“More About Real Estate. Some Observations, Hints and Precautions Concerning Swarthmore Real Estate by William Eastburn Witham, Vice-President, Wm. H. Wilson Co.” (1 & 10 – CV and RE) – Witham described how Swarthmore grew and by 1900 became “an honest-to-goodness suburb” whose “land values were still quite low, because building lots were plentiful – until the advent of automobiles “which attracted increasing numbers of suburbanites by robbing country life of some of its ‘terrors'”. He continued with a prognosis of the current and future real-estate market.
Photo courtesy of The Phoenix: “On the Water Tower” with caption “Members of the Student Endowment Drive Committee of Swarthmore College, ready to start painting the water tower.”32 (1 – SC and SN)
“Drive for College Endowment Fund Progressing Rapidly: Paint Water Tower” (1 & 7 – SC) – “When the two million asked for the educational and athletic endowment is raised, the tower will be completely painted white and the success of the drive will be assured.” The article breaks down how the money was earmarked, e.g., $250K for a new gym and $800K for faculty salary increases and leaves.
“Children’s Story Hour to Be Held Today” (1 – CE and WO) – Robin Hood stories were to be read by Miss Elizabeth Roberts of Glendolden.
Photo courtesy of The Phoenix: “Art Student Hard at Work” with caption “Caroline Robinson is at the top of her profession as an artist. As Woman Chairman of the Student Endowment Drive Committee, she is here applying paint to the water tower.” (1 – SC)
“Open Forum at Woman’s Club Tuesday” (1 – WO) – “The President of the Club and her Executive Board are anxious to have a full and free discussion of various aspects of Club life, especially as related to our own Club problems.”
“Request for Clothing” (1 – CW) – Mrs. Walter Reynolds of Swarthmore solicited “partly worn clothing for women and children to be used in the social service work, in Chester.”
“Swarthmoreans Pay Tribute to Ralph F. Channell” (1 – AD and BB) – Channell had recently filled the Borough Council vacancy left by the resignation of Thomas B. McCabe. The announcement was followed by a tribute to Channell by Carroll Thayer who called him ‘a man’s man’ and noted, “I think we loved him for the manly way in which he carried his heavy burden”, and by more kind words from E. C. W.
“Amy S. Flarelle” (1 – AD)
“Good Pianist; Poor Conductor” (1 & 10 – AC and JR) – reprinting of letter in the Philadelphia Public Ledger by Mrs. George T. Ashton of Cedar Lane criticizing the Philadelphia Orchestra’s hiring of Ossip Gabrilowitsch33 to step into Leopold Stokowski’s shoes
“Identity of a Neighbor” (1 – BB) – “The arrangement of the article about Swarthmore real estate by ‘A Neighbor’ led some people to believe that the author was S. E. Simmonds. This was unfortunate as Mr. Simmonds was only the author of the tribute which appeared directly beneath the real estate article.”
Item (1 – BB and SC) – “Now that it has become fashionable to name streets in the Borough for presidents of Swarthmore College, we were thinking the other day of how euphonious Ayedelotte avenue would be.”
“Social and Personal” (2 – SL)
Ad: “Phone Orders to Gimbles Philadelphia Absolutely FREE!” (2 – QA) – “Beginning today, if your telephone exchange is listed below, you can call Gimbels Telephone Order Department as easily as you can call Mrs. Jones across the street.”
“‘Our Town’ Topic of Women Voters. Burgess and Other Borough Officials Speak at Woman’s Club House. Police Complimented” (3 – BB, PI, and WO) – The League of Women Voters of Swarthmore’s April 29th meeting was “to discuss ‘Our Town.’ Our Burgess, Mr. Carroll Thayer, with interesting anecdote and humorous allusion, contrasted the difference between the duties of this office when he held it twenty years ago and now. In those early days, the Burgess was not only Swarthmore’s only policeman, but acted as dog catcher as well, and his varied and onerous duties kept him busy most of the twenty-four hours of the day.” Mr. Roland Eaton “complimented the efficiency of the police force, and on his motion a resolution was passed by the meeting, commending the efforts of the police force to rid Swarthmore of all undesirable characters”.
“Negro Music Program at Clubhouse Tomorrow” (3 – AC, NA, RR, and WO) – The Lincoln University Glee Club was due to perform on May 4th at the Woman’s Clubhouse. “There will be music by such well known composers as Burleigh,34 Dett and others, as well as folk songs and the spirituals, which none can render so effectively as the singers of this race. The Negro music, together with the Indian, form a big part of America’s contribution to the World’s music.”
Ad for the Swarthmore Radio Shop: “Just Out” (3 – QA and RR) – Among the advertised 78 rpm Columbia records was “Wake Up! Chill’un Wake Up!” and “Old Fashioned Lady” by the Ipana Troubadours.35
“Women’s Association to Meet on May 10” (3 – CW, RS and WO) – After “hospital sewing” and a luncheon hosted by Mrs. Carroll Thayer, the Woman’s Association of the Presbyterian Church was scheduled to have a devotional service and a lecture by Mrs. I. H. O’Hara of Philadelphia on “Christian Patriotism.”
“Girl Scout Notes” (4 – KO)
“Car Chased by Local Police Wrecked” (4 – CV, PI, and SX) – Three men in a stolen car were hurt when, in an attempt to escape the police, they hit a “telephone pole and turned over [and caught fire] at the intersection of Swarthmore avenue and the Baltimore pike.”
“Swarthmore Woman’s [sic] Paintings Exhibited” (4 – SN) – The article mentioned several members of the Alumnae Association of the School of Design for Women whose work was featured at the Forrest Memorial Gallery.
“‘Meet the Wife’ Next Players’ Club Show” (4 – AC, CO, and WO) – This “very amusing comedy of American domestic life” by Lynn Starling was to be shown at the Woman’s Club. 36
“Our Demoralizing Tobacco Advertising” (4 – ED, QA, SC, and TS) – “During the past few weeks we have received several letters of a rather personal nature deploring the fact that The Swarthmorean has had to stoop to printing cigaret advertising in order to keep alive. One letter felt that our policy was particularly shameful in as much as we were circulating the paper among the students at the college, at whom the cigaret advertising is aimed. We fear, however, that just as long as the Chesterfield people feel that they are using The Swarthmorean to advantage and are willing to pay for space in the paper we shall feel inclined to carry their message.”37 This item ended with this admonition: “Anyone would have to be deaf, dumb and blind to escape the appeals of the cigaret manufacturers these days and we don’t feel that any of Swarthmore’s youth will be demoralized by whatever tobacco advertising they may read in The Swarthmorean.”
“Church News” (3 – RS)
“The Building and Real Estate Activities of Swarthmore and Vicinity” (5 – RE) – Page heading
“Appoint Teachers for Next Year. Two Members of High School Faculty Win Fellowship at U. of P. All Vacancies Filled” (5 & 8 – CE, BS, and SN) – Joseph E. Malin, head of the Science Department at Swarthmore High School, and Miss Margaret E. Schell, English teacher at the high school, received free tuition and stipends of $1,000 and $300 respectively to study at the University of Pennsylvania. This item also mentioned replacements for the teachers who were resigning at the end of the school year because they were getting married, i.e., only unmarried women, all identified as “Miss,” were teaching school.
Ad from the C. W. Griffith Corporation of Wilmington, DE: “Brighton Shores, A Modern Development in Southern New Jersey on the Atlantic Ocean”38 (5 – BA, BR, QA, RE, and RR) – Brighton Shores was a “carefully restricted community, where you can purchase a complete cottage or an improved site, and build to your own plans, with full assurance that you have the best the seashore has to offer and that you will be among people with whom association will be a pleasure.”
“Col. Wetherill Applauded Here. B. and C. Association Host to Head of Regional Planning Assn. Discuss Crum Pollution” (6 – CO, EC, and RP) – Chamber of Commerce representative Albert R. Granger spoke about his organization’s work. Wetherill, president of the Regional Planning Federation, then spoke to the some 100 Swarthmore residents in attendance. He “condemned the use of out door sign boards as advertising mediums. He was also interrogated following his address about ways and means of beautifying Crum Creek and keeping the industries above Swarthmore from dumping dyestuffs into the water.” There was additional discussion “about a by-pass road around Swarthmore to carry the heavy traffic away from the center of the borough.” The Regional Planning Federation was drawing up plans of that nature.
“Regional Planning as It Affects the Suburban Areas” (6 – CV, PN, and RP) – explained that the Regional Planning Federation was developing “a comprehensive plan which will serve as a long-term guide for the physical developing of the region of which Philadelphia is the heart.” With 3,500,00 residents in the area, expectations were for 5,700,000 by 1970.39 The “violent upheaval in population trends”, i.e., the explosion of suburban communities, was due to the “general introduction of the motor car as a means of quick and cheap transportation”.
“School News of the Week – College, High, Prep, Mary Lyon, P. M. C.” (7) – page heading
Cartoon by G. Lippincott (’31) with caption “C’Mon, Alums – Let’s Make It Balance” (7 – SC) – shows the college’s expenses on one side (faculty, library, heating, athletics, gym) and ways to contribute toward the $2,750,000 the students were trying to raise on the other (by wire, air mail, regular mail, train, riding atop a cow)
“Annual May Day Dance at College” (7 – SC) “Boy Scout Notes” (7 – KO)
“Community Ball Team Needs Help. Players Are Willing to Work If Citizens Give Support. Finances Big Problem” (8 – SS) – “During the next two weeks the people of Swarthmore will have to decide whether or not they want a local baseball team.”
“Classified” (9)
“Estate Notices” (9) “Sheriff Sale” (9 – RE)
“Public Library to Open May 17. Public Invited to Inspect Rooms and Start Using Library. Add New Members” (9 – BB)
“Formal Dedication of New Library Addition” (9 – QS) – annex of the Friends’ Historical library completed “to the present library building”
“Final Programs of Rose Valley Chorus” (9 – AC) “News Notes” (9 – SL)
“County Meeting of League of Women” (10 – DC, IR, and WO) – The program included several talks, including one by “Tom Skeyhill, the brilliant, young, Australian Journalist and Lecturer” on “Mussolini: Demagogue – Statesman? A Message to Democracy.”
Ad for Strawbridge & Clothier: “Free Telephone Service from Swarthmore” (10 – QA)
“Correction” (10 – AC and WO) – The April 19th issue omitted Mrs. Harlan Updegraff from the names of those who “worked a few years ago” with the Woman’s Club Chorus.
NOTES:
32 In the previous issue, James Michener was named as the student who launched the drive. Presumably, he is among the six (white) students in this photo.
33 Born the son of a Jewish lawyer in St. Petersburg in 1878, Gabrilowitsch was best known as a pianist and husband of Mark Twain’s daughter Clara Clemens.
34 According to the Library of Congress website accessed in August 2020, Henry Thacker Burleigh (1866-1949) “was the first African-American composer acclaimed for his concert songs as well as for his adaptations of African-American spirituals.” 35 The Ipana Troubadours were in fact the Sam Lanin Orchestra. Judging by a photo in the Wikipedia entry for this group, they were all white.
36 During its 1923-1924 Broadway run, the cast of this play included Humphrey Bogart and Clifton Webb. A contemporary review by Peggy Hill on Bogie Online called him “more manly and a lot more handsome than Rudolph Valentino. If I had to be carried away to a Sheik’s tent in the desert, I’d much rather be in Bogart’s arms than prissy Valentino’s.”
37 Indeed, on page seven, the Chesterfield ad with the “Beautiful but dumb” caption appeared in The Swarthmorean for the second time in a row.
38 An ad for Brighton in the May 10th Swarthmorean did not repeat this racist and antisemitic pitch; it focused on the 1363% appreciation in Cape May County real estate prices. Future ads also omitted anything about a restricted client base.
39 In 2017, the population of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, which includes Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington, and the surrounding areas, was around six million, according to the “Delaware Valley” entry in Wikipedia accessed in August 2020.