Here I Stand…..1000 Main Street, Darby
I am 1000 Main Street in Darby. I was built by craftsmen before the Civil War with love and strong timber. I have been a prominent feature of the streetscape since before your great grandfather was born. I sheltered families and possibly escaping slaves, I have many stories to tell. I am a reminder and a link to your past. This is my story.
I was built in 1852 when Franklin Pierce was president of the United States. I have board and batten siding which has been covered with white stucco and my cedar shake roof (since covered with tin) is held up by 3 x 4 chestnut rafters pegged with trunnels. My ceilings are high, my joists are strong and I still have good bones. To the north was the stone home of C.C. Sellers built in 1734 or before (still standing), to the south was the home of Hugh Lloyd and across the street was Darby Friends Meeting (still active) and the house built by John Blunston who came with William Penn in 1682. It was a quiet time but there was trouble on the horizon.
I remember the increasing tension over the question of slavery and the turmoil about the fugitive slave law passed in 1850. The law said that slaveholders had the right to deputize anyone they wanted and demand help to recapture anyone escaping to freedom. A number of the folks around here resisted that law, and people like Thomas Garrett, Charles Lloyd and William Still put their lives and fortunes on the line to do the right thing; however, since it was illegal to help escaping slaves, many of the records did not survive. I remember the men going off to fight and the anxious families checking the causality lists to see if their loved ones were there. I remember the anguish but also the grim determination that the war to preserve the Union had to be fought and won.
I remember when the streetcars first came to Darby a few years after I was built in 1858. They were pulled by horses and it cost 15 cents to travel to Third and Market Streets in Philadelphia. I remember William Still’s struggle to win the right for people of color to ride inside the cars. The Quakers supported that struggle and I remember thinking that sometimes courage and sacrifice is not only shown on the battlefield. The image of Lucretia Mott riding outside the cars in solidarity regardless of the weather will always be with me. I remember when Darby Library, which was started in 1743, finally built a permanent home across the street in 1872. The country and the world were changing and I watched it all happen.
In 1875 I was owned by J.J. White and remember the first electric trolleys coming down from Yeadon in 1907. I became a doctor’s office and helped to heal the sick and received a number of additions. The Lloyd house was taken down in the 1940s and the Blunston house was lost to a fire in the 1950s. I began to see more and more of these automobiles running past and the world continued to change with airplanes, computers, space travel and the start of a new millennium.
In 2000 I was purchased by Delaware County to allow room for a new transportation center. At the time I was supposed to be rehabilitated but so far have been allowed to just sit. My tin roof blew off in a storm in 2004 and even though a series of tarps have been put over me, they eventually shred and I am sometimes exposed to the weather. Neighbors keep asking after me and have proposed plans for my reuse as a visitor’s center, café and offices but I continue to wait and I don’t know why. I am 1000 Main Street in Darby. I was built long before your great grandfather was born. I have stories to tell.