Author: Doug Humes

The United States celebrated its 200th birthday in Philadelphia on July 4th, 1976. The Bicentennial was a stone in the pond, whose ripples continue to be felt. The ripples reached to Oak Lodge on Middletown Road in Gradyville, where long-time resident Jane Levis Carter had been keeping research notes and records on Edgmont Township since her childhood.

After Delaware County was split off from Chester County in 1789, a new road was…

Following the American Revolution, a civil war took place in Chester County. The county seat was…

Carl Ewing, past Chief the Newtown Square Fire Company is now the “Official Time Capsule Opener.” When the first firehouse building was built in 1916, a copper box was sealed in the cornerstone.

Where do you begin to tell the history of Castle Rock, once one of the most prominent places in Edgmont Township?

Each September we recognize Constitution Day on September 17th, to celebrate the U.S. Constitution. Over…

West Chester Pike has been a witness to the history of transportation in Delaware County. From its first creation in the 1790s, the road saw foot traffic, horse and wagons, a “plank road” turnpike, regular stagecoach service and finally in 1895, a horse-drawn and later motorized trolley line that eventually connected the 69th Street Terminal with West Chester.

Newtown was a sleepy country crossroads for much of its history. Today, it is two miles from I-476. And if different choices had been made, the interstate highway would have crossed right through the eastern portion of the Township.

When I first joined the Newtown Square Historical Society in the mid 1990’s, there was very little going on: a monthly public program but not much else.