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Park Land Association financial records and leases
Notifications
Held at: Historic Langhorne Association [Contact Us]160 W. Maple Ave., Langhorne, PA, 19047
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Historic Langhorne Association. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The area of Parkland, near Langhorne in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was developed by members of the First Association of Spiritualists of Philadelphia in the 1890s. In 1889 the Spiritualist association founded a Relief Mining and Milling Company, which they reorganized into the Parkland Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association the following year. This group had twin objectives to contribute financial aid to the First Association of Spiritualists of Philadelphia and "to spread the philosophy and religion of spiritualism at Parkland." A cookhouse, ice cream stands, and a hotel were built on the grounds; lectures, musical performances, sports competitions, and other recreations were held--as well as séances and other Spiritualist gatherings.
It seems that the Parkland Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association held its last official meeting in 1893, although Spiritualists continued to inhabit the area and the campgrounds were still used. The area remained popular as a summer resort destination for a time, and eventually the summer homes were converted to year-round rental units. The Park Land Association was the rental organization leasing properties in the area.
Bibliography:
Fabian, Jean. "Parkland Is." 1970. Pamphlet at Historic Langhorne Association.
This collection consists primarily of financial records of the Park Land Association, 1914-1960, including tax reports, cash books (1914-1919 and 1919-1942), check stubs (1915-1949), capital stock taxes, miscellaneous correspondence regarding finances and leases, and cancelled checks (1960). There are also a large number of leases with tenants, circa 1940s-1950s.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Historic Langhorne Association directly for more information.
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Historic Langhorne Association
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Historic Langhorne Association for information about accessing this collection.