Upper Dublin: The Making of a 21st Century Suburb ← All Chapters

Upper Dublin “firsts” and “worsts”

Upper Dublin was a party to what appears to be the first civil rights case in the United States.

Applying colonial era poor laws (Chapter DCXXXV of the Consolidated Laws (of Pennsylvania), Act for the Relief of the Poor, 1771, reenacted after the founding of the Commonwealth, those unable to pay taxes, such as the poll tax, could be removed to place where they had previously lived upon action of the Overseers of the Poor. Finding the legal process was not properly followed, Rachael Peters was permitted to stay in Germantown. Per Ancetry.com. she apparently stayed in Philadelphia (whether in Germantown after it became part of Philadelphia is not clear). Overseers of the Poor of the Township of) Upper Dublin vs. (Overseers of the Poor of the Township of) Germantown, 2 U.S. (2 Dallas) 213 (Pa. High Court of Errors and Appeals, April Term, 1793.14

Residence of Perhaps Least Celebrated Member of the Pennsylvania Convention that Ratified the United States Constitution -and Only Attendee From Upper Dublin

Quoting from the Official Biographies of the Members of the Pennsylvania Convention that ratified the United States Constitution, in Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 1787-1788, ch. IX, W. H. Egle, M.D., Sketches of the Members of the Pennsylvania Convention (emphasis added):

MORRIS, JAMES, of Montgomery County, son of Joseph Morris, was born in 1753. His father was a son of Anthony Morris, who was fourth son of Anthony Morris, an only child of Anthony Morris, born at St. Dunstan’s, Stepney, London, August 23, 1654. In 1771, Joseph Morris, the father, bought a house and grist-mill, and ninety-four acres of land, on the now Morris Road and Butler Pike, in Upper Dublin township, Montgomery County, and located his son there. James Morris was elected to the General Assembly from Philadelphia County in 1782, and again in 1783. When the county of Montgomery was formed, he was commissioned one of its first justices of the peace, and judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1785. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution in 1787, and a member of the State constitutional convention of 1789-90. Under this latter instrument, Governor Mifflin appointed him register and recorder of the county, serving until March 5, 1799. He was chosen a presidential elector in 1792, and in 1793 commissioned a brigadier-general of the militia, having served in the military during and subsequent to the Revolution. He was on the Western Expedition of 1794. General Morris died the following year (1795), at the age of forty-two years.15

Upper Dublin was the subject of what appears to have been the first police brutality criminal proceeding in Pennsylvania.

Although the still-rural Upper Dublin had experienced spurts of criminal activity from time to time, Kean, A Brief History of Fort Washington, at p. 63 (“increase in thefts” at beginning of 20thcentury), the first noteworthy criminal proceeding became known in legal parlance as Commonwealth v. Trunk, 311 Pa. 555, 167 A. 333 (Pa. 1933). Upper Dublin’s police chief, justice of the peace, a county detective and an assistant district attorney were at first convicted, later acquitted, in what may likely have been the first allegedly racially motivated police brutality trial in the state, with the public packing the courtroom at every event.16

At the first jury trial Upper Dublin’s Police Chief Brooks Cassidy, its Justice of the Peace Squire Crane, a County detective (Trunk) and assistant district attorney Rinalducci were convicted of assaulting William Campbell, an African-American resident of Upper Dublin).17 Initially their convictions was upheld on appeal by the Superior Court in 1931. See Arrest Officials For Third Degree: Negro Claims Montgomery County Men Beat Him Badly, Reading Times (July 31, 1931); Prosecutor Held on Cruelty Charge, Phila. Inquirer, p.4 (July 31, 1931); Judge Knight is Witness At “Third Degree” Trial, Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 24, 1931, at p. 2.18

After the Superior Court affirmed the convictions (likely the first time in the United States there was an appellate decision affirming a conviction for police brutality), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by unanimous opinion reversed and ordered a new trial for all defendants. At the retrial in 1934, the defendants were acquitted by a jury after a series of witnesses disputed Campbell’s testimony as to his injuries and witnesses testified to the defendants’ character. The Mercury (Pottstown), May 8, 1934, p.1; To Push Second Appeal in “Third Degree” Convictions, The Reporter, July 15, 1932, p.1 (contains most complete description of the facts).

Campbell was sentenced to three and one-half to seven years in county prison for an explosion that gave rise to his arrest. Sentence to County Prison, The Reporter, Feb. 9, 1934, p. 1; ‘Third Degree’ Case Closed by Courts, The Mercury, Aug. 19, 1934, p.1.

Upper Dublin has been divided into most Congressional and State House districts of any Pennsylvania (and perhaps any in the United States) municipality under 500,000 population-Congressional districts-two districts from 1990-2011 and four State House districts (2002-2011), then three (from 2011 to 2021), and two since then.19

The Upper Dublin School District was the last Montgomery County school district (and perhaps the last in Pennsylvania) to have an all-Black school, both students and staff, almost a decade after the US Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

The North Glenside Elementary School, with an all Black student body and staff, as discussed in more detail below, was closed in 1965,20 more than 80 years after Pennsylvania’s 1881 law barring racial segregation in public education.21 And, perhaps, as discussed below, it was the last school district to have a segregated grammar school while, at least for a short time in the 1930s, maintaining at the same time an integrated grammar school.

Upper Dublin has held the most voter referenda of all Montgomery County municipalities, including both statewide and municipal votes, highlighted by the following:

THE 1915 WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE VOTE

Notably, the first (and perhaps only) statewide campaign directed from Upper Dublin was in connection with the 1915 women’s suffrage referendum to amend the. Upper Dublin resident Wilmer Atkinson, residing at Cherry Lane Farm (now the School Administration Building), founded and chaired the Pennsylvania Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage.22 Atkinson, the publisher of the nationally circulated Farm Journal, detailed in his autobiography his role in the unsuccessful seven-month-long effort to secure passage of that referendum. Wilmer Atkinson: An Autobiography, pp. 349-355 (1920).

The 1915 statewide referendum on women’s suffrage lost no doubt due to male only voting. It lost both in Montgomery County (though narrowly) and statewide, primarily due to defeat in counties in the southeastern part of the state (with the anti-suffrage vote strongest in Philadelphia).23,24

MUNICIPAL-ONLY REFERENDA IN 1945 AND THEREAFTER25

The following referenda have been conducted in Upper Dublin for either township or school district issues:

(1.) 1945 To adopt First Class Township status, passed 629 to 492 (Bechtel Is Re-Elected in Montgomery County, Phila. Inquirer, Nov. 7, 1945, p. 14);26

(2.) 1953: To provide and maintain a suitable place for housing of engines, hose carts, and other apparatus for the extinguishment of fires Yes 818 No 376 (Fire House Proposal Wins In Upper Dublin, The Reporter, Nov. 4, 1953, p.1.)

(3.) 1954: To increase debt limit by $100,000 to pay for new firehouse, adopted 1,451 to 859. Loan Proposals Win County Districts: Upper Dublin Votes to Increase Township Debt by $100,000, Reporter, Nov. 3, 1954, p.3.

(4). 1963 To issue $400,000 bond to acquire Burn Brae Golf Club, also known as Burn Brae Recreational Center, from heirs of Henry Kneezel, per UD Ord 277 (adopted April 22, 1963, referendum held May 21, 1963) NEED VOTE-cannot find it on newspapers.com

(5.) 1972-To authorize a Home Rule Study Commission, approved 5094 to 799 (William Price, Voters OK Home Rule Studies, Phila. Inquirer, Nov. 9, 1972 (proposed per UD Ord 454).

1974-Rejection of home rule. A August 28,1974 report of the Upper Dublin Government Study Commission proposing adopting home rule charter, report cited at note 8- on p. 24 of Home Rule in Pennsylvania, Eleventh Edition/March 2020, Governor’s Center for Local Government Services (yes 2,940 to no 4,244), The Reporter, Nov. 11, 1974, p. 4) Interestingly, in the primary election in 1974, Upper Dublin voters approved a county home rule charter by a vote of 2,718 to 1,229, Reporter, Maty 22, 1974, p. 2, while the county as a whole rejected that proposal. There was at that time no attempt to explain the disparity in outcomes, although the very rapid growth in Upper Dublin and attendant controversies involving new real estate developments may well have played a role.

(7.) Three votes for funding open space acquisition, in 1996, 2006 and 2008:

a.1966 for $500,000 borrowing approved, 4254 to 895, (Robert P. Ewing & Robert J. Salgado, Shafer Outpolls Rival, 2-to-1, Schweiker Beats Searle Easily, Phila. Inquirer, Nov. 9, 1966, p. 9; Shafer & Shapp Endorse $500,000 Referendum for Open Dublin Open Space, noting that Francis Ballard, Upper Dublin resident spearheading the Upper Dublin Citizens Association for Open Space, stated that the township had only 120 acres of open space, while neighboring communities were acquiring more, and that federal state and county matching funds would provide $1.33 for every $1 Upper Dublin expended for this purpose;

b. 2006 $30 million borrowing for acquisition of open space approved, 6,121 to 3,244, Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 9, 2006, p. B07; “In 2006, voters in Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery County approved a $30 million financing for open space acquisition, the largest such township measure to date.” Public Finance for Open Space: A Guide for Pennsylvania’s Municipalities, at p. 3 (Heritage Conservancy 2008). See obit for Irene Bany Magaziner, Chestnut Hill Local, May 3, 2018, crediting her initiative in securing its approval). “In 2006, voters in Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery County approved a $30 million financing for open space acquisition, the largest such township measure to date.” Public Finance for Open Space: A Guide for Pennsylvania’s Municipalities, at p. 3 (Heritage Conservancy 2008).

c. In 2008 there was a second vote (to correct an error in advertising the 2006 referendum) for the $30,000,000 fund. Passed by 67% to 33%, LandVote2008, Mid-Atlantic Region (Trust for Public Land and Land Trust Alliance). That $30 million approval continues to be the highest amount authorized for open space funding in any municipal referendum conducted in this region at least through early 2024. Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, Local Open Space Funding Programs 2022/2023 (Spring) Election Update (listing referenda votes and amounts approved to date).

The open space referendum included a ten-year term on use of the $30 million. At the expiration of the ten-year term only $7 million had been expended. Upper Dublin debates adding tax increase referendum to aid with open space initiatives, NOW.com, May 23, 2024.

Nonetheless, as a result of these actions, together with prior decisions creating spaces throughout the township, Upper Dublin has the second most municipally-protected open space among Montgomery County municipalities and the highest percentage of open space among any densely populated municipality in the county. Upper Dublin Township Open Space Plan (Sept. 2023), at p. 23. Ultimately, less than a third of the $30 million was spent due to the lack of potential acquisitions. CITE

In 2024 Upper Dublin commissioners considered the need to raise additional funds designated solely for acquiring open space. At first they approved a referendum to be held in the 2024 general election to increase the earned income tax by 0.1%, noting that voters in two nearby townships, Whitemarsh and Whitpain, had approved 0.25% increases for that purpose. Id. However, after further consideration, the 5-to-2 majority that approved the referendum was reversed. EIT Increase Referendum Voted Down by Upper Dublin, NOW.com, undated, 2024.

(8.) In 1978 Upper Dublin held an advisory referendum the commissioners posted a question on gun control: “Should Pennsylvania give municipalities authority to regulate sale and use of handguns?”. Gun control referendums overwhelmingly approved, Daily Intelligencer, at p. 2 (Nov. 3, 1976) (vote of 4,707 in favor to 2,474 opposed) (proposed by Upper Dublin Commissioner Richard Magaziner, husband of Bany Magaziner referenced above).27

(9). In 1989 Upper Dublin voters authorized issuance of licenses to conduct small games of chance (passed 2269 to 2132). (this was a question presented in each municipality pursuant to state law). Phila. Inquirer, May 18, 1989, p. 147.

In 1990 a referendum was held to authorize construction of a library to be located on Camp Hill Rd.-(defeated 4285 to 3458). Christine Donato, Voters turn page on library, p. 99 (Phila. Inquirer, Nov. 8, 1990)

In March 2007, after a heated campaign in which School Board President Michael Paston and other board members aggressively campaigned for construction of a new high school building to replace the original building (with additions) constructed in the 1950s, Upper Dublin voters approved $110 million financing for construction of new high school building (passed 4,275 to 2,562). Dan Hardy, New High School for U. Dublin, Phila. Inquirer, March 22, 2007, p. B03. Unusually, the then superintendent of the district authored a letter urging a vote in that referendum. Michael Pladus, Phila. Inquirer, March 19, 2007, p. B02.

Presentations by the two of the principals involved in the referendum, the School Board’s solicitors and the those who planned the construction detailed the behind-the-scenes effort to surmount the numerous legal and political hurdles in the so far uniquely successful path to secure voter approval. Wade Coleman and Mike Paston, Act 1 Discussion: Debt Act Referendum-Upper Dublin’s Experience, slideplayer.com/slide/8105940/ ppt download (undated); Kenneth A. Roos and Amy Brooks, The Upper Dublin Debt Act Referendum: “A Series of Fortunate Events,” Pennsylvania School Boards Ass’n, Summer Workshop (2007) (describing the school board’s public relations strategy in the slides appearing at pp. 35-39); and Upper Dublin Builds New School in Unique Fashion, Construction EquipmentGuide.com (Northeast Edition), May 11, 2010 (detailing process by which original building was expanded and how the new building was constructed within budget).

As of that time it was the only successful Act 1 referendum, approving the borrowing requiring a tax increase, in Pennsylvania since that legislation was adopted in 2006.28 In the 2025 primary, neighboring Abington School District won narrow voter approval of a $285 million bond to finance construction of a new middle school for Abington and Rockledge students. Maddie Hanna, Abington voters said yes to a $285 million middle school, in what may be the largest ever Pa. school referendum. Phila. Inquirer, May 21,2025.

MOST SWIMMING CLUBS PER CAPITA

Upper Dublin has six public and private swimming clubs and pools, the most in any Montgomery County municipality and, by far, the most per capita in the county. See Appendix.

MOST HOUSES OF WORSHIP PER CAPITA

Upper Dublin has the highest density of houses of worship per capita in Montgomery County with more than twenty-five congregations. A listing of the houses of worship appears in the Appendix.

ONLY AREA HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION FOR WOMEN

Upper Dublin had the only degree-granting horticultural school for women in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women,29 until the National Farm School, a once Jewish school near Doylestown, now Delaware Valley University, founded in the same era and first admitting only men, started admitting women to its horticultural program in the late 1960s. WIKIPEDIA entry for Delaware Valley University.

FOR A TIME UPPER DUBLIN WAS ENTERTAINMENT CENTER OF THE PHILADELPHIA SUBURBS

For more than a decade the Temple University Music Festival (1968-1982), brought nationally recognized entertainers to Temple’s Ambler campus for summer outdoor concerts. The festival was ultimately discontinued due to traffic concerns and financial issues. Donna Shaw, Trying to Bring the Music Back by Popular Demand, Phila. Inquirer, Sept. 1, 1983, at N02 (noting that the Bolshoi Ballet, the Pittsburgh Symphony, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Collins and Peter Seeger had been among featured performers). Another source adds to that list of entertainers: Bill Cosby, at the height of his fame, Arlo Guthrie, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Duke Ellington, The Electric Light Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, Sha Na Na and other notable performers as appearing. OAITW June 11, 1973 Temple University-Ambler, PA (posted August 11, 2011). .30

More recently, there have been smaller entertainment events on the site held under township auspices with movies shown at Mondauk Commons.

THE MOST PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT STUDIES INVOLVING A PENNSYLVANIA MUNICIPALITY OF ITS SIZE

Upper Dublin, with the assistance of the Delaware Valley Planning Commission, the Montgomery County Planning Commission, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Temple University and others has, so far as can be determined more professional studies, such as the development of the Dresher Triangle, and the various issues involving flooding and traffic flowing in and out of Fort Washington Office Center and its environs, than any similar sized municipality. In Pennsylvania and, quite possibly, the United States.

UPPER DUBLIN APPEARS TO BE THE ONLY PENNSYLVANIA MUNICIPALITY TO HAVE ENTERED INTO A JOINT PURCHASING CONTRACT WITH AN OUT-OF-COUNTY MUNICIPALITY

Pennsylvania law encourages municipalities to engage in a joint purchasing consortium. Upper Dublin has long done so within the county, but joint purchasing with a municipality outside the county appears to be unique. In July 2024 Northampton Township Board of Commissioners entered into a joint purchasing agreement with Upper Dublin for roadway micro surfacing with Upper Dublin. See Northampton Township July 24,2024 Minutes.

THE MOST ELECTED MEMBERS OF TOWNSHIP COMMISSIONERS, SCHOOL BOARD, CONGRESS AND STATE HOUSE FOR A PENNSYLVANIA COMMUNITY OF ITS SIZE

Last, but not least, Upper Dublin has experienced a large turnover of elected officials, and, for its population size, the greatest turnover of any Pennsylvania municipality. See appendix for names of these officeholders.

Some of this upheaval has been mandated by changes mandated by referendum and state law in the classification of the township and the school district. Some has been caused by voters supporting write-in campaigns, some by changes in political allegiances, anger at decisions regarding school buildings, development decision-making or closed meetings and, on a state legislative level, by reapportionment, gerrymandering and, over the decades, a shift in voter partisan preferences. With a few exceptions, as noted in the introduction and elsewhere, the turnover has led to a public uncertain of who represents them in local and state government, spurts of apathy, followed by intense controversy.

While there have been several with longer tenure (as noted below), two with short tenure in the Legislature, Vincent Hughes (served for nine years while representing a district that stretched from West Philadelphia to Upper Dublin) had substantial impact during his lengthy tenure as Democratic chair of the State Senate Appropriations Committee and, despite his short tenure representing part of Upper Dublin, Josh Shapiro for his early ascent to deputy Speaker of the Pennsylvania House. The turnover has meant, with few exceptions, little seniority in any legislative body.

Notes

  1. 14.Per Wikipedia entry for that court, it was among the first ten published orders issued by that court. It was the court of last resort as the ultimate authority over the Pennsylvania Supreme Court until 1808 when it was abolished. See also George G. Sause, Jr., Municipal Poll Taxes in Pennsylvania, 8 Nat’l Tax J., No.4 (Dec. 1955).
  2. 15.The Morris property is referred to as Werstner’s Mill in Hough’s Early History of Ambler 1682-1888 (1936), in which the property is described as bordering Ambler. Hough did not mention James Morris’s governmental service. Although Morris is listed as an Upper Dublin resident in multiple ancestry sites, reference to his township’s ties must also include that he also owned two slaves, freed by 1799, after Quakers adopted prohibition on slave owning. Whitpain Crossroads in Time, at p. 32; Bean’s History of Montgomery County, Ch. LXXX, at 1163 (both listing Morris as a resident of Whitpain Township). So far as can be ascertained, this is the only reference to anyone connected to Upper Dublin owning a slave. General George Washington did have a Black attending him while he was at Emlen House, but the status of that individual is not disclosed. The fist census, in 1790, did identify slaves.
  3. 16.In 1931 the Wickersham Commission issued a national report addressing a national problem of police misconduct in arrests and interrogation. However, as noted in Samuel Walker, Records of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement at ix (University Publications of America 1997), the component titled Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement did not address any racial issues, and, further, only beginning in the mid-1930’s did the United States Supreme Court begin to recognize the constitutional protections with respect to criminal procedure, but had no occasion (or chose not to) address police brutality before trials. According to an artificial intelligence analysis in Google, according to a search in Newspapers.com the first police brutality trials in the United States appear to have occurred in big cities in the 1920s. Whether there were any trials involving small communities like Upper Dublin at that time prior to this case is not evident.
  4. 17.According to the 1930 census Campbell lived on Bethlehem Pike in Upper Dublin. Various news reports referred to him as being from Hoopestown, then an industrial area of Upper Dublin a few miles from his residence as listed for him in the 1930 census. The Mercury (Pottstown), May 8, 1934., p.1 (referring to Campbell as being from Hookestown, while earlier articles referred to him as being from Hoopestown).
  5. 18.Judge Knight’s daily diaries, covering the period from 1893 (when he was seven years old) through 1962 (three years before his death) are housed at the Historical Society of Montgomery County. He lived at 331 Mattison in Ambler, within an easy walk to the scene at which these events occurred. Starting in 1921 Judge Knight had a thirty-year tenure as a Montgomery County Common Pleas judge, and he served as president judge of that court for twenty years. So far s can be determined, Judge Knight was called to testify only in this case.
  6. 19.Prior to adoption of the 1968 Pennsylvania Constitution that recognized the holding of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Baker v. Carr (1962), establishing that legislative representation must be based upon one person-one vote, with equal population districts, there were multi-member State House districts. Upper Dublin was like most other municipalities was included in whole in one of those districts. In 2001, Upper Dublin residents, including this author and its Democratic township commissioners, filed a petition in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court arguing that the Legislative Reapportionment Commission should be directed to provide a map dividing municipalities to the least extent possible. (Albert v. Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission). The Court denied that petition, but the 2021 Commission did reduce the number of divided municipalities, and Upper Dublin was divided between two State House districts (rather than three or four as had been done previously) been done in only one State Senate district and one Congressional district.
  7. 20.Remarks by Superintendent Pladus) -Celebration of African American History in Upper Dublin, Ambler Gazette (March 23, 2014).
  8. 21.In 2015, Upper Dublin School District parent and attorney Tina Lawson (now Montgomery County’s Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans’ Court), as head of the Concerned African American Parents, represented by the Public Interest Law Center, filed a complaint, similar to others submitted in other districts, with the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, charging the School District with discriminating against Black students in disciplinary matters and its tracking practices, thereby depriving them of equal educational opportunity. Public Interest Law Center, Parents ask U.S. Department of Education to investigate Upper Dublin School District’s discriminatory practices against black students (Press release, Nov. 23, 2015). In 2019 the School District resolved that complaint by agreeing to modify both its disciplinary and tracking practices.
  9. 22.William J. Buck, Upper Dublin, appearing in Chapter LXXV, Bean’s 1884 History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, at pp. 1092-1104. SEEMS INCORRECT CITE
  10. 23.According to the Hankey Center for the History of Women’s Education at Wilson College, the results in southeastern Pennsylvania were not favorable due to their being “dominated by machine politicians.” Machine Politics, Senator Boies Penrose, Power Broker (Hankey Center website). Whether the Pennsylvania Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, a decades-long organization headquartered in Philadelphia, was active in Upper Dublin is not known. See Michael Green, The Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Montgomery County Connection, Historical Society of Montgomery County (undated).
  11. 24.There were several other Pennsylvania constitutional amendments considered by its male citizens on November 2, 1915, one permitting what is now referred to as workers’ compensation, a second establishing a system of land title registration and a third limiting repeated submission of referenda questions (supported by anti-prohibitionists). Few Surprises in State Election, Phila. Inquirer, Nov. 4, 1915, at p. 11. Whether the submission of that mix of questions was intended to contribute (or, in fact, did contribute) to the defeat of the suffrage question is unknown.
  12. 25.There was at least one earlier township referendum. In 1916, voters approved by a 3-to-1 margin $40,000 expenditures for school improvements. Along York Road, Phila. Inquirer, Nov. 12, 1916, p. 7.
  13. 26.Two years before, in 1943, after the township was found as a result of the 1940 federal census to have sufficient density to elect First Class Township status, Upper Dublin voters rejected First Class township status. Upper Dublin Kills 1st Class Proposal/Voters Reject Change by Overwhelming Margin of 868 to 185, The Reporter, Nov. 3, 1943, at p. 1. That report also noted that incumbent township supervisor Benjamin H. Eaves lost in the 1943 GOP primary to Irvin Woodward, only to lose again to Woodward in the general election, when Eaves ran as a Democratic candidate, by 713 to 374. The relationship between Eaves’ loss and the referendum result is not apparent.
  14. 27.A “yes” vote in that referendum was recommended editorially by one local newspaper. The Reporter, August 13, 1976, at p. 6. Later, a proposal to require gun locks was rejected by the Board of Commissioners. Upper Dublin Votes Down Gun Lock Proposal, Philadelphia Tribune, p. 2A (April 18, 2000).
  15. 28.See Jamie S. Bumbarger, Pennsylvania’s Taxpayer Relief Act: Big Gamble Pays Off for Some, But Most Lose Their Shirt, 114 Penn State L. Rev. 1003 (2010), and Jill Evancho Vervet, Property Tax Limitations: School District Revenues and Equity: Analyses of Pennsylvania’s Act One (Dissertation, George Washington Univ., Proquest, Jan. 10, 2019), for academic analyses of Act 1’s impact upon public education financing. The cost of school building construction has more than doubled in the last twenty years. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index by Industry, New School Building Construction (PCU 236222236222 (April 4, 2025), in part reflecting inflation, but also special education requirements, public safety issues and required electronics in the Internet Age.
  16. 29.The school was founded fin 1911 following the 1910 purchase of the McAlonan farm along Meetinghouse Road by a group of donors, in 1911. Temple Ambler website, referencing Jenny Rose Carey & Mary Anne Blair Fry, A Century of Cultivation: 1911-2011: 100 Years of the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women to Temple University (2011). In 1958 Temple University (expanding to the suburbs as the same time the University of Pennsylvania was exploring a new campus in near King of Prussia NEEDS CITE) acquired the property for the Ambler Campus of what was then Temple Junior College, maintaining both the long-existing horticulture school for women and the related arboretum. (See history of Temple Ambler) More recently, the campus suffered substantial damage from 2021’s tornado spawned by Hurricane Ida. A Look Backward and Analysis of Hurricane Ida, The Edition (Germantown Academy), May 25, 2022. With receipt of government aid and many staff and volunteer hours, much of the school’s plantings, and some of its trees, have been saved and others restored.
  17. 30.During its prime years, the only comparable venues in the Philadelphia suburbs have been the Philadelphia Folk Festival, a one-week event held annually on a farm in western Montgomery County, and two indoor venues, The New Hope Playhouse, and the Valley Forge Music Fair that operated in Devon from 1955 to 1996. Wikipedia entry for Valley Forge Music Fair.