Ocean cruiser under construction in Doylestown - In the mammoth garage of the Fetterolf Transportation Company on Main Street, there is nearing completion a 37-foot, twin-screw, six-ton cruiser owned by R. C. Tell, local Oakland-Pontiac automobile dealer. The new vessel, handsome and complete in detail, will be completed in a few weeks and will be launched at Essington [in Delaware County on the Delaware River] in the near future, In the meantime, hundreds of people interested in boats have been viewing the borough's newest attraction at the Fetterolf garage. In the construction of the new …

Hundreds of public employees take loyalty oath - Editor's note - During the anti-Communist fervor of the 1950s, Pennsylvania and 41 other states required public employees to sign an oath swearing they were loyal to the elected government and were not members of a subversive (i.e., Communist) organization. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of these oaths in 1952, but later overturned them in several 1960s decisions. However, the loyalty oaths, including Pennsylvania's, remained on the books for decades. Several hundred public employees in Bucks county, including those …

Introduction -  The Doylestown Public School was built for $28,000 in 1889-90 at Broad and Court streets, the site of the former private Union Academy, Doylestown's first school. The three-story stone school, designed in the style of a chateau, could accommodate approximately 500 pupils in the primary and secondary grades. As student enrollment grew, a three-story brick annex was built in 1912 behind the main school, which faced Broad Street down from the corner of Court Street. Another brick addition was constructed in 1925. While the stone building often is identified as Doylestown High …

Thieves attempt to rob post office - Thieves attempted to rob the post office, at the corner of Main street and Shewell avenue, early Tuesday morning. This was about 2:30 o'clock, and it was only by chance that they were discovered at all. In order to effect an entrance, the thieves went around to a window in the rear of the office, directly under the bedroom window of Mr. and Mrs. Enoch M. Armstrong. Here they had the heavy shutter almost pried open when Mr. Armstrong, who was ill, heard the noise and scared them away. "I heard a scraping and cracking below my window," said Mr. Armstrong, "…

Marriage boom to be followed by baby boom - January started off with a bang in the office of the Bucks county marriage license bureau, when 200 licenses were granted, compared with only 55 licenses in January, 1945. Approximately 65 percent of the applicants were non-residents of Bucks county, and came from Pennsylvania and nine other States. Very close to 50 percent of the male applicants were either returned war veterans or still in the service. More Philadelphians were among the applicants in January than in any other month in four years. Doylestown at one time was the popular place for …

James-Lorah Memorial Home to add auditorium - One of the dreams of the Village Improvement Association ever since it inherited the James-Lorah Memorial Home on North Main Street in 1954 has been to build an auditorium that will take care of its membership at meetings and serve the community. That dream will be realized now that a builder has been selected to construct an auditorium along Broad Street behind the home. Five local building contracting firms were asked to bid. William J. Graham was low bidder and the contract was awarded to his firm. Final plans call for a concrete block …

Henry Mercer re-elected president of Bucks County Historical Society - Editor's note - Henry C. Mercer, born in Doylestown in 1856, helped Gen. W.W.H. Davis found the Bucks County Historical Society in 1880. Mercer became president of the society the year after Davis' death in 1910, and built a concrete castle-like museum, which he gave to the society, in 1916. Mercer remained president until he died in 1930. At the annual meeting of the Bucks County Historical Society in Doylestown on Saturday, Dr. Henry C. Mercer was re-elected president. During the business session, the election took place…

Birthday Ball to raise money for fight against polio - Editor's note - Franklin Delano Roosevelt lost the use of his legs when he was stricken with polio in 1921, at age 39, and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Roosevelt began undergoing therapy at the natural mineral springs in Warm Springs, Ga., and later created the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation to assist polio victims. After he became president in 1933, Birthday Balls were held each Jan. 30 (Roosevelt's birth date in 1882) to raise money for treating and finding a cure for polio, also called infantile paralysis. Together with…

State rules out Route 202 by-pass - Editor's note - Opened in 1940, the Pennsylvania Turnpike originally ran between Carlisle and Irwin. In 1948, construction began on an eastern extension to King of Prussia, where the turnpike would connect with Route 202 (north to New Jersey) and the Schuylkill Expressway (south to Philadelphia). After the extension opened in November 1950, traffic increased substantially on Route 202 through Doylestown (Oakland Avenue and State Street). Congestion worsened over the next 25 years, until the combined Route 202/Route 611 bypass around Doylestown was completed…

Doylestown escapes serious damage in gale - Doylestown escaped serious damage in the gale on Friday, and in that respect was much more fortunate than many other towns in Bucks county. The nearest approach to a serious accident occurred about 2 o'clock, when a large maple tree in front of Howard W. Atkinson's building on Main street, near Oakland avenue, was discovered to be splitting in half about two feet above the pavement. Prompt attention in wrapping it with rope kept the tree from falling before the street could be roped off. Street Commissioner Holcombe, assisted by Robert McNealy and …

Trapp Family Singers perform at "Aldie" - Editor's note - In 1938, the Trapp Family Singers emigrated from Austria to the United States and began making concert tours of the country. Martha Mercer, widow of sculptor William R. Mercer, Jr. (brother of Henry C. Mercer), invited the group to perform at her annual Christmas concert on Dec. 22, 1941 at Aldie, her mansion in Doylestown Township. Baroness Maria von Trapp and her seven stepchildren performed; her husband, Baron Georg von Trapp, and their three youngest children were not present. Seventeen years later, Doylestown Township resident …

Santa Claus pays pre-Christmas visit (as told by Santa) - After meeting the 500 or more Doylestown kiddies Thursday afternoon in the Strand Theatre through the courtesy of Mr. Power, manager of the theatre, I could not leave town without expressing to the young folks what a fine time I had and how well they behaved. So I stopped at the "Daily Intelligencer" office and wrote a few lines for the editor to publish today. I hope that all the kiddies will read my message. There was such a fine bunch of my boys and girls at the show that my large pack of candy gave out before all the kiddies had …

Mother, three children unhurt after wild ride - A rampant auto led a Doylestown mother and her three children on a perilous, five-mile journey Friday. The journey ended almost as suddenly as it began when the unchecked car, driven by Mrs. Mary Margaret Grater, 34, of Doylestown RD1, sliced off an abutment and skittered onto the Burpee land along South Main Street in Doylestown. Trouble began in Danboro, about three miles north of Doylestown, when Mrs. Grater put her foot on the vehicle's gas pedal and it jammed. The vehicle built up an enormous rate of speed as it came south on Route 611. …

Seabee writes home about giant lizards - In spite of their size and ugliness, the three-foot-long lizards of the South Pacific islands are welcomed by the sailors and Seabees stationed there because of the reptiles' appetite for the giant insects which also inhabit the locality, according to Yeoman William F. Chandler, U.S. Navy, Construction Battalion, in letters received by his mother, Mrs. Alice S. Chandler, of West Court street, and his sister, Miss Grace Chandler. Yeoman Chandler, a graduate of Lafayette College and the University of Pennsylvania, and for the past twelve years a member …

Central Bucks students collect "Coins For Courage" - Editor's note - On Oct. 23, 1956, Hungarians began an armed uprising against the Soviet-backed Communist regime that had ruled the country since the end of World War II. Just as the revolution appeared to be succeeding, Soviet forces invaded Hungary on Nov. 4 and within a few days had crushed the resistance. In the aftermath, approximately 200,000 Hungarians fled the country. The American government established a refugee center at Camp Kilmer, N.J. (near New Brunswick), and by May 1957 about 32,000 Hungarians had been resettled in the …

Rotary Club hears Thanksgiving address - "There never has been a time when the people of the world have had an opportunity to be thankful for as many substantial things which add to their comfort and well-being," Kiwanian J.L. Hady told the Rotary Club of Doylestown in a Thanksgiving address Thursday evening at the Doylestown Inn. "There never has been a time in this country when the distribution of the good things of life has been so thorough, when there has been so little sickness and so comparatively few cases of poverty which are not looked after," he said. It is entirely proper, he said…

Tabor Home celebrates first anniversary - Ceremonies marking the first anniversary of the dedication of the Tabor Home for Needy and Destitute Children took place at the Home, located on the Doylestown pike, on Tuesday. At the morning exercises, addresses were delivered by the Rev. Prof. C.M. Jacobs, D.D., of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Mt. Airy; and the Rev. C.J. Musser, D.D., editor of the Reformed Church Messenger. At the afternoon service, there were interesting exercises by the children of the home and by a selected number of children from the Doylestown Public School, who …

DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN (in Bucks) - Editor's note - In 1948, the Doylestown Daily Intelligencer was owned by Bristol industrialist Joseph R. Grundy, the Republican boss of Bucks County and a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. The newspaper vigorously supported Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey (governor of New York) over Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman. When Truman defeated Dewey in a huge upset, the Intelligencer downplayed the news on the front page of the next day's edition. The main headline read: "Dewey Got 12,731 Majority In Bucks County"; the secondary headline …

Lamb appears at Rotary Club's Hallowe'en masquerade - Mary's little lamb paid a visit to the Doylestown Rotary Club's Hallowe'en masquerade party at the Doylestown Country Club on Wednesday night. The creature went right up to Rotary Anne [female Rotarian] Starling Conroy, who impersonated Pierrette, settled down comfortably at her feet and let out a plaintive "Ma"--evidently confused and excited by the pandemonium that naturally greeted its unconventional arrival. The lamb gave quite a performance before it was gently led out of the ballroom to quarters more suited for it. Mary's little lamb…

Female legislator addresses Bucks Republican women - Mrs. Marion E. Markley (R., Lehigh), the only Republican woman member of the State House of Representatives, spoke on "Women In Politics" at the annual meeting of the Bucks County Council of Republican Women at the Doylestown Inn on Thursday. Mrs. Markley told the group that she was disappointed not to see any women candidates on the ticket here this year, and that she hoped that when Bucks sends its third member to the State Assembly with Representatives Keller and Yeakel, it will be a woman. Mrs. Markley paid tribute to President …