PA Swarthmore S Catch-up (9/5/2020)

Saturday, September 5, 2020

Two more walking tours, Swarthmore Historic South Walking Tour and Swarthmore Town Center Highlights, gave us a few more sights to see in Swarthmore, PA.

Park Avenue Tudor buildings (1926) with apartments
and ground floor shops, and COVID-19 outdoor dining

Park & Dartmouth Avenues: War Memorial (1920, names of
Swarthmoreans who died in subsequent wars have been added )

Swarthmore Borough Hall (1952, by George Ewing
in Postmodern style, 1996 renovations) and Amphitheater

1996 Borough Hall entrance with 1910 fire bell

Swarthmore Co-op (2003, founded in 1937, making it the
third oldest community-based food market in the United States)

Swarthmore Fire & Protective Association Fire Station (1996)

109 S Princeton Avenue (1891) on the left divided its lot in
2015, resulting in a new house at 117 S Princeton Avenue (2016)

Most of Swarthmore's buildings were erected by 1930, and lots for building are rare. So... you could find an old building to convert into housing.

260 Park Avenue/former First Church of Christ (1929, by
William Pope Barney) was converted into a residence in 1998

An old fence on Union Avenue

Marble patterns in every corner of a sidewalk

Callicarpa dichotoma 'Early Amethyst'/
 American Beautyberry

Xylocopa virginica/Eastern Carpenter Bee
in a Hydrangea paniculata variety

Bottle fence on Union Avenue

Ricinus communis/Castor Bean or Castor Oil Plant (KSS)

232 Bowdoin Avenue/Wesley AME Church (1927)

139 Rutgers Avenue/Purpose-built apartments (dates for
when built include 1915, 1916, 1920, 1923, and 1929!)

105 Rutgers Avenue/Swarthmore Post Office (1934)

Carved relief of The Spirit of the Post (1937,
by Milton Horn) inside the post office

Post office interior tilework

Outside the post office is Alex's Garden, dedicated to
beloved postal window clerk, Alexander Santa Barbara

Gravel Garden (2017) features tough plant species in a gravel
mix that requires less maintenance and less water, as water
is able to trickle down to the roots before evaporating

31 S Chester Road (1926 in Italian Renaissance style)

21 S Chester Road/Shirer Building (1905 and 1922,
in Beaux Arts style)