The Tredyffrin Easttown

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The Tredyffrin EasttownSchool Fight1932
1934Presented by Roger D. ThorneTredyffrin
Easttown History Club
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Across the pedestrian bridge connecting Lancaster
and Cassett Avenues in Berwyn, a structure built
in 1917 was originally called the Berwyn Theater.
Seating was segregated through the 1930s.
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The Robinson Wellburn Elks Lodge 791, on
Lancaster Avenue in Berwyn. Built in the 1950s,
it operated as an active lodge for people of
color for almost 50 years.
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Wilmer K. GroffW. K. Groff was born in
Limerick, PA in 1880, He received his B.S. degree
from the University of Pennsylvania and a M.S.
degree from Lafayette College.He came to Berwyn
in 1926 as principal of the Easttown Elementary
Schools. In 1931 he was made Superintendent of
the entire Tredyffrin and Easttown townships and
the T/E High School, the position he held at his
death in 1941.
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March 7, 1932 Two Agreements were consummated
between Tredyffrin and Easttown School Districts
Agreement 1

• The Tredyffrin School District will abandon and
  discontinue the use of its North Berwyn School.
• The Tredyffrin School District makes
  application to Easttown District to permit
  certain pupils from specified parts of Tredyffrin
  Township to be assigned to and enrolled in the
  new Easttown Elementary School now under
  construction, for a specified fee per pupil,
  effective July 4, 1932

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The North Berwyn School was built as a one-room
schoolhouse on the southeast corner of what is
today Conestoga and Cassett Roads in 1892. Later
additions enlarged it to contain four classrooms.
The school operated until 1932, when it was
closed. The old North Berwyn School was then
renovated and a second floor added. In 1936 it
was again used, this time by the T / E High
School for its vocational and art departments.
Today, it houses the Maintenance Department of
the T/E Schools.
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March 7, 1932 Two Agreements were consummated
between Tredyffrin and Easttown School Districts
Agreement 1

• The Tredyffrin School District will abandon and
  discontinue the use of its North Berwyn School.
• The Tredyffrin School District makes
  application to Easttown District to permit
  certain pupils from specified parts of Tredyffrin
  Township to be assigned to and enrolled in the
  new Easttown Elementary School now under
  construction, for a specified fee per pupil,
  effective July 4, 1932.

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In 1930 the school authorities in Easttown
decided to build a modern consolidated school
They acquired a tract of land on the south side
of First Avenue, east of Bridge Street in Berwyn,
and began construction of a new Easttown
Elementary School. The new school was first
occupied in the fall of 1932. The school was
closed in 1977 and converted to administrative
space for the Tredyffrin / Easttown school
district.
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March 7, 1932 Two Agreements were consummated
between Tredyffrin and Easttown School Districts
Agreement 2

• The Tredyffrin School District reaffirms its
  desire to abandon and discontinue the use of its
  North Berwyn School.
• The Tredyffrin School District agreed to
  establish and maintain together with Easttown
  District a school now owned by Easttown District
  and currently called Easttown Primary School to
  be renamed the Lincoln Highway School, for the
  joint use in the instruction of certain pupils of
  both Townships. The Tredyffrin School District
  agrees to pay its share of operating expenses to
  the Easttown District plus a lease fee per year.
  Agreement effective July 4, 1932.

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A new Berwyn Primary School was built in 1912 on
Lancaster Avenue at Central and Walnut Avenues,
in the next block west of an older Grammar School
closed in 1926. In 1932 the Tredyffrin School
Board leased the vacated Berwyn Primary School
from the Easttown authorities. The school was
refurbished and renamed the Lincoln Highway
School, and continued in operation until 1939. It
is currently a private office building.
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March 10, 1932 - The Main Line Daily Times
Townships Will Provide Exclusive Colored
Schools

• ". . . Easttown, and Tredyffrin Townships are two
  Townships which have not had Colored schools.
  This has probably been due to the fact that
  neither of them heretofore had a sufficiently
  large Negro population. In my opinion this
  decision is the largest step forward that Berwyn
  has taken in the last 25 years. It's a shame
  that our townships have been stagnated by
  inadequate schools and the policy of mixing the
  races therein!"

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The first public meeting to protest the joint
school boards decision was held on March 16,
1932 in the United American Protestant
Association Hall located at the corner of Bridge
St. and Lancaster Road in Berwyn. Primus Crosby
of Berwyn presided. At the close, a petition was
written for signatures from the black community
to be taken to the Easttown School Board.
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Primus L. CrosbyPrimus L. Crosby was born in
Alabama in 1884, attended Tuskegee Institute and
studied under Booker T. Washington. He left
Alabama for Pennsylvania in 1918, and his wife
Jessye and twin daughters Bessie and Essie joined
him later.Although a printer by profession, and
the only black businessman in Berwyn, Crosby was
also a lumber grader for C. A. Loeb Co., Devon,
and worked for the American Bronze Co.,
Berwyn.He and his family moved to Maple Avenue,
Berwyn in 1924 where he lived until his death in
1980.
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May 5, 1932 - Easttown School District Minutes -
After consulting with members of the Tredyffrin
and Easttown Boards, the Easttown School District
instructed the Secretary to notify Mr. Primus L.
Crosby, Chairman, also Mr. Powell and Mr. Tyre as
follows "The action
of this Board in adopting the plans which you
protest was taken only after careful and mature
consideration in the sincere belief that
ultimately they will work to the best advantage
of every pupil. We feel that you should
show sufficient confidence in your Board to
enable it to make a fair trial of this plan for
the three years to which it is committed.
Once the plan is in operation your Board believes
that the results will prove entirely satisfactory
to all our citizens. Relying upon your
cooperation, we remain
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Raymond Pace Alexander was a Philadelphian born
in 1897, the first black graduate of the
University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School,
class of 1920, and a 1923 graduate of the Harvard
Law School. By 1932 he had been in practice for 9
years.
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An original school building in the Mt. Pleasant
section of Wayne was built in 1867 and finally
razed in 1903. The new, stone Mt. Pleasant School
building was built upon the same site. This new
school was used until the 1940s. The building,
located at 1008 Upper Gulph Road across from the
Radnor Country Club, has been renovated and is
now an office complex.
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Built in 1861, the old chapel of Mount Zion
A.M.E. Church in Devon originally served an
African-American enclave known as Quigley Town
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The interior of the old chapel of Mount Zion
A.M.E. Church in Devon. During the school fight
it served as a primary meeting hall for the black
community from both townships.
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The original cover page for one of the two
PETITIONS OF MANDAMUS, notarized October 8, 1932
and signed by Raymond Pace Alexander
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An old school at the corner of Upper Gulph and
West Valley Roads was replaced in 1930 by a new,
larger Strafford School built upon a piece of
adjoining property. The school served for fifty
years until it was closed in 1981. The private
Woodlynde School now occupies the site.
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March 9, 1933 Mr. Robert G. Ligget,
Secretary, Tredyffrin Township School Board
Berwyn, Pennsylvania   Dear Mr. Ligget   It
has come to my attention that since about the
first day of October, 1932, your school district
has refused or neglected to enforce the
compulsory attendance provisions of the school
laws in the district, and that as a result a
large number of children of compulsory school age
in your district have not attended school since
that date.   Therefore, you are hereby notified
that on Monday, March 27th, 1933, at 350
o'clock, P. M, I will hold a hearing in my office
in the Education Building, State Capitol,
Harrisburg, at which your Board is required to
appear and show cause, if any you have, why the
State appropriation allotted to your school
district should not be forfeited as provided by
Section 1431 of the School Code of 1911, as
amended by the Act of May 2, 1921, P. L.
1034.   Very truly yours,   JAMES N. RULE
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The Salem School was built in 1863 on the western
end of Yellow Springs Road, one of two schools
built to replace the Diamond Rock School which
closed the same year. This school was made up of
an original one-story structure and an adjoining
two-story frame building. The Salem School was
closed in 1939. The buildings are currently owned
by private owners.
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The Paoli Elementary School replaced an original
building built in 1902 on the east side of South
Valley Road. This new modern grammar school,
built in 1927, located on the north side of the
railroad at the corner of Fennerton Road and
Central Avenue in Paoli, remained in service
until 1981. It is now operated as the Delaware
Valley Friends School.
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Truancy Fine SchedulePayable by Parents of
Absent PupilsOctober 1933

• First Offense - 1.00 (equates to 43.00 in
  todays dollars.
• Second and subsequent Offenses - 2.50 (equates
  to 105.00 in todays dollars.

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Raymond Pace Alexanderdescribes the grinding
legal battle
. . . for two long years, battling in Chester
County, rebuffed then to Harrisburg to the
Attorney General of Pennsylvania for state
supported mandamus, then returning to Chester
County, back to Harrisburg and innumerable trips
all at night at least 50 in all to take
testimony in various churches . . .. A Short
Summary of the Life and Activities of Raymond
Pace Alexander
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March 17, 1934 Dear Mr. Cobb I hope you will
forgive my long delay in replying to your very
kind letter of March 10. I am willing to do
anything in my power to try to settle the
unfortunate difference between the School Board
and the parents. I am today writing to the
Attorney for the School Board to see what can be
done. I appreciate immensely the spirit of your
letter and would be more than delighted if I
could be of real service in bringing about an
adjustment.   Sincerely, William Schnader State
Attorney General, (Pa.)
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The Coatesville RecordMay 1, 1934
Tredyffrin township's segregated school
controversy ended yesterday when Negro boys and
girls and white children attended the same
schools.   Announcement was made by Raymond Pace
Alexander, colored attorney representing the
parents of more than 220 Negro children who
refused to attend schools specially designated
for them, that the joint school boards of
Easttown and Tredyffrin townships had notified
him yesterday that the segregated system would be
done away with at once.  Alexander, in turn, sent
notice to the parents that they should send their
children to school yesterday morning, and a check
up showed that nearly all of the parents had
compiled.  
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The Tredyffrin EasttownSchool Fight1932 - 1934
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8 Minute Bell Questions

• When did the School Fight occur?
• What did the TE School Board want to do?
• What buildings were involved?
• Who were the leaders of the School Fight?
• What did the black community do to fight back?
• How did they break the jailing cycle?
• How was the fight resolved?