Author: Doug Humes

George Lucas’ 1973 film, American Graffiti, depicted high school life in the 1960’s, hanging out…

In the midst of the Great Depression, 55-year-old Manoa builder George Clayton Shadel faced a…

I am more poet than scientist. But I’ve run into mentions of “the Barrens” in my study of local history, and in doing so, I have learned just enough to be able to share it with my fellow poets. The scientists out there will likely want more.

Henry Fagan and William Morgan entered into a contract around 1745. Henry had a farm…

Downtown Broomall, where West Chester Pike crosses Sproul Road, was a sleepy country crossroads in 1895.

A long-time Marple resident donated several old high school diplomas to the Historical Society last week, one for Marple school and one for Newtown. Neither of the schools was a “Marple-Newtown” school because that idea was realized several years later.

There is an excellent 1986 book on “The First One Hundred Years … Township of Marple.” It is in our library, and you can find copies for sale online. The book looks at Marple in the period from 1684-1784.

If you lived in Marple on May 26, 1912, and you had even the slightest curiosity, you would have headed down the Pike to Manoa to see something you had never seen before—an airplane taking off and landing at Eagle Field, now Manoa Shopping Center.

There are two men whose names are familiar to us. Though most know nothing about…

In 1946, West Chester Pike was a two-lane country road, with lots of empty space…