From the Public Spirit, Week of Feb. 19-25, 1926

Hatboro voters to decide on new high school -

The voters of Hatboro will be called upon to decide whether Hatboro shall have a new high school building on March 2, when they will have an opportunity to vote on the proposed $55,000 loan.

If the people of the community vote in favor of the loan, Hatboro will have a new school building. If the loan is not passed, Hatboro will be unable to start work on the much-needed building.

The present plans, dependent of course on the action of the voters, call for a one-story, ten-room building. In addition to these classrooms, it is planned to add a cafeteria and domestic science and manual training rooms. The building will be the first unit of a building which can be added to indefinitely.

The planned edifice will take care of Hatboro's school needs for a long time, but those in charge are looking to the future when the new school will be just as cramped as the present one is. The planned building will take care of 250 students and will be used as a high school, while the old building will be available for all the grade school children.

A visit to the present school will surely convince anyone that the pupils and teachers do not have ample room. Some of the teachers are instructing classes which are too large to be adequately handled. This is both a disadvantage to the teacher and to the individual pupil. Sanitary conditions and ventilating are very poor.

With a new building, it will be possible for Hatboro to have better teaching facilities. It is easily seen that under the present conditions the local school cannot offer the broad instruction which would be possible under conditions bettered by the erection of a new building.

Hatboro is at present free from a school debt, and with the splendid advance in other community projects she should not be behind in her educational lines. It was stated by one of the school authorities that the increase in the tax rate for such a loan would be very small and can be handled very easily.

[Editor's note - On March 2, Hatboro residents voted 374-59 in favor of the school loan. Combined with a $55,000 loan approved in 1924, the school board had $110,000 available for land acquisition and construction costs. The new Hatboro High School was built in 1927 on York Road south of Horsham Road.]

Farmers' clubs hold joint meeting -

The Horsham, Warrington and Northampton farmers' clubs held their annual Community Meeting on Wednesday in Wilgus Hall, Hatboro.

The meeting opened at 10:30 with singing led by Professor Yoder, of Richboro, who travels all over the eastern part of the United States to lead singing at teachers' and farmers' institutions and grange meetings. A quartet of singers rendered numbers during the day. Rev. George W. Lamb, of the Church of the Advent, Hatboro, pronounced the benediction and made the address of welcome.

R. J. Waltz, Montgomery County Farm Agent, spoke at the morning session. Mrs. Frank Dager, of the Horsham Farmers' Club, presented a paper on "Play and Profit in My Garden." Mrs. George Hobensack and J. Howard Cliffe, of the Northampton Farmers' Club, gave a reading and a paper on "Present Tendencies in Dairying."

At the afternoon session, Professor J.R.B. Dickey, Assistant State Agronomist, presented a paper on "Fertilizing Qualities Indigenous to Different Soils." Miss Mary Thompson, of the Horsham club, gave a reading. W.F. Greenawalt, Bucks County Farm Agent, spoke.

In the evening, John N. Adee, of the Horsham club, presented a paper on "Schools of Today and Fifty Years Ago." Miss Margaret Garges, of the Warrington Farmers' Club, gave a reading. Rev. J. Penny Martin, of Forest Grove, addressed the topic of "Community Spirit."

Frank Shutt, of the Warrington club, presided over the three sessions. Those in attendance enjoyed a box lunch at 12:30 and a community supper at 6 o'clock.

Home mail delivery to begin in Hatboro -

The U.S. Post Office Department has announced that a village delivery system will be installed in Hatboro, effective April 1.

The Hatboro Board of Trade and the Hatboro Borough Council, co-operating with the postmistress, Miss Liola Thomas, petitioned the governmental authorities for delivery service. With the aid of the local representative in Congress, Hon. Henry W. Watson, this service was approved.

According to postal laws, village delivery will be made only on those streets along which are suitable pavements [sidewalks], and which are suitably lighted. A house numbering system must be in effect and mail boxes displayed.

It is with these two latter requirements that residents are urged to comply as early as possible. Clearly legible numbers should be affixed to each house and mail receptacles provided, preferably by a door-slot box. A canvass will be made by the postmistress, Miss Thomas, by March 15th to ascertain the names of those who will be eligible for delivery service.

It is estimated that out of Hatboro's two thousand population, more than fourteen hundred persons will be served by the delivery system. This system will eliminate the badly congested condition in the post office at mail hours, and greatly facilitate the handling of incoming and outgoing mails by the postmistress and her assistants.

One carrier will be placed on the route the first of April. It is probable that, under the rapidly growing conditions in the town, a part-time carrier will be placed within a year. Two deliveries will be made each day over the entire route.

Six outgoing letter boxes will be placed at central points throughout the borough. A combination box will be situated in front of the post office building on York road.

Workmen erecting hangars at Pitcairn field -

The snowstorm Wednesday afternoon made it necessary for workmen to stop work on hangars at the Pitcairn aviation field along Easton road in Horsham.

The framework for one hangar is up and rafters for the roof are being laid across the circular beams. This hangar is to have entances at both sides so that the planes may be taken in one side and out the other.

Forms for the concrete foundation of the second hangar are being set in trenches as they are dug.

Both hangars are to be about 120 feet in length, 60 feet in width and 40 feet in height.

[Editor's note - In 1926, aviation pioneer Harold F. Pitcairn bought three farms along Easton Road in Horsham to create Pitcairn Field. He developed and produced airplanes at his factory in Bryn Athyn, which he later moved to the airfield. By the early 1930s, Pitcairn concentrated on refining the autogyro, a precursor of the helicopter. The federal government bought Pitcairn Field in 1942 and transformed it into Willow Grove Naval Air Station in January 1943.]

Hatboro and Horsham Happenings -

The "Kitchen Cabinet Orchestra" will present a musical romance entitled "The Joy of Life" in the Sunday School room of the Hatboro Methodist Episcopal Church on Friday, March 5, at 8 o'clock. A special feature of the evening will be a "Mock Wedding."

Thomas S. Worthington has been confined to his home in Horsham with rheumatism.

Miss Florence Fenton gave a reception on Monday night at her home on Monument avenue, Hatboro, for the retiring officers of the American Legion Auxiliary, Frank G. Girard Post 271.

William Muir has moved from Maple avenue, Horsham, to the store property in Davis Grove.

Harry V. Yerkes of York street, Hatboro, has been drawn for jury duty for the March term of U.S. Federal Court in Philadelphia.

Members of the Horsham Fire Company enjoyed a banquet on Monday evening following the monthly business meeting, the cost being taken from the contingent fund and the eats being served by the men.

Mrs. George Eisenhardt, of Hatboro, is visiting her husband in a sanitarium in New York state.

Iredell Palmer, of Horsham, walked to Jarrettown on Wednesday to see his uncle, Daniel Iredell, who is ill.

Master George Lester Schwab entertained a number of his little friends at a party in honor of his first birthday at his home on Penn street, Hatboro.

Frank Colby, of Hatboro, who is the proud possessor of ten baby chicks, says that they will be worth twenty hatched in May if the mother hen will continue to do her part.

Jay M. Megargee, of Horsham, had the misfortune to have the thumb of his left hand cut and somewhat mashed by the cogs of the corn sheller on Wednesday morning, when he tripped and fell against the side of the sheller. Dr. T. Reading was summoned to dress the injury.

Russell Megargee, of Horsham, had his face burned and eyebrows singed last week when he was putting alcohol into the radiator of his car and the fumes caught on fire. He has now recovered from his injuries.