Old Town Norristown

I am reading Michael E. Tolle’s book called What Killed Downtown?  It is a study of how Norristown’s economy was ruined, and is quite thorough in its description.  Mr. Tolle starts at the very beginning.  The very beginning before Norristown was even Norristown and sets up his story with a description of the intention for the town, and as many people know, the town stood up to its intended use for many years.

I suppose the book is interesting to me because I live in the municipality and the businesses he talks about are ones that I have heard about and they were located at addresses I know and have passed many times.  Some of the buildings still exist like the Tone Building, the bank building, and of course the Courthouse, among others.  I am also familiar with the names of many of the people he writes about and the people who he interviewed for the book.  Most interesting to me is his explanation of the workings of municipal and county government because I have been one of the many trying to determine what went wrong and how to fix it.  But probably the most interesting part of the book is the answer, which I won’t go into here lest I spoil it for you.  He comes to a similar conclusion, with a slightly different twist from what I have been saying all along. Even though I have not gotten through all 256 pages of the book I was too excited to find the answer to his query and read a bit of the last chapter. 

I would call this book required reading for anyone who works at the municipality, or the County, or has any dealing with Norristown at all.  It gives a fascinating insight to some issues which are unique to our little struggling burg.  I can’t say that a silver bullet exists to help the situation but knowing from whence we came is always a key in determining where we should go.  History does have a way of repeating itself and some of the actions he talks about in the book bear a striking resemblance to things that have been tried since I have lived there.  I just hope that the history that repeats itself will not come out with the same result and that we can learn from our mistakes and work toward a solution to the problem rather than becoming another one.

Happy Birthday, Norristown!

Saturday, March 31, 2012 was the Municipality of Norristown’s 200^th birthday.  The original town, when founded in 1812, was about 500 people in the area just around the where the county courthouse stands now.  It was later enlarged in 1853 and again in 1900 and then its borders were redrawn yet again when West and East Norriton broke ties with the area.  It is now about 2 ½ square miles hosting many of the county offices as well as many churches along with a community of about 30,000 people.  A section in Wikipedia explains best how it was and how it got to where it is now:

Norristown was one of the largest communities under Pennsylvania's borough form of government. Now, the official name is Municipality of Norristown, operating under a Home Rule Charter with that designation since 1986. Located on the Schuylkill River, it was established as a mill town and as a seat of county government.

At one time Norristown was a retail center for the rural areas outside of Philadelphia. With the growth of suburban communities and large shopping malls including the King of Prussia Mall and the Plymouth Meeting Mall in the outlying townships, Norristown's retail sector steadily declined and eventually collapsed.

The seal of the town features a bee hive on a small platform with the words “Fervet Opus”, which is Latin for “always working” or “always busy”.  Back in its heyday it was a teaming place with people going to and fro – a very busy place hence the name.  Norristown also has a lot of history including many firsts and notable people.  Over the years, as indicated above, there have been many changes which have caused the town to decline.  However, there have been many caring people who have tried, albeit not to successfully to date for a number of reasons, to revitalize the town.

On Saturday the Bicentennial Kick Off was held at the Elmwood Park Bandshell.  It started in the morning and went through the day, and despite the questionable weather, which was wet and often raw-feeling, most people appear to enjoy themselves.  I was there for several hours helping to pass out fliers about the Norristown Preservation Society History Day in June.  I talked to a number of people, heard the opening ceremony and went on a bus tour that went around part of the town and talked about the history of the town.

So here’s to Norristown.  I hope that our descendants will take care of you and work to keep you going, stronger and better for the next 200 years.

Railroaded

If you live near or work in Norristown, you were probably screaming your head off out of frustration driving around this weekend and last few days.  Well, thank you local administration and the Pennsylvania Railroad Commission for your aggravations.  Apparently when they come in to do a job in an area they have the say, and the local municipality is to do what they say.  I suppose since it was a temporary weekend thing it was considered a minor inconvenience. But since we got a freaky snow blizzard in October, it didn't turn out to be a weekend thing. But the question remains, why on earth would they close two major thoroughfares through the town at the same time? 

Because it’s Norristown, that’s why.  Would they do this in Narberth?  NO!!! Why? Because they respect the people over there.  In Norristown they think we are all lowly peasants who don’t work and hang around getting high living on public assistance.  We don’t need to have our houses saved if they catch on fire and the fire company can’t get to the fire because of the road closures, because some wealthy landlord owns them all, and has insurance.  We don’t need to catch criminals because the police can’t get to the scene of the crime because of the traffic that is piled up on the back roads because it's good riddance if one of us gets shot.  It’s just Norristown and they don’t have to be considerate of our feelings because animals don’t have any feelings.

When I was on Council, SEPTA came in and talked to us about expanding the parking lot at Elm and Markley for the Elm Street Station.  Eventually that station is going to be closed down, so I guess they thought they could save some money and instead of paving the lot, they were going to put stone in the lot and actually paint the parking lines on the stones.  My major question to them was would you do this in Narberth?  And if you would not do it in Narberth, you won’t do it in Norristown.  They looked at me like I was crazy.  Maybe if we were treated like we live in Narberth, people might start acting like we lived in Narberth.

Old Things

 In the West End of town, just on the border sits a building built in 1794 called the Selma Mansion.  The house was the home of Andrew Porter, a soldier during the Revolutionary War, and a co-founder of the Marine Corp.  The Norristown Preservation Society now owns the building and has been working to restore the house.  This past weekend, a group of about 12 people scrapped, stripped, and dusted all of the rooms in the house.  The reason this was done was to get the building in some semblance of order for Norristown History Day in June.  I did a video of the cleanup  to help get a little attention to it.  Several more of these kinds of event are being planned as a way to work to restoring the building into a usable space.

After we were finished for the day – still a long way from the building being finished – the group expressed a great feeling of satisfaction about getting things in order.  Everyone worked really hard and I am sure each one of us had some sore muscles over the weekend.  The one thing that struck me about the day was that everyone was so enthusiastic about the house and its history.  Generally, we as Americans have a throw-away mentality where most of us think “oh, it’s old, let’s just tear it down”.  There was nothing evident of that kind of thinking for anyone who worked there on Saturday.

The Selma Mansion represents a great period in history about Norristown.  If you go to the Wikipedia entry for the town, you can read a section devoted to Selma.  Other than that reference there is not much written on the home, but there is a fair amount written about the inhabitants.  Selma has a history and should have a permenant place in the town.  The building needs to have a breath of fresh air breathed into it and the current board of the Preservation Society seems that have what it takes.  I look forward to a new start to the renovation, and I hope you will join me in what you can to help.  You can donate to help with the restoration by going to the NPS site and sending a check to the address listed.  Let’s do what we can to preserve our past so that our children will not forget what our ancestors did for them.

Sharing History

Last night I attended the Norristown Bicentennial Dinner held at the Savior Hall.  It was the first in a series of events that are being planned to commemorate the 200 years of Norristown’s history.  It was a fun evening and my husband and I had a great time eating, dancing, and talking to people we have known for some time.  The band was Jump Street, and they did a variety of music covering bands from the Temptations to the Black Eyed Peas.  The food was provided by Zone’s Catering and it was quite tasty.

Norristown was established on March 31, 1812 and I am sure that things were quite different back then.  For one thing there were far less people than the current 39 some odd thousand souls, then being about 500. Some early statistics show that it was subsequently enlarged in 1853 and 1909. In 1900, 22,265 people lived there; in 1910, 27,875; in 1920, 32,319; and in 1940, 38,181 making it the most populous community for a borough.  Many people don’t realize that Norristown was not a borough starting in 1986 when they established their first home rule charter.  It changed to a municipality, but everyone still called it a borough until 2004 when the new charter was established.  It was at that time that the actual name started to be pushed.  But I am sure that people will always call it a borough as old habits die hard.

Norristown was at one time a bustling town with many downtown shops, a hotel, two movie theaters, and much industry.  Being the county seat, many people came here to do a variety of things involved with government.  Norristown has its fair share of notables that include actors, sports figures, revolutionary generals, and musicians.  Now the town is in a decline and has suffered many setbacks in the last 5 decades.  But I have faith that the powers that be will work to improve things for the future. 

I was not born in this town, but I am sure that I will die in this town.  I have faith that all is not lost as some would have you believe.  Maybe it’s the fact that I live here and I want the best for my house value, but I have a gut feeling that things will eventually turn around.  Norristown has a great past and a promising future.  It only takes faith and people who believe.  Let’s enjoy reliving the past 100 years and making plans for the next century.