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Weekly News March 7, 2011Description
Woodcrest in Yorklyn: Shortly after Bertha T. Lamborn married Warren Marshall at Auburn Heights in 1907, Warren's father, Israel, gave the young couple land up the hill from the new #1 Fibre Mill on which to build a house. A moderate-sized bungalow was built and occupied in 1908. Soon Bertha's mother, Sally Lamborn, moved in with them, and they built a room on one side of the bungalow to accommodate her. Sally lived with them until her death in 1929.
Two daughters were born to Warren and Bertha. Lorraine Edwards Marshall (1912-1974) married Stephen John Pyle (1909-1976) on the lawn at Woodcrest on June 21, 1935. Eleanor Annette Marshall (1924-1999), 11½ years younger than her sister, married Benjamin J. Reynolds (1926-1976) on January 2, 1960. This winter wedding was held in the Hockessin Friends Meeting House, with the reception at Woodcrest.
I played with Eleanor and the Mancill twins at Woodcrest for many years. In 1931, Warren and Bertha decided to greatly enlarge their bungalow- in fact, it became three or four times its former size, and the family moved to a property along Baltimore Pike west of Kennett Square for about eight months during construction. When the work at Woodcrest was finished, the new home had very large rooms, not only on the first floor but also the bedrooms above, each with its private bath. Bertha had excellent taste in home furnishings and had collected many things from her several trips abroad. It was an ideal place for entertaining, but I don't remember many large parties being held there, as was the case at Auburn Heights with my mother as hostess. Bertha didn't like to cook, but she had a faithful cook and housekeeper, Sarah Cornelius, who lived in one of the "servants' rooms" above the kitchen at Woodcrest.
Warren Marshall was a workaholic, but he did enjoy horseback riding and kept three riding horses in the barn on the property. His daily schedule required rising very early, going for a one-hour ride across the surrounding hills, changing for breakfast, and driving to his office on Beech Street in Wilmington in time to be there by 8:30 a.m. Having lunch at a restaurant or club in Wilmington, he would leave the office about 3:30 and usually make the rounds of the Yorklyn paper and fibre mills before arriving home about 5:00. After dinner at home, he read mostly financial and manufacturing journals before retiring early.
The largest social event at Woodcrest was daughter Lorraine's wedding in 1935. Three hundred people were invited to a ceremony on the lawn. There were about 12 or 14 in the wedding party. The bride couldn't figure out how to use her eleven-year-old sister in this group, so it was decided Eleanor's eleven-year-old cousin, Tommy Marshall, would accompany her, a rather poor decision. Folding chairs were set up theater-style on the lawn that sloped from the house to a wooded bank below. The wedding party stood against this wooded area (with added floral enhancements), facing those in attendance. Here, the bride and groom said their vows in a Quaker service. My father read the wedding certificate, which, at Quaker weddings, makes the union official. Bertha had hired harpists from the Philadelphia Orchestra to play in a cluster of trees on one side of the audience. After the ushers and bridesmaids had walked ahead, Warren escorted his daughter down the aisle. A luscious feast was served in and outside the house for the reception.
In late February 1952, the house caught fire about 9 p.m. A maid in her room on the second floor was the only one home. She jumped to the ground, broke her ankle or leg, but crawled to the mill to send in the alarm. Several fire companies responded, but by the time the fire was extinguished, charred wood and water damage ruined almost everything. It was determined that faulty electrical wiring had caused the fire. Again, Warren, Bertha, and their daughter Eleanor lived elsewhere, this time in the Shoemaker home on Marshall's Bridge Road, while the house was being rebuilt. When it was finished, minus a lot of furniture, the family moved back in early in 1953. Warren Marshall was not well, and he enjoyed his rebuilt home for only about three weeks. He died in June. Bertha and Eleanor lived there until the latter's marriage in 1960. Bertha died in 1962. The property was rented and then leased to NVF for many years, until Eleanor Marshall Reynolds, then a widow, moved back in the 1980s from the Reynolds home near Avondale. She, like her mother, had excellent decorating and horticultural skills, and brought the old home back to its former glory. The thirty-acre property is now owned by Eleanor's son, Warren E. Reynolds.
Work Nights: On Tuesday night, much of the work night activates centered on the Model 76, Jerry Lucas, Bill Schwoebel, Steve Bryce, Jeff Pollock and Tom Marshall, with help from Sal Gioia and Ted Kamen, removed the engine from the Model 76 in preparation for taking it to Herb Kephart for rebuilding. Steve and Tom delivered the engine on Thursday, and Herb will start on it very soon. Mark Hopkins, Richard Bernard and Jay Williams continued work on the standard-gauge train layout, starting to reattach the backboards needed to support the upper level of tracks. Bob Jordan cleaned and touched up the paint on the new Mountain Wagon rims.
On Thursday night, Steve Bryce, Bob Jordan, Jerry Novak, Ted Kamen, Bill Schwoebel, Butch Cannard, and Tim Ward accompanied Dan Citron to the old NVF Headquarters to salvage office equipment and furniture. A truck was loaded, and items were moved to the Marshall Brothers Paper Mill on Benge Rd. University of Delaware students will use some of the moved equipment to help organize and catalog the surviving NVF corporate records. The building is scheduled to lose its roof as part of the asbestos abatement project within the next month and slated to be demolished in the late spring or early summer. Chuck Erikson worked in the shop on cleaning and organization, and Jim Personti and Jeff Fallows got one step closer to having the Orchestrion working again The Rauch & Lang received attention as Emil worked on cleaning the frame and Lou Mandich brought Tom Key, an upholsterer, to look over the electrics interior. Their visit appeared to be very positive. The upholsterer thinks he can get a sample of the material needed and start the work immediately after we approve.
On Friday, the Model 607 project moved forward as painting began at the A-9 body shop near Avondale. Arlie Lane's carousel, enjoyed by visitors to the museum last season, was dismantled on Tuesday and returned to him on Saturday.
