What’s in a Name?
BY Mary Courtney
The Haverford Township Directory of 1938 lists attorneys Raymond E. Larson and William R. Toal in Llanerch, S.F. Gettz Auto Service Station on West Chester Pike in Manoa, Reed’s Haverford Sweet Shop and the Haverford Township Barber Shop, both in Brookline, and Delchester Farms Dairy in Oakmont. Evelyn Blanchard taught dancing at her home in Penfield. Finnerty’s Main Line Express Hauling was on Linden Drive in Merwood. The area surrounding Haverford College, the Friends’Meeting on Buck Land and the Community Center, also on Buck Lane, are identified in this directory as in Haverford. None are listed as Havertown; it hadn’t been invented yet.
Recently, at a hearing before the Haverford Township Zoning Board, a witness for B.I.G., the corporation suing to build six billboards in the township, said, “Nowhere in Haverford Township is there a sense of place.” If this is true, and if we have a slightly schizophrenic response to our important places and heritagewitness the banners flying over Darby Road proclaiming, “Haverford Township Founded 1912”*- perhaps the problem first arose with the establishment of the Havertown Post Office in 1946.
Haverford Township was served by many post offices over the years. From the earliest days, mail was handled at post offices that were located in general stores, mills or even the train station. People often posted letters and sent parcels while doing business at these establishments.
The Adele Post Office, established in 1892 on West Chester Pike, was at the old grist and saw mill on Darby Creek and a post office could be found at the woolen mills at Cobbs Creek and Haverford Road. The Manoa Post Officethe original Haverford Post Office - was in Samuel Moore’s store at West Chester Pike and Manoa Road and the CorezePost Office operated out of another general store at Darby Road and Ardmore Avenue. Grassland and Llanerch post offices originated in train stations.
Mail was addressed to the recipient, street name, Penfield, South Ardmore, Beechwood, etc., PA. No zip code, of course - that would come much later. Most homes had no street number and many were known solely by their names like “Narbeth,” the “Grange,” or “Pont Reading.” Delivery problems certainly arose and in 1917 Mr. F.A. Jurkat of Cedarville Ohio, wanted to send a letter to Mr. Hugh Savage in Manoa, but he wrote, “as that post office is off the map,” he sent his letter to a relative at North 54thStreet in Philadelphia for delivery to Mr. Savage in Manoa. That may have been extreme, but the need for more efficient mail delivery became apparent as the township grew after World War II.
Eventually the bulk of mail being delivered to the villages of Oakmont, Penfield, Brookline, South Ardmore, Manoa, Beechwood and Merwood passed through the Llanerch Branch of the Upper Darby Post Office. These neighborhoods were considered a branch of Upper Darby Township, at least for mail delivery. In 1945, Township Commissioner H.A. Fritschman wrote to the U. S. Post Office Department to propose establishment of a central post office for the residents of Haverford Township. After a thorough investigation of the needs in Haverford Township, the Post Office Department redesignated the Llanerch Branch to Havertown Branch to offer a “uniform post office address which will enable them to be more properly identified with their places of residences in Haverford Township.” It must have seemed a relief for residents in 1946 to adopt the name “Havertown” for their mail and to no longer be confused with Upper Darby, but a shame to lose the use of their village names and sense of place.
* Haverford Township was founded in 1681/82. It became a first-class township in 1912.
