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Wissahickon Valley Historical Society map and atlas collection
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Held at: Wissahickon Valley Historical Society [Contact Us]Whitpain Public School 1895 Building, 799 Skippack Pike, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, 19422
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Wissahickon Valley Historical Society. 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 Wissahickon Valley is named for the creek that runs through central Montgomery County and into the City of Philadelphia, where it empties into the Schuylkill River. The Wissahickon Valley Historical Society documents the history of that portion of the valley that encompasses the Borough of Ambler and Townships of Whitpain and Lower Gwynedd. The Borough of Ambler was originally known as the Village of Wissahickon. From 1881 and for nearly a century, the borough's most prominent business was the Keasbey and Mattison Company, asbestos manufacturers. The palatial estate of company founder Dr. Richard V. Mattison, "Lindenwold," has been occupied by St. Mary's Villa for Children since 1936. Ambler was also the home of the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women, one of the first schools in the nation to educate women for careers in horticulture and agriculture. The nearby townships of Whitpain and Lower Gwynedd are among the oldest in Montgomery County. Both settled by Quakers in the 17th century, Whitpain Township was established in 1701 and Lower Gwynedd Township in 1891 when it broke off from Upper Gwynedd.
This collection is comprised of loose rolled maps and architectural drawings as well as published atlas volumes. The loose rolled items include: 20 rolled architectural drawings and maps from Ambler, circa 1940-1954; an insurance map of Ambler, 1930; and various maps of Ambler, Whitpain, and Blue Bell. The atlases include: North Penn atlas, 1916; George Washington Atlas, 1932; Atlas of Montgomery County, 1893; Atlas of Montgomery County, 1938; and J.L. Smith Atlases of Montgomery County and Overbrook, 1893.
Materials collected by the Wissahickon Valley Historical Society.
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Wissahickon Valley Historical Society
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Michael Gubicza 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 Wissahickon Valley Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.