Great Photos of my Era

These photos were sent to me by Charlie and Marlene Donnell, Charlie grew up in Groveville and still has family here, Marlene grew up in the Whitehorse area. They now live on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. I have been to the town they live in several times, it is very small and quaint, reminds me of Groveville, only smaller.

This is a photo of Charlie Donnell and Barry Wright, with Charlie's dog "Blackie". The snow man is unnamed. The house in the background is Charlie's, on Church Street, next to the Cemetery entrance.



This photo is Jack "Jake" Sellers. The Sellers family lived on Church Street, directly across from the church. The car is a "34" Ford, it had a bored 1950 Oldsmobile engine. If my memory is correct it was bright "Yellow". This photo was taken at Hatfield Speedway, by Charlie about 1958

One of my favorite pastimes was walking to his garage and watching him work on it. Jack would work on it all week and tow it to the "Drags" on the weekend. I remember the big place to go was Hatfield Speedway, in Pennsylvania. The track is now gone and is a housing development.

Some of Jack's trophies are displayed on the hood.

Yup, that's me, Gary Lippincott. The picture was taken in the left field corner of the baseball field behind the old firehouse. The house in the background is either Beideman's or Tilton's on Church Street, across from the old Post Office.


This is Charlie Donnell and Tom Snyder and Tom's dog, Snowball. The car is Charlie"s 36 Dodge Coupe. Charlie tells me that this was due to get a late 1950's Oldsmobile engine, guaranteed to beat everything. Due to other commitments, Charlie traded his Dodge to Dick Huff from Crosswicks for a shotgun, now he wishes he had both, the car and the shotgun.

The garage is located across from the mill, part of the property now owed by Jean Mushinski. It seemed like somebody in Groveville was always working on a car. Charlies garage was a good place to hang out, but it had it's drawbacks, as soon as you walked in he usually handed you a piece of Wet Sandpaper and a coffee can of water and had you sand somewhere on his car, that had to be the smoothest 36 Dodge coupe in the world, I am surprised it held paint.

This is Charlie doing what he did a lot, working building that car, looks like he had a long way to go at this point.

This is Tom Snyder and Marlene Goldenbaum, now Marlene Donnell, Tom's dog "Snowball" and that smooooth, well sanded car in the background.

Shipping From Groveville

April 18, 1824, The Trenton Federalist Newspaper

This ad was sent to me along with other news clippings by Cheryl who does Genealogy research in Florida. During her searches she has come across several Groveville News articles, which she has been so kind to forward to me.

Season Ticket and Church Sociable

No one seems to know the origin or the event that these tickets would grant you admission to or exactly where the events were held. The only meeting hall in Groveville at this time was meeting hall at the intersection of Main Street and Allen Street across from the mill. This building has been torn down, but was located between the Mushinski home and the former Company Store, now apartments.

No matter what the even it's hard to beat the price, especially a "Season Ticket" for anything for twenty five cents. Then again this was big money in the late 1800's

Yardville Train Station

I don’t have an exact date on this photo, but judging by the cars I would guess the late 1950’s.

This photo was taken as if standing at Broad Street and the Railroad Crossing in Yardville, looking south.

The Small white building in the lower right is now the Pizza Kitchen, at the time it was the office for Totten Feed and Hay. Later it was D’Amico’s Camera Store.

The building next to it is now vacant, but at the time was C.K. Blauth Lumber and Hardware. I am surprised that my father’s car is not parked in front, as a kid I spent a lot of time there with him buying lumber for home projects. The long building with the white roof, in the top of the picture and the black building behind the coal yard, was the lumber yard for C.K. Blauth. I remember you would buy your lumber at the store, and then drive to the yard with two copies of the receipt, one for you and one for Frank. Frank was the guy that ran the yard and cut your lumber. He was a tall thin guy always wore a hat, with a carpenter’s pencil sticking out from under the hat. I remember it like it was yesterday, not fifty years ago.

There were at one time two freight stations, as shown in this photo; one was also a passenger station, at one time. When the passenger station was active, and according to a Yardville map I have dated 1876 there was a Hotel owned by W. King, where the C.K. Blauth Lumber store is located in this photo.

As you can see there are two sets of Coal Elevators, the first set were owned by Martin Brothers, the grade of Anthracite coal is marked on the Elevators, they are Pea, Stove, and Chestnut. The second set of elevators, with the large sign “Coal”, is owned by T.B. Anderson Coal Company, we got ours from T.B. Anderson. When you were a kid, especially a boy, coal delivery day was a big event; after all it involved a dump truck and noise.

Miss Florence Longstreet

Just a little note to tell everyone that Miss Florence Longstreet, everyone's Kindergarten (Reception Grade) and First Grade teacher at Groveville Elementary School, has just turned One Hundred Years old. Miss Longstreet taught several generations at Groveville. Shirley Wright DiGenova called to pass this on to me.

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Miss Longstreet has been very active and a member of St. Mark Methodist Church, on Paxson Ave. Her health has been failing lately and was being cared for by her younger sister, Dorothy Scarborough, until her younger sister needed to be placed in an assisted living facility in Florence, NJ.
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Now Miss Longstreet is being cared for at Mercerville Care Center. If you could find the time to send her a Birthday Card or a Get Well card it would be nice. She helped make us what we are today.

MISS FLORENCE LONGSTREET
MERCERVILLE CARE CENTER
2240 WHITEHORSE-MERCERVILLE ROAD
MERCERVILLE, NJ 08619

Groveville Methodist Church Bible School - 1960

I know most of these people, but can't put a name with the photo, so feel free to email me with thier names. Thanks to Cheryl (Bialota) Natriello, who sent me this picture and some of the names, Groveville resident, now living in Florida. Thanks to Cheryl, Claire Dwier, and Linda LeJambre for filling all the names.

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Bible School teachers are Doris Atkins and Josephine "Sis" Rousseau.

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Standing left side is Ed Shelton, Unknown, Tom Weiss, Charles "Chuck" Fisher, Unknown, Unknown, John Spisak (in front of Doris Atkins) Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Cheryl Bialota, Paul Simpson.

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Seated on the left is Russel Mifflin, Bill Rochford, Gayle ?, Timmy Warren, Peggy Applegate, Arlene Hart, Jack McMahon, Janet Carl, ? Clark, Beverly Bystrychi, Linda LeJambre, Judy Maddox, Unknown, Norma Olszak, and Charles Thompson.