Marlene Bardman of Harleysville has shared a few photos with us today of the former Salford Station area in Upper Salford.

The town of Salford formerly was called Salford Station, when the train still ran through that area.

“These pictures from the Perkiomen Creek in Salford Station, above the iron bridge that is now closed, were taken by my mother, E. Violet Force, who grew up in Salford.

“Her parents had the general store there.

“The view of the creek was taken from the summer vacation spot there. The area was known as Camp Rest-A-While and people from Philadelphia would come on the train to stay there.

“Some of the families owned summer houses there and some rented them.

“There was a refreshment stand and a dock where you could get a canoe.”

In addition to the two photos taken by her mother in 1932, Bardman included a photo of Salford Station. The general store can be seen in the background.

By WALTER AULT

GREEN LANE — There is a fascinating building on Route 29 in Green Lane that is, put succinctly, a treasure trove of local history.


Just the name painted on the front of the red brick building, Red Men’s Hall, arouses curiosity in any history buff. Inside are thousands of artifacts and numerous displays and exhibits graphically depicting the rural past of the Upper Perkiomen Valley. It is all part of the Goschenhoppen Historians’ Folklife Museum and Library.

The Red Men, according to museum director Abe Roan, were a fraternal organization made up of men from all walks of life in the Perkiomen Valley who admired the “communal lifestyle of the American Indians.

“Indians saw their tribe as just a large extended family that held everything in common,” Roan said. “Lodge members saw this as an admirable thing and because of that admiration started a fraternal lodge where members would take care of each other and help each other.”

The three-story building, Roan pointed out, was built in 1 907, with a second floor meeting hall where they “held shows and had all kinds of fund raising events and used the money from them for lodge members’ needs.”

For many years the Red Men leased the first floor of the building to the Green Lane Bank and a general store, Roan said. The third floor of the building, he added, was much more private; a sanctum sanitorium where secret rituals were held. Roan explained that the Red Men, who often dressed as Indians and attended special public events like parades, were nonetheless a secret society much like the Masons. Roan even pointed out a peep hole in the front door entering the third floor, where visitors would be scrutinized before entering; kind of like a speakeasy during Prohibition.

The Goschenhoppen Historians (Goschenhoppen, according to local legend, refers to a large area of the Perkiomen Valley and is a German transformation of the name of an Indian chief named Shakahoppa, who formerly controlled that tract of land) bought Red Men’s Hall in 1970, and thanks to their dedication and tireless efforts the building is now an intriguing museum that serves as a local history lesson to anyone who visits.

“As soon as we got the building we started accumulating things,” Roan said. “We went to yard sales, we went to auctions and a lot of items were generously donated. It has worked out very well, and we think we have something special to offer the public.”

The entire building is brilliantly utilized to give visitors a provocative look into the surrounding area’s past, with an emphasis on Pennsylvania German culture of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The first floor is a replica of an old general store, with such things on display as wooden barrels, farm implements, horse riding apparatus, even a giant (1848) coffee grinder and old post office windows and boxes. Many of the items, Roan pointed out, came from other general stores in the area when they closed.

“People could get just about anything they wanted at a general store,” Roan explained. “And if something wasn’t in stock, they would order it and it would be delivered by the Perkiomen Railroad,” a branch of the Reading Railroad that from 1873 to 1948 ran from Port Kennedy (Valley Forge) to Emmaus.

The second floor meeting hall has beautiful chandeliers, along with a large plaque listing presidents of the former lodge, referring to them as Sachems (chiefs) of the Tohickon Tribe, which the lodge was known as. There are also many paintings of historical buildings in the Perkiomen Valley on this floor, as well as interesting charcoal enhanced photographs of former lodge members.

The third floor, known as the Goschenhoppen Folklife Museum, has many items on display, all of which, as Roan pointed out, are hand made and predate 1870.

“The early 1870s were the beginning of the second Industrial Revolution,” Roan said, “Things began to change dramatically and there were more and more machines in use. Since the Germans took so much pride in their craftmanship, everything on display was made before 1870.”

One room on the third floor holds the German folklife library. Another, which Roan called the Zeigler parlor, has items, some made locally, “that are dated 1823 or older,” including a large spinning wheel and an organ made in Skippack. In an adjoining room there is a detailed display of local cigar making.

In the main museum room there are displays on all facets of a lifestyle and era that are long gone. There are, for instance, exhibits on open hearth cooking and baking and the processing of flax. There is a needlework sampler and various pieces of folk art; a craftmen’s shop and a weaver shop.

There is also an 1820 kitchen with a beautiful piece of folk art, a hand-painted corner cupboard; as well as a farm display with numerous old implements, including a 250-year-old plow.

Grace Zeigler Freed has submitted two photos today, one of which show the Broad Street School in Lansdale and the other which shows her and her classmates at the school.

She notes:

"I have good memories of this two-story school, where the first six years of my early education started.


"I remember walking the three blocks each morning from Chestnut Street, home for lunch and then back until about 3 p.m.

"The small store next to our playground was where we would stop and buy our penny candies after school hours.

"The photo here is of our class on the playground. Many of the class here moved to the junior high school on East Main Street, Lansdale, and graduated in 1945 from the senior high school on Penn Street, Lansdale.

"It would be interesting if anyone can identify themselves. I am the first one sitting at the end of the second row. I can name most of the class, but need help with naming others.

"Today, a gas station has taken our spot.

Dick Shearer, president of the Lansdale Historical Society, provides us with a prompting and two great photos today.

Consider:

“The year 1972 was a turbulent time around the world. The Watergate burglary. Civil disorder in the streets. Anti-war protests as the Vietnam peace talks broke down. Black September at the Munich Olympics.

“But in Lansdale there was a great coming-together, bigger than any the town had ever seen.

“Residents celebrated the borough’s 100th birthday with a weeklong bash that included parades, pageants, parties, beards and hoop shirts, and there was the dedication of a new high-rise building named Century Plaza.

“From May 27 to June 3, thousands of civic-minded citizens temporarily diverted the flood of bad news to remember 1872, the year when a small railroad village became a full-fledged town with a government of its own.”

“Lansdale’s Centennial Celebration of 1972” will be the subject of the Lansdale Historical Society’s next Community Program on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., at the Lansdale Parks and Recreation Building, Seventh Street and Lansdale Avenue.

The program will be hosted by Shearer and former Reporter Chief Photographer Willard Krieble.

Shearer was an editor at the paper in 1972, and Krieble photographed the entire week of special events.

In addition to a video presentation by photo archivist Steve Moyer, the program will include a display of memorabilia from the centennial celebration.

There is no admission charge to the program, but donations are appreciated.

For more information, call (215) 855-1872, or visit the society’s Web site, www.lansdalehistory.org.

By WALTER AULT

UPPER SALFORD — There is a parcel of land in a beautiful setting in Upper Salford Township that, while physically small, is nevertheless large in importance due to its rich history.

This rural plot also has much historical significance because it has not just one, but two very old and well-known structures: the 1732 Gemeinhaus, a log building; and just a few feet away, the Old Goschenhoppen Reformed Church, built in the mid-19th Century. The two buildings are located at 2029 Church Road, near the village of Woxall.

Visiting these historical structures, learning how they came into existence and how they have served the local congregation over so many years is a thrilling and thoroughly enlightening experience for any local history buff.

It all began, according to Old Goschenhoppen Reformed Church documents, in the early 18th Century, when newly arrived Lutheran immigrants, looking for a place to worship, joined with the already established Reformed Congregation in the area.

The earliest recorded religious service for the two groups took place on Oct. 12, 1727. The pivotal year for the two congregations, however, was 1732, the year, the documents point out, “the William Penn family sold 38 acres of land to two pastors, one Lutheran, one Reformed, for eight pounds, four shillings and three pence ($23.34).” Also, 1732 was the year the Gemeinhaus (community house) was built. This small, plain log structure (80 by 46 feet) ultimately served its parishioners as a church, a public house, a school house and as a residence for the schoolmaster. According to present pastor of the Old Goschenhoppen Church, Rev. William Gaydos, the Gemeinhaus is thought to be the oldest church meetinghouse in Pennsylvania, as well as one of the oldest remaining examples of German architecture in the state.

The Gemeinhaus had religious services for a relatively short time, due to the construction of a larger stone church in 1746. Once the new church was completed the Gemeinhaus was used primarily as a school.

The 1746 church lasted for more than 100 years, eventually replaced by a much more modern and larger church, the present structure, which was built in 1848.

“The congregation was getting bigger and the people wanted a new building,’ said Rev. Gaydos. “The old church was rather small and very plain,” Rev. Gaydos continued. “It had no steeple, no stained glass windows. It was more like a meetinghouse than a church.

“There is a reason for that simplicity,” Rev. Gaydos added. “It was like that because people at that time were rebelling against things about Catholicism, including its extravagance.”

The present stone and stucco church was built partially on the side of the 1746 church. According to the church literature, the new two-level structure had a sanctuary on the ground floor and a balcony on three sides. The balconies, the documents continued, were for seating the men and boys, while the women sat in the center. Of course, the church is different now, due to a few renovations over the years. One particularly interesting aspect of the church now is that religious services are held on the second floor.

“The new church was more modern and more like other churches of its day,” Rev. Gaydos said, adding that some material from the 1746 church “was incorporated into the new one” -- explaining why the church date stone has two dates, 1744 (the year construction started on the first stone church), and 1848.

In any case, visiting the two present structures is truly a lesson in history. The log Gemeinhaus, in particular, has some very unusual and interesting features, such as a huge open hearth, the original desks used by school children -- you can see where the boys did a lot of carving with their pen knives -- and the original lectern (pulpit) from the present church. Also in the Gemeinhaus is a display case exhibiting old pottery shards, old roof tile fragments, rusted old implements and a selection of old bibles.

The present church also has much to offer a visitor, such as beautiful stained glass windows, beautiful woodwork, an 1837 organ and a bell in the church tower weighing 537 pounds.

“There is a lot of sentiment attached to these buildings,” said Rev. Gaydos. “They are costly to maintain, but are so unique and so important that they are surely worth the effort.”

Go Phils ... um ... Mechanics!

Everyone’s busy rooting for the Phillies again this year. Could they possibly repeat?

But back in the day, many local folks probably were rooting for the Junior Order United American Mechanics baseball team — now there’s a name — from the early 1930s.



This photo was submitted by Pete Hespell of Souderton, and he notes that it was taken at a baseball field that was located in Montgomeryville where the Airport Square Shopping Center now stands.

Notice the trophy. Well, you may have to really look.

The team was based in Lansdale.

Hespell reports that the players (some unidentified) are, front row from left, Eddie Zeiz, Claude Heavener, George “Bud” Leach, Wes Vincent, unidentified, Bud Leidy and Irv Hagar.

In the back row, from left, are Bill Vincent, unidentified, Harry Hespell, Slats Stauffer, Bill Forpul, Elmer “Pete” Hespell and Claude Maurer.

If anyone can identify the unknown players or has any other information about this team, Hespell asks that you contact him at (215) 723-7688.