Bryn Athyn Centennial Celebration

12/13/2016

10/03/2016

Please note: DUE to the impending rain forecast for this coming weekend, the Alnwick Grove Picnic will be on SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22.

09/08/2016

04/17/2016

Benade Hall

On October 7, 1901, four years after the Academy moved into the original Bryn Athyn Civic and Social Club building, it reopened its doors in the newly constructed Benade Hall; the first building on the new campus east of Huntingdon Pike. An impressive structure of local gray granite topped with a red tile roof, Benade Hall was 160 feet long, 90 feet wide and three stories high above the basement floor. Although spacious well beyond the needs of those students of the day with fifty rooms, thanks to the visionaries of the time, the main building still serves many of the educational needs of Academy Secondary School Students 115 years later.

02/16/2016

A New Borough Government Launched

Following elections of a Burgess (now Mayor) and a Borough Council of seven men - a fusion ticket which included both Democrats and Republicans - the first official meeting of the new Borough Council was held at the home of Dr. Felix A. Boericke, Burgess on Alnwick Road (now the property of Rev. Kurt Hy and Jenn Asplundh) on March 28th 1916. Burgess Dr. Boericke administered the oath to new Council Members Raymond Pitcairn, Edward Kessel, Samuel Simons, Louis B. Pendleton, Charles E. Doering, Charles R. Pendleton and Charles S. Smith. The Borough’s first Council Members then unanimously elected the following officers: Charles E. Doering, President and Samuel Simons, Secretary. Reginald W. Brown was appointed Treasurer. With this unanimity on the “Hill of Cohesion,” a new government was officially launched for the Borough of Bryn Athyn, Inc. (Source: 1916 Borough Minutes).

02/07/2016

Happy Centennial Birthday!
Borough of Bryn Athyn, Inc. In February 1915, on behalf of the freeholders of the village of Bryn Athyn, Raymond Pitcairn petitioned the courts of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania seeking incorporation as an independent borough. In opposition to this application, the taxpayers of Moreland Township filed their own petition citing numerous objections. However, in spite of said opposition, Judge Aaron S. Swartz decided in favor Bryn Athyn on January 20th 1916 and a decree of incorporation was officially entered in the Court of Quarter Sessions in and for the County of Montgomery on February 8th 1916. Thus, the small village of Bryn Athyn, surrounded completely by Moreland Township, was officially granted incorporation and, like Hatboro, became a recognized political subdivision entitled to its own government on this week 100 years ago. Soon after, Moreland Township was split into two: Upper Moreland and Lower Moreland. Happy 100th Birthday Bryn Athyn Borough, Inc.!

01/27/2016

Village Association: What’s in a Name?

Recognizing the need to manage the civil affairs of a small but growing village, seven men met on April 30, 1898 to form an association with the charge of assuming the costs of maintaining roads and a poor windmill-driven water works. With the formation of the association came self-imposed taxes and the need for a name for the village. A special meeting was called for that purpose on September 10th, 1998. Soon, a committee of the Civic & Social Club submitted 22 names and through several votes, it was whittled down to three: Gwynmont, Ridgemont and Rothlyn. Then a new name, Hillbrook, was briefly adopted but was quickly removed because the ladies had not been consulted. Never a good idea! The naming was tabled while the committee (influenced by Bishop W.F. Pendleton and Mr. Hicks, a Welshman) considered Welsh names from what turned out to be an academically inaccurate English/Welsh dictionary by William Spurrell with many mythological words attributed to a William Owen Pughe around 1803. The committee proposed eleven names and finally Bryn Athyn was chosen [Bryn (mount, hill) Athyn (cohesion, unity) or Hill of Cohesion]. Years later it was discovered that “athyn” was not, and is not, a real word in Welsh or any other language. It is a neologism or newly-created word. Look up “athyn” in the comprehensive University of Wales Dictionary today and you will not find it. Oh well, no one can dispute that Bryn Athyn is certainly a unique name!

01/20/2016

From Alnwick Grove to a Village

As was done with the trolley line that brought paying passengers out to enjoy the mineral springs in Willow Grove and later offered the attractions of Willow Grove Park and John Phillip Sousa’s Band, so the Fox Chase – Newtown Railroad line developed Alnwyck Grove (later Alnwick) as an enticement complete with dance hall and picnic grove in what was soon to become the beginnings of a village. In the 1880s, members of the Swedenborgian faith began to frequent the area and soon some took up summer quarters offered by local farmers. In 1893, an official decision was made to move the Academy of the New Church out of Philadelphia to a location near the Second Street Turnpike about a mile north of Bethayres Station. By the spring of 1894, new homes were being built for John Pitcairn, Rev. John Potts, Robert Glenn and George Starkey. Others followed and on October 20, 1895, a Club House (Civic & Social Club) built by Henry Stroh was dedicated. From John Pitcairn’s first purchase of a modest 35 acres in 1889, the small village continued to grow as more land was purchased when adjacent farms and woodlands became available for sale. The Academy moved several times within the village before building its own campus home which continues to thrive at the same location today.

01/12/2016

The Morelands

Bryn Athyn, Hatboro, Lower Moreland and Upper Moreland were all originally within the boundaries of the Manor of Moreland, almost 10,000 acres granted to Nicholas More by William Penn in 1682. Following More’s death in 1689, his debtors and heirs sold off portions of the Manor until the last piece of ground belonging to his ancestors was purchased in 1713. Over the next two hundred years, these beautiful farms and woodlands were slowly developed, roads laid out and villages including Hatboro, Willow Grove and Huntingdon Valley sprang up around economically important mills. In the mid to late 1800s, railroad lines were established linking Philadelphia with many of the villages in Moreland Township. It was during this time, in 1871, that Hatboro was incorporated as the first political subdivision of Moreland Township. In 1878, the last railroad line was completed from Philadelphia to Newtown and began bringing travelers to the bucolic environs of the Pennypack, dropping some off at a small station known as Alnwyck Grove.

04/10/2015