This Was Doylestown, 1966

From The Daily Intelligencer, Week of Aug. 28-Sept. 3, 1966

Doylestown Township residents protest proposed landfill -

Following a noisy two-hour meeting attended by 225 irate taxpayers in Edison Elementary School on Friday night, Bucks County commissioner Joseph O. Canby announced the commissioners will delay a decision on a landfill for 30 days.

The commissioners had been scheduled to meet this week for the purpose of condemning a 138-acre tract of land in Doylestown Township, owned by of Science and Agriculture, for erection of a temporary landfill to serve trash disposal the next three years.

Canby said "we will not pass a resolution to condemn the land. Instead, we will direct our engineers to study the situation and make every effort during the next 30 days to come up with an alternate site." If the engineers don't recommend an alternate site, then the county will condemn the Doylestown Township land for the landfill site, said Canby, who has been chairman of the two-person board since the elevation of J. Justus Bodley to a judgeship.

Commissioner Walter S. Farley, however, opposed a 30-day delay. "We represent 300,000 people in Bucks County, not just 300 in Doylestown Township," he said. Farley warned that before the end of 30 days "the trash haulers will be hollering they have no place to dump their trash."

All three Doylestown Township supervisors--James Brinker, chairman; William J. Graham and Lester Myers--told residents they were opposed to the landfill site at Almshouse and Upper State roads.

Robert W. Valimont, a Doylestown Township resident, who presented petitions signed by least 500 persons, in addition to writing a three-page letter to the commissioners, urged them to try to reactivate some old landfills and defer making a decision until they had given it further study.

He said: "I'd rather pay more to have my garbage and trash hauled if that would prevent the landfill from moving into Doylestown Township." He was backed up with a chorus of sympathetic hearers.

Michener documentary shot partly in Doylestown -

"James Michener's Home Country," a documentary to be shown over Channel 3, KYW, in Philadelphia, the latter part of this year or early in 1967, had some of its scenes shot in the of the Bucks County Historical Society in Doylestown.

Invading the well of the famed concrete museum, across from the Bucks County Prison on South Pine Street, a TV crew, under the direction and production of Don Knox, began shooting scenes Monday.

Knox said the documentary is to be narrated by the writer himself. "It is in no sense autobiographical, but it will trace the influence of Bucks County scenes and people that have emerged in his later books in his writing in various characters and locales."

Producer-Director Knox and his crew, Cameraman Larry Bossone, Soundman Ches Birk and Lighting Director Paul Dowie, have shot scenes along the Delaware Canal (Michener belonged to Uncle George C. Murray's Boys Brigade and used to camp along the waterway), Uhlerstown, New Hope, Bushkill Falls (a Pocono Mountains touch), the various churches in Doylestown and the incomparably new and dramatic Courthouse, an architect's dream.

Michener, as his readers know, has through his years as a writer countless times drawn on these bucolic scenes, the people and the loveliness of his boyhood until he graduated from Doylestown High School in 1925 and entered Swarthmore College.

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Prominent Episcopal clergyman dies -

The Rev. Frank Damrosch, 77, Rector Emeritus of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Doylestown, and for many years an outstanding leader in the Episcopal Church, died Wednesday night in Doylestown Hospital. He had been in failing health for several years and was hospitalized for the last four weeks.

Father Damrosch was rector [priest in charge] of St. Paul's for 22 years, from 1935 until his retirement in 1957, longer than any other priest in the 121-year history of the parish. For 31 years, except for a year immediately after his retirement when he and Mrs. Damrosch lived in Essex, Conn., he was an active and influential figure in the Doylestown area.

His contributions to good music, sacred and secular, were substantial. Among other things, in his earlier years in Doylestown he directed several Gilbert and Sullivan light operas and one production of "The Chocolate Soldier." He also was the author of a hymn in the 1940 edition of the Episcopal hymnal for general use on feasts of Apostles, which was set to music by Martin Shaw.

Born Nov. 30, 1888 in New York City, he was the son of Frank and Hetty (Mosenthal) Damrosch. He was educated at the Morristown School; Yale University; the General Theological Seminary, New York City; and the Berkeley Divinity School, New Haven, Conn. He was ordained a priest in 1914, and was rector of several churches in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island before coming to Doylestown.

Surviving are his wife, Dorothy (Frisby) Damrosch, of South Pine Street, Doylestown; three sons, a daughter, a sister, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

The body of Father Damrosch will lie in state before the High Altar in St. Paul's Church from 4 p.m. Friday until 10 a.m. Saturday, the hour of the funeral. Burial will be in Doylestown Cemetery.

Woman safe after car won't stop -

Only the brake linings were burned in the car driven by Miss Ann Brown, 23, of Doylestown, whose accelerator pedal was stuck the entire 12 miles along Route 611 from Doylestown to Cameron Road in Willow Grove.

Willow Grove Fire Marshal Robert Akers said the car's brakes were smoking so badly it looked as though the car was on fire when 32 members of the volunteer company were called at 1:10 a.m. Thursday. He said the men cooled the brakes and waited 45 minutes with Miss Brown until her parents arrived to take her home.

Miss Brown told Akers she had no control over the speed of the car from Doylestown to Willow Grove, and that she rode all the way with her foot on the brake. The car finally was stopped in the southbound lane of Easton Road at Cameron Road, where Miss Brown threw the transmission into the parking gear.

Akers said witnesses heard Miss Brown screaming for help out the car window as it raced along Easton Road. Upper Moreland Police said Miss Brown was uninjured.

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Central Bucks to hold planning sessions -

All teachers and administrators of the Central Bucks School District will meet for planning sessions prior to the opening of school for classes.

New teachers and returning teachers not under contract will meet at Central Bucks High School on Wednesday. They will be briefed on business procedures, educational philosophy and policies. They will meet principals, guidance personnel and department chairmen for additional information.

A luncheon will be served at noon, when they will be greeted by the President of the Board of Education, the administrative staff and other Board officers.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 6 and 7, all 455 members of the district's professional staff will hold a series of meetings and planning periods to insure a smooth opening of school on Thursday, Sept. 8. The opening session will meet in Central Bucks High School, where Dr. Anton Hess, Superintendent, will address the staff. Principals will introduce new teachers.

Following a lunch in the school cafeteria, the staff will meet in the school auditorium to hear an address by Dr. Donald McGarey from the Department of Education, Penn State University, entitled "Teaching in the Fourth Dimension."

Firemen seek metallic eagle to top flagpole -

Bucks County volunteer firemen think the most decorative touch to the top of their flagpole would be an eagle.

They are looking for an 18-inch wingspread metallic eagle to be perched on the flagpole at the firemen's training school in Doylestown Township

Several firemen have their eye on a eagle at a Pebble Hill Road home and they feel maybe the owner would like to present it to the firemen as a gift. Anyone who has an eagle, bronze or otherwise, and wants to present it to the fire school should contact any fireman they know in their community or Walter M. Carwithen Jr. and Joseph W. Howe, Doylestown assistant fire chiefs.

Dedication ceremonies of the new $60,000 administration building will be held Saturday, Sept. 17, at 1:30 p.m. The ceremonies will feature fire fighting, rescue and pumping demonstrations. The Bucks County Firemen's Association Auxiliary is planning refreshments that will include barbecue and beverages, served buffet style.

Arch Robertson, of Oakford, will supervise the setting up of the radio and communications room, which is located on the second floor in a bay window area, that will provide inter-communications with each room in the building as well as the areas on the fire school ground and the fire tower.