History Spotlight
A Wedding‌ and Divorce Written by Doug Humes
T
he adjoining townships of Marple and Newtown, both sparsely populated farm communities, came together in 1914 to fund and construct a joint high school. The communities celebrated 100 years of that happy marriage in 2014, and a wonderful timeline full of photos and artifacts from those 100 years now lines the hallways of the high school.
Massey House Photo courtesy of Marple Historical Society
In 1960, historians in each community proposed a joint historical society as well, and the Marple Newtown Historical Society was formed that year. That marriage had a successful 25 year run, but ultimately ended in divorce years later (a personality clash at the time). Now each community has its own historical society. The Marple Historical Society now concentrates most of its efforts on the historic Massey House and events that celebrate the building and the generations of families who have lived there. They also have monthly speakers on history topics, held in the adjoining church building, have an archive of local history documents and artifacts, have a Facebook page, and a website, www.marplehistoricalsociety.org. The original members are all gone; the current members will someday be history too. The only way that community institutions such as this endure is because community-minded people join them, pick up the torch and pass it along to the next generation. Please support your local historical society and help us pay our local history forward to the next generation.
1960 Birth Announcement Photo courtesy of Delaware County Daily Times
Marple Historic Markers Photo courtesy of Marple Historical Society
For more information on the history of Marple, visit the Marple Historical Society website and Facebook page, and join the society to keep up to date on coming events: www.MarpleHistoricalSociety.org. M
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