The end of the booklet lent me by Miss Beatrice Tees upon which the last several articles have been based shows “Our Latest Plan.” Familiar as is the writer with Wayne and St. Davids houses, she cannot cite for her readers an example of this type of home. Perhaps one like it was never built for the description states “No price can be named for this handsome house until the ground it will occupy is first known. This is one of several special plans which we will build to order at a reasonable price, on any selected ground of one tract. We invite an interview with those needing homes of this high class order.”
So if anyone among our readers has failed to identify his home among those especially described, it may be built from “one of these special plans.”
“After “five years of intelligent and systematic development” of Wayne’s home building, a booklet of another type was printed illustrating the changes and improvements that had been made.
There was one “before and after” picture; several interior views; pictures of the homes of several of Wayne’s leading citizens and pictures of its churches, its school and of its bank. That was the original small Wayne Title and Trust Company building, as many of us still remember it before the present larger building took its place on the same site. There was also a picture of the Wayne Country Club during a cricket match between its team and the Belmont Summer Eleven.
Among the homes of prominent citizens was the residence of John H. Watt, father of Louis Watt, who was for many years president of the Wayne Title and Trust Company. This is the house at the southeast corner of Louella avenue and Upland way, purchased about thirty years ago by John H. Stone and still occupied by members of his family.
The picture shows that there have ben few, if any, changes in the exterior of the large stone and shingle house since it was originally built. A neighboring home, demolished about twelve years ago, is also illustrated. It was the spacious house of Frederick H. Treat at the northeast corner of Louella avenue and Upland way, directly across from the original Watt home. The vacant lot now used by a group of badminton players who have their own fireplace and picnic tables has been purchased by the Christian Science Church, now having headquarters at the Saturday Club. In the not too distant future they will erect their own church building on the old Treat property.
Pictures of two neighboring houses in St. Davids are also shown, one being that of C. S. Walton, on St. Davids road, just where it is joined by Midland avenue. With scarcely any exterior changes it is now the home of the son of the original owner, Charles S. Walton, Jr., who with his family has lived there for a number of years. Directly across the street from the Walton home was the equally impressive residence set in spacious grounds and owned by John W. Yeatts. The years have brought some changes both in the exterior and the interior of this house, which is now owned by Dr. Louis Edward Silcox.
Still another house pictured in this booklet was the residence of State Treasurer John W. Morrison, located at the corner of Chestnut land and Eagle road.
It was one of the houses of the “New Tower” type and is described as having a “southern exposure sheltered on the north and east by the woods, open to the southwest slope, as a house should be.”
(To Be Continued)