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    Chester
    Chester
    Chester
    Ebook158 pages25 minutes

    Chester

    By Chester Historical Preservation Committee

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    About this ebook

    From the late 19th century until the mid-20th century, Chester was a bustling hub of industry, historic sites, tourist attractions, and entertainment. The first city established in Pennsylvania, Chester was famous for its many mills. The area was also home to a major shipbuilding center, the Sun Ship Corporation, as well as other industries, including the Chester Brewery and Blue Naphtha brand soap. The postcards in Chester showcase historic scenes of the city and highlight the long history of this dynamic community.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateNov 24, 2008
    ISBN9781439621837
    Chester
    Author

    Chester Historical Preservation Committee

    For the last 24 years, the Chester Historical Preservation Committee has worked to preserve historic sites and landmarks, including embarking on the restoration of a pre-World War I trolley car that once ran between Chester and Wilmington, Delaware. The committee showcases the area's many historic homes and mansions during the holiday season and holds monthly meetings at the Chester Friends Meeting House to share the city's history with others.

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      Book preview

      Chester - Chester Historical Preservation Committee

      Association.

      INTRODUCTION

      Postcard publishing dates from before the dawn of the 20th century when America was a kinder, gentler nation of small towns insulated from one another by distance, poor roads, lack of automobiles, and strong community pride. It was this sense of belonging that prompted businesses in Chester and other towns across the country as far back as 1907 to photograph and print postcards for sale to their customers. The cards originally sold for a penny, the same price as the required postage.

      The more familiar and attractive the photograph scene, the better the sale, and the early days of Pennsylvania’s oldest city offered both. Many pictures of Chester Creek, Pennsylvania Military College’s Old Main, waterfront industries, Market Street businesses, parks, schools, and neighborhoods were sent to Germany in earlier days for colorization, although the prints included in this publication have been changed to black and white.

      Like today’s e-mail, postcards were initially attractive as a quick and easy medium to send messages, with the added bonus of a picture of the sender’s—or perhaps receiver’s—hometown. As far back as 1873, when the first postal card was issued, there were no pictures. That came about with the Ulysses S. Grant card in 1891, but senders could not write on the back. Their message had to be scrolled on the picture side. The divided back for message and address was initiated in 1907, and interest in the cards took off.

      Almost all the postcards included in this publication are dated from 1907 to the 1950s. Postcards today are purchased mostly by tourists and travelers, and they are usually collected as reminders of where they have been. Chester postcards have been collectibles among local residents for many years, a source of community pride that has now become nostalgia. The world, not just Chester, has changed over the past 80 years. The cards depicted here reflect that change. Buildings have been altered or demolished. Businesses have disappeared. Familiar scenes have faded and changed with the passing years. Even Market Street, one of the oldest thoroughfares in the nation, is closed off and renamed.

      If you loved the city and the streets you played on as a child, the world you took for granted, the movie theaters you attended that are gone forever, and you strain to recall scenes that recede further from the reaches of your memory with each passing year, then let these postcards vicariously return you, for a moment, to Chester.

      —Bob O’Neill, Delaware County Historical Society

      One

      EDUCATION AND THE ARTS

      Chester High School was built in 1901 of granite by William Provost Jr. at the cost of nearly $168,000. The high school consisted of 44 rooms and castlelike towers, and it was located at Ninth and Fulton Streets. Most everyone in Chester attended Chester High School. The first class of the new school graduated in 1905, with T. S. Cole serving as the first principal.

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