I would seriously say that you could compare LawnCrest now to what was Ol-oh-ney back in the 70-80's, but with a different mind set and more tolerence.

The one thing I say that makes 5th Street looks so cruddy is the lack of Green...there is not one tree lining the major portions of the 5th street shopping district. That little bit of Green can make a huge difference.

Look at Rising Sun in Lawndale...where there are still trees, there is an overall better appearence than where they have been cut down.

Olney still has a stronger Business District than most of the neighborhoods in the City...and more neighbor oriented and not trendy. Hell, they still have an True Value hardware store!.... RSA lost their last hardware store (Rising Sun and Magee) shortly after the Home Depot opened up on Whittaker. That I think is the difference. Most chain stores are not located within the Oleny area, don't want to be and therefore, smaller busineese can and do survive. I would like to see the financial data for the Olney area and what tax revenue is pumped into the City's Coffers by all those small businesses...I'd bet it's quite a bit.


Question for some old timers; Does anyone recall where the Furniture Store was located on 5th Street that was owned by Glen Overlander? I remember going there as a lil' kid with my Grandpop one time to pick up my brothers new bedroom set, but cannot for the life of me recall where it was at. The Overlanders (Glen and Dot) lived 2 doors down from my Grandparents here in Lawndale.

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>>>>> The furinture store was located on the 5600 block of 5th Street, it was on the East side (odd number addresses) right in the middle of the block. What distinguishes the building from the others is the second floor facade -- a large black arch. The same property was until 1958 or so a single screen theater under the Stanley chain.

Just came upon this thread. My, my what memories. Actually, I'm much older than all you folks. Born in 1926 at 5654 N. 5th. Yes, in the apartment above my family's fruit store. We lived at various Olney addresses, American St., Fairhill St., and finally Chew St. accross from the Lutheran church. I went to Lowell school K-8, rode my bike to Central and graduated in 1944 straight into the Navy.

Our house on Fairhill St. backed up to the stores on 5600 block of 5th. What a paradise for little boys! There was a wide driveway and a vacant sandlot behind the stores, and lots of interesting business trash from the stores. Example: Building forts with the empty crates from console radios that Getlins sold. And there was Officer Hipp, one of the beat cops who took his lunch breaks on the lot to watch our ball games in the summer. And lots of great hiding places for hide and seek, follow the arrows, etc. The lamplighter would come around the neighborhood at twilight with a long torch to light the gas steet lamp posts, before they converted them with ugly light bulbs on tall poles.

No one has mentioned the great holiday parades on 5th St. Perhaps they were gone by the 60's. The Osmond Post, VFW and the American Legion Olney Post sponsored bugle and drum corps for the local kids. And there were veterans of WW1, Spanish American war and even occasionally an aged drummer boy from the Grand Army of the Republic.

My parents moved to Olney shortly after they married. Together with my grandparents they opened one of the first business on the block. They told me that at the time, the Rt. 47 trolleys only came as far north as Olney Ave. and from there it was largely farm land. After a time, the grandparents moved further up 5th and opened another fruit store in the building that later became the Green Parrot. I worked for my Dad from the time I was 10 until I finished high school. I did everything from stocking shelves to writing the weekly ad for the Olney Times and ultimately driving the delivery truck when I turned 16.

The businesses I remember were Doc Shaefer (next door) the pharmacist. He had a very nice soda fountain and a rental library (one bookrack) that my Mom patronized. Then there was Weller's bakery with the greatest pastries I have ever had. We kids on the block used to enter through the bakery behind the store and watch the big mixer. And then there was Schmidt's ice cream parlor. Everyone in the neighborhood brought bowls after dinner and took home several scoops of the many flavors they made in the basement. I never saw the machinery, but I used to watch the ice man deliver hundred lb. blocks of ice.

And speaking of ice, reminds me of the many trucks and wagons that passed through the neigborhood. Harbison's, Supplee, Baldwin, Brueningers, were all dairies that served the homes from horse drawn wagons, along with the bakers: Bond, Freihofers, Haasis. We loved to pet the horses, but didn't much appreciate the dung they left on the streets.
And there were also walking peddlers who sold fresh ground horseraddish, or sharpened knives using grinders they carried on their backs. And, of course, hucksters with fruits and berries and even live fish in truck-mounted tanks.

Ah, those were the days.

The Wikipedia article seems quite accurate now that the Olney High date has been corrected. The only quibble I have is the subway fare: That fifteen cents was for the round trip. They sold two tokens for 15c. And that 7 1/2 cent fare entitled you to a free transfer to an intersecting trolley.

As the world darkened with the rise of European fascism, the legendary tolerance of Olney people was tested. I remember looking out a Lowell school window one afternoon to watch the Hindenberg zepelin floating by, with swastikas on all the tail surfaces. A few kids expressed pride, but by and large, there was little sympathy among the large German population. There were much publicized meetings of the German-American Bund at the Philadelphia Rifle Club on Tabor road, but there was little evidence of anyone in the neighborhood being involved. (The one kid in our class who espoused the greatness of Hitler, was shunned and razzed by everyone.)

The war years were significant in Olney, I don't know what Heintz and Prroctor and Schwartz produced, but it had to be military. Even Bernie Getz the auto mechanic at Chew and Lawrence had a screw machine in the back of his shop spitting out brass parts for some munitions. Darn near every home had a blue star service flag in the window, or, sadly, in a few cases a gold star.

After the war, industry dried up. Landmark factories like Apex hosiery (moved to the South for cheaper labor), Flexible Flyer, Stetson Hat, Proctor Electric all faded away.

Oh, by the way, the building with the arch on top was not the Colney Theater. The theater had a white stone facade above the marquis and was occupied by a beauty parlor. The building with the arch housed an early super market that opened in the late 30's and decimated by Dad's business.

I haven't been back to the neighborhood very much. One of my daughters was into rock music so we did go back to Zapf's occasionaly. But it was a far cry from the narrow shop I had patronized where Ludwig Zapf and his son Sofian sold music, repaired instruments and ran a music school upstairs. The state of the 5th street shopping district was so changed from my time that it was painful for me to pass through.

Hope these recollections extend the history you folks created back further than you might remember.

ps: In 1949 I married a wonderful girl from Brewerytown whose mother, it turned out, had lived in Olney and gone to Lowell school a whole generation before me.

All the things mentioned in your post about Olney were so similar to mine, that it evoked all the memories of a real neat chldhood growing up Olney. You were born on the 5600 Block of 5th street, and I lived on 5600 block of 3rd street. I also attended Lowell School at 5th and Nedro Aves, as did my brother, and a generation before ,my. Dad also went to school at Lowell. I hung out on the 5600 block of American St which always a a gang of kids of all ages playing Tire ball, half ball, curb ball, wire ball, block ball and bunch of other street games unique to Philly. My grandparents moved to Olney about 1908 when everything east of Mascher St was farms. MY Dad attened Lowell School and then Germantown High. No Olney High yet. You mentioned all the Drum and Bugle Corps in Olney, Osmond Post VFW, American Legion and the DAV Bugle corps, which I joined in 1940. At the corner of 5th and Olney Aves. was Media Drugs, with a Pool Hall on the second floor. Then going north on 5th was father and Sons shoes. Storm boots with a pen knife on the side. Now that was real cool. The Colony Theater every saturday 10 cents. A cowboy movie, then the serial (Capt Marvel) ?? Time marches On, then a cartoon, and on to the feature. I saw Robin Hood 5 times Errol Flynn as Robin. After the movie back to American St to reinact the action from Robin Hood After December 7th 1941 everything started to change. I was a Junior Fire Warden at age 11. We delivered by wagons, two buckets of sand to each family, to be used in case of Incendiary Bombs were dropped on their roofs, How the heck could some one get two buckets of sand stored in the basement up to the roof to put out a fire. (Sounds like 1940's Duct Tape and Plastic Sheets). In the Dav bugle corps was a son of one of my Dad's boyhood friends who worked at the Camden N.J Shipyard. Coming out of the depression when was scarce, the boy's Dad got a job for my Dad at the shipyard in Camden. The travel time from Olney to center city and then a bus to Camden was so long that we moved to Moorestown N.J in Oct 1942. My grandparents still lived in Olney and I always went back to see them, and the gang on American St

Ahh-lu-knee is a very unique area since it is situated between north philly and northeast philly. I grew up there - Mayfairchick and Geno must be around my age. The sledding hill in the park was known as "the creek (crick)" since there once was a spring house there. The flight of whites was very gradual and some whites remain. I still order from Old English and eat it in The Huddle. The decline started IMO when Mcdonald's replaced Cheryl Dee's dress shop on 5th st. Cheryl Dee's moved to where the Whimsy shop was, then was replaced by Gola Electronic, which sold pipes for freebasing cocaine - talk about decline. Not many Koreans lived there, they just owned the stores. They live in Cheltenham. The Koreans hastened the decline when they installed the roll-down grates on the storefronts that they bought. It made the neighborhood look a lot worse than it actually was. The street signs they installed without community approval were mysteriously removed one night. On a side note, the neighborhood ends at the railroad tracks west of 7th street, then the neighborhoods are called Logan or Fern Rock. I also remember a pretty bad white gang known as Inky or Inky Yard. They hung at 3rd & Delphine and were bad news. I would say that the area now is still as good and more diverse than say, Lawncrest.

Fisher Park is one of the best things happening in Olney- actually on the upper edge toward East Oak Lane. The park fronts on 5th Street and is surrounded by pretty decent blocks. It's getting a big recreation make-over, plus it has some great wild woods.

Fisher Park was a great hangout for me as a kid in the 1970's; In the Winter (if there was enough snow) it was great for sledding and in the Summer you could attend Fisher Park Day Camp. I was lucky enough to be in the Day Camp for 5 yrs.

Still good for both activities- for the last 2 years the city-wide art camp has been held there, and the same is happening this summer.

Back in the 30's and 40;s there was still a natural spring in Fisher;s Park where the cold clear water could be enjoyed. Two parades in Olney on the 4th of July, with games and races at the park. Fire Works at night at the Olney High School Field. Up on Old Second St there was Fisher's Woods, where Cardinal Doughty HS now stands. As a kid I remember a barn with horses on the Fisher Esate. Soft pretzels were still 1c each and the Colony Theater was only 10cs, but with inflation went up tp 12c Sleding on a snowy night at Fisher's Park was the greatest. Rick

While I was born way out in the boonies, at age 18 you couldnt keep me out of Olney. I was in a rock band with some of the younger Zapfs employees, and Olney was the closest thing to New York I'd ever had the pleasure of being in mostly every day. I remember Sofian Zapf... Willie, the crippled cousin used to wink at me when I'd come in the store and Erik, the now deceased grandson knew me by name. Sophian used to smoke fish in his office... man what a smell when you'd walk in. There was a really nice english receptionist the years I went there, I think her name was Margaret. They are all gone now.

There was a German deli run by a nice old woman - I think that was Colney.

I remember so many dinners at Peppinos, complete with wine and roses. For a proto-punk teenager in the early 1980s, it was like a music video. Even the whole Korean flap was intersesting to me, I could never get enough of just wandering those streets, shopping in the Goodwill that was once the Furniture store mentioned earlier here.

Many many moons ago, a local boy from there was everything to me. I can remember being kissed in Fishers Park and the sound of subways screeching not far behind.

But that was then. (sigh)

Anyway... Sophian Zapf died from a branch hitting him in the head on his way to church one fine easter weekend. How bizzare that the man who crafted fine instruments all his life was killed by his primary material.