Days of Yore

Haddon Avenue

as recounted by Bill Day

All of this has been an endeavor to paint a picture of what the area surrounding this library was like approximately fifty five to sixty years ago.  The library is marked with the date 1917. But it seems that it actually was not really built until after the war, a year or so later, and the 1917 date had already been purchased and was used.  Miss Cawley was the librarian who moved down to this building form the chestnut Street library building which stood at the bend of Chestnut Street in the first block.  Mrs.. Walker, a nice old English lady, was her assistant for many years.  Adjacent to the library on the other side of Tanner Street was a section that was known as the Thousand Islands.  The streets Wilkins Avenue, Allen Avenue and Rosedale Avenue have been practically eliminated, replaced by parking lots for the high speed line.

Thinking of the Elkingtons recalls that when Pop Ernest was their chauffeur his pipe odor which accompanied him whenever he got in the car was very noticeable.  Mrs. Elkington told him if he would stop smoking his pip she would give him a dime for each package of Granger tobacco that he didn't buy.  Pop agreed, but unknown to here he bought boxes of snuff with which he lined one side of his mouth.  It didn't smell, and the Henry D. Moore family declared another dividend as they owned the snuff.

Also thinking of that granite water trough reminds one of the story often told of how the kids in the neighborhood would in the summer when the open trolleys would come up Haddon Avenue full of passengers, would put their finger on the pipe hat supplied the water and squirt the water into the open cars at the riders.  How the conductor would chase them, then report them to the police.  Then Ted Hough, the chief of police, would be seen riding his bicycle down Haddon Avenue to get after the boys.  Ted knew who the culprits were, and the main one later became a town official.  To mention his name would be a little embarrassing, don't you think?  If memory serves us right, we can remember that the trough wen no longer in use mistaken out to Joe Brigg's farm where it was used to water the horses.

This just about completes my remembrances of the area, but one still recalls a tragedy that occurred right at the point of the triangle when Sam Wood's wagon was struck by a public service bus, killing Sam, who was the president of the Haddonfield National Bank.  The horse, freed from the wagon by the crash, ran home, and when Mrs. Wood saw him braying and prancing nervously in the barnyard said to the horse, "Lady horse, what is the matter?"  And said to Ben Peyton, the hired man who lived over in Saddlertown, "Follow Mr. Wood's trail up town and see what has happened to him."  Ben did, and soon found out what had happened.