner, Cousin Stelle talked about how much the times have changed. She stated that she thought kids today were growing up too fast.

She talked about playing jacks and ball and 'store' where the stones were potatoes and the leaves were vegetables. A child can use his/her imagination through free play.

I will still continue to blog about Cousin Stelle on occasion as I so often took notes when we visited together and I want to share her knowledge.

Stanley Burley (1932 - 2010)

Stanley Burley was born in La Mott, educated in the Cheltenham Township School System and eventually moved to Willingboro, NJ. He was my mother's cousin. His father and my mother's mother were brother and sister.

At this funeral, one of his friends touched upon how as a child Cousin Stanley stated that he wanted to be funeral director when he became an adult. He fulfilled his life's dream and worked for several years in his profession. My best guess is that he was influenced by his father who was one of the founders of Fairview Cemetery, a black-owned and operated organization located in Upper Dublin, Montgomery County.

I was moved my the fact that he knew what he wanted as a child and his steps were directed down that path. He worked at other places and he attended Mercer Community College and Temple University to achieve his goal.

He was a devoted father, uncle and brother. My primary recollection of him was when there was a historical program about La Mott, he and his wife would come over from New Jersey to the La Mott Community Center and I was impressed by that. It's like he never forgot where he came from and the historical significance of the community.

He was a graduate of Cheltenham High School (Go Panthers!) and he served in the Air Force shortly after graduating from CHS.

During the repast, I sat with a couple of women who knew Cousin Stanley from Willingboro. They had me in stitches because both Cousin Stanley and his wife got on the "Net." They were on Facebook and had email accounts as well. It's great to hear when people in the 70's and 80's are busy searching the web. Apparently there were two personal computers in the home with each of the two having his/her own access.

I am fortunate to be part of a family that moves with the times.

Wm Ritchie and La Mott Realty Company

Recently, I came across the will of one of my great-grandfathers who lived in La Mott. Written in 1931, there are references to his having stock in both La Mott Realty and Fairview Cemetery Companies. I wondered if there was a link between the two organizations. Turns out there is.

The Realty Company was located on School Lane at Cheltenham Avenue (then City Line Avenue). After a relative mentioned the company and a Mr. Ritchie, I hopped over to the Old York Road Historical Society archives to see what information they had on hand. The 1937 Atlas of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania has a reference to the Realty Company complete with address on School Lane. This confirmed the physical location of the company.

Fairview Cemetery is the final resting place of people from La Mott and outer-lying areas like Germantown. Right smack dab in the middle of the cemetery is a large simple monument in the shape of a head stone with the name Ritchie on it. For decades I wondered who or what was Ritchie.

It turns out that Mr. William A. Ritchie was a prominent citizen in La Mott and a founder of the Fairview Cemetery in Upper Dublin. He was also the owner and major share holder of the La Mott Building and Loan Association according to Elaine W. Rothschild's Old York Road Historical Society Bulletin. I read that Mr. Ritchie was also employed as a butler by George Elkins as in the Elkins Estate and Elkins Park. Ritchie was the person who loaned money to La Mott residents to buy homes and set up businesses. The Realty Company and the Building and Loan Association were both owned by Ritchie.

In a 1927 publication of building assessments in La Mott and other areas in Cheltenham Township, I noted that the Real Estate Holding Company building was assessed at $1,100, the La Mott Realty Company building was assessed at $2,000 and the Real Estate Holding Company building (listed a second time) was assessed in the amount of $29,000.

Mr. Ritchie went on to organize the Fairview Cemetery in Upper Dublin, PA in 1907 with others and served as first president. (The cemetery is about 20 or so minutes from La Mott.) James Burley, Ritchie's partner, and my great-great uncle, "aided prospective black homeowners or businessmen in the purchase of property" according to the website http://www.livingplaces.com/PA/Montgomery_County/Cheltenham_Township/LaMott.html.

Mr. Ritchie was an important person in La Mott largely because of his ability and foresight to help the other citizens. A tribute to him, if you will, was the monument that sits on the Ritchie Section at Fairview cemetery.

As for my great-grandfather, Walker Jones, having stock in the company must have been especially rewarding for him. The 1880 U.S. Census records him as being a farm laborer in Upper Dublin with a wife and small children. He came quite a long way from laborer to home and stock owner.

Hooper? Say What?

That's right--Hooper. Basically, Hooper is a sophisticated game of tag played in usually in the warmer months. Like most games, there are some rules and when I ran into Darryl, a childhood friend, he gave me the lowdown on how the game was played. This is his narrative.

"The game usually involved 10 or more participants; I've seen 20 at times. The more, the merrier! Two of those participants were needed to get the game started - one being the "spinner", the other the "chucker." There were sometimes loud and contentious (but brief) debates about who would get to be spinner or chucker. I cannot remember why these positions were held in such esteem. The participants would stand in a circle, legs slightly spread, with the shoes of each participant touching those next to him/her so there was an unbroken circle. Prior to gathering in a circle, a stick, usually a small tree branch was found and the bark picked off of one end to the be "point". Here's where the spinner's job started and the game got fun!

"Standing as one of the participants in the circle, the spinner would spin/toss the stick into the middle of the circle and the "point" would end up pointing either to someone's foot (a "shoe") or directly between their legs (a "through"). If a participant receive 2 "throughs" or 3 "shoes", they were considered "it". More about that in a sec...

"Depending on the number of players, the spinning part could take a bit of time, but this was fun too. Because of the randomness of the spin and the group's judgment as to whose shoe the stick might actually be pointing to, there was often cause for the spinner to get down on hands and knees and draw and invisible line in the grass from the stick to the shoe to accurately determine who had gotten a "shoe". And then there was keeping track of how many "shoes" and "throughs" everyone had. More spirited debates, more fun!

"Eventually after numerous spins, throughs, shoes, etc., someone would be deemed "it". At this point, the boundaries of the game were briefly re-iterated; the Community Center and the entire block around it were the boundaries. The was bounded by Sycamore Avenue, Willow Avenue, B-D Street and Graham Lane. Participants were not supposed to leave this block during the game. You could run, you could find a hiding place (Mrs. Manley's tree for me, when she did not see you), as long as you remained on the block.

"This is where the "chucker's" job came in. With all participants still in the area where the circle was formed (including the "it" person), the stick was handed to the "chucker" whose job it was to "chuck" the stick as far away as possible, giving all participants a head start to get away from the person who was "it". No one could run until that stick was tossed. Once tossed, all were free to run. When the "it" person retrieved the stick and broke it in half, the game was officially "on" and they were free to try and tag/capture other players. Fun facts" depending on who was "it", some chuckers through it amusing to feign throwing the stick and simply drop it in the midst of the group where the person who was "it" could grab it quickly and tag someone before the slower runners in the group dispersed. If you were a fast-running chucker, this was not an issue but to slower participants, this usually meant they were caught early.

"OK, so the game has started, kids are running and hiding all over the place. Once the person who was "it" tags someone, they are considered "it" also and their job is to assist in catching everyone else. The more people who were caught, the more difficult it became to remain untagged since that group outnumbered those uncaught. With the game spread out over the Center grounds and sometimes throughout the block, participants could not always tell who was "caught" and who was not. So your friend walking up to you with a smile might deceive you with "c'mon lets hide over here" then tag you when you got close. Once it got down to 2-3 people left uncaught, the "caught" folks would usually devise a way to the remaining players. Eventually, the group would determine who was left and there would be the winner!

"Other facts:
1. You did not want a Christopher to be "it", particularly Calvin. Extremely fast runner with endurance who would run you down because you would tire long before he did.

2. Some hiding places were good only once or twice. Mrs. Manley's tree was a good one until someone saw me climbing down after I'd won. In subsequent Hooper games, it became one of the 1st places people looked.

3. Mr. Berry's garage (when open) was a good spot!"

Wildlife in La Mott

A few days ago, I looked at the back door in the evening to see an opossum looking for food. The floodlight was on so I got a good look at this invader. I don't think it was an adult as it seemed a bit smaller than those I've been before. Actually, most of the opossums I've seen in the past were paws up on the side of the road and I don't think they were faking it.

Anyhoo, I thought this creature was pretty cute although many 'possums lean towards the not so cute side. The creature navigated the yard a bit before disappearing from my sight. Later, I look out again to see if the 'possum might have reappeared and here I am looking at a skunk's hindquarters! I watched it only for a moment before closing the door.

A day later, I was chatting with a neighbor and we talked about the creatures that we've seen in and around La Mott including chipmunks, pheasants, foxes, a small herd of deer including a buck, raccoons and groundhogs. As we've seen the various forms of wildlife, they each seemed to move as if they owned the neighborhood and who's to say that they don't. Then again, whose going to argue with a family of skunks walking across the community center's grounds or along Graham Lane as if they are on their way to some important destination?

There are times when the animals aren't moving freely in the 'hood. One early Sunday morning I was walking around Latham Park, the former location of Lucretia Mott's home Roadside. A small deer was stuck between two iron pickets. It had rubbed its hind part sides raw to the point where you could see flesh and blood. Two police officers responded to a neighbors call as the animal control officer wasn't on duty. One officer climbed the fence, went over to where the deer was stuck and separated the pickets. Don't know how much strength he had to exert since we're talking about a wrought iron fence here, but the deer was released, ran across Willow Avenue and scampered away.

Ruth's Grille and LaMott Ice and Coal

Making the decision to study local history seems to be full of more questions than answers. In the case of La Mott or LaMott (spacing apparently is everything), without those who have gone before me I am clueless. There is so much that was going on in the village at one time or another and I rely on the memories of others to assist me in my search for information. The challenge is finding someone who was alive "back in the day" and whether or not any photos or documentation exist.

In a program for Salem Baptist Church's fashion show hold Wednesday Evening, November 5, 1952, I see advertisements for Ruth's Grille and for LaMott Ice and Coal. The photos show the building where the Grille and Coal shop were once located. Looking at the picture above you have what is simply a home to a family in 2010. Looking at the side of the building is the outline of a staircase that has since been removed. My objective is to find someone who purchased a sandwich, ice cream or coal for their furnace from this address to fill in some of the details.

One thing that does occur to me is who takes photos of places like this? When I visit my old stomping grounds of Washington, DC or Horsham, England, I am aware of the historical significance of the buildings that my friend is standing in front of as I take the picture. But how historical is the local coal shop or grocery store?

Think about it, sometimes what is in the background of a photo can be later found to have as much historical significance as what is in the foreground of that same photo. For example, I read a biography about Teddy Roosevelt a few years ago. In the book's center is a section with personal and professional photographs. You can see one photo of President Lincoln's funeral procession as it passed through New York City in 1865. In the background is a picture of Teddy Roosevelt and his brother hanging out of a window, looking towards the procession. The photo centered on the casket, the dignitaries and the military and yet a future president was also represented.

I'm sure there are photos out there with the old post office or Mr. McConnell's grocery or my great-uncle's print shop in the background of a family snapshot or something similar. The question remains will I find the oral history of a place as well as a photo from the past?