Banjo Town is a historic neighborhood founded in 1885, situated dead center of Radnor Township, Delaware County, on Newtown Road, Ithan (formerly Radnorville). It sits approximately ¼-mile west of the historic Radnor Friends Meeting House and 13 miles NW of Philadelphia. The name has all but disappeared into folklore since it vanished from official maps some time after 1948, but its legendary community and distinctive wood frame houses are still very much in evidence as a standalone piece of American history.

Title to the land changed hands several times over the years. In 1864, on her widowed mother's death, Sarah Jane Matlack, née Siter, (widow of Isaiah Matlack M.D.) was allocated 56 acres including the present land of Banjo Town 43 years after the death of her father, John Siter, whose estate was divided between herself and her sisters Elizabeth S. Parke and Mary Anne Jacobs. She was from the Siter family who owned and farmed much of the land south of Wayne and built a sawmill in 1799 at the site of what is now the Mill Dam Club [see right]. Her 56 acres extended from the present west boundary of Banjo Town north-eastward across the intersection of Newtown and Conestoga Roads where, before the arrival of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the covered wagons trailed between Philadelphia and Lancaster. Before that it had simply been an Indian trail between the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers. By the 1850s over 8,000 of these huge wagons lumbered regularly along this road, bringing food and produce to Philadelphia markets. Matlack's own house still exists today, known as Wayside at 569 Conestoga Rd, and included the barn just to the west. Her African American coachman, Frank Ridgley, also resided there according to the 1900 census, and he became owner of Banjo Town's Lot 31 in 1902, paying $165 to his employer. No house was ever built on his lot.

Conestoga Wagons originated in Pennsylvania in the early 1700s & were still in use during Banjo Town's construction.

Sarah Jane Matlack's parcel included the historic Meigs estate [see lower right] where two family houses were built (The Peak, 1903 & Locust Hill, 1916). She also owned land across Newtown Rd where the young Ellen Mary Hare Cassatt later lived. Ellen was a daughter of JG Cassatt who succeeded his more famous brother, AJ Cassatt, as President of the PRR and owned the estate Kelso, first in Rosemont and later another by the same name in Paoli. She was also a favorite niece of the painter Mary Cassatt, memorialized in many of her paintings, including Ellen Mary Cassatt in a White Coat (1896), and The Pink Sash (1898). Her own daughter, who shared the same name, became Ellen Mary Cassatt Meigs, when she married into the same Meigs family.

The Cassatt land was later acquired by William Wallace Atterbury who, along with his brother, had a speculative plan drawn up for the development of much of the Ithan land they owned. While development did eventually take place this redundant plan only serves to note what might have surrounded Banjo Town, since what we see today on his former land is a less spacious, and presumably more profitable, division [see left].

Edwards Mill (formerly Siter's Mill)
– today's Mill Dam Club [click to view]
photo RHS, restored 2022

Entrance gateway to The Peak (Meigs estate)
[click to view]

During the Revolutionary War all the land directly in the line of sight linking Philadelphia, the lookout post east of Ithan's Friends Meeting House, and Valley Forge, was designated a no man’s land. This eastern outpost was less than a mile west of the original Sorrel Horse Inn (now part of Agnes Irwin School) which reputedly housed George Washington during the 1777-8 Valley Forge encampment. (An inn by the same name appeared later, closer to Radnorville.) Washington's troops were camped approx 300yds south-west of Banjo Town on cleared land now memorialized by the name Camp Woods, while the Friends Meeting House, in what is now Ithan, was annexed as officers' quarters and a hospital. This was in the year of the Paoli Massacre, where 272 of Washington's men were killed, wounded or went missing, and just before the British seized Philadelphia. Others of Washington's US Army were simultaneously encamped several miles to the north-west at Valley Forge.

Radnor suffered from the British during their occupancy of Philadelphia with many families having their livestock, crops and possessions confiscated, leaving them without provisions through the winter of 1777-8. Many skirmishes between British and Americans took place at this time.

Great prosperity came to Radnor after the Revolution with an abundance of saw and grist mills, new settlers, and highways. This included in 1792 America's first toll road, the Philadelphia to Lancaster Turnpike, and in turn many wayside inns. But the Banjo Town area still remained as farmland and woods for another 100 years.

Site of Washington's Camp - The Radnor Picquet, RHS [click to view]

Monument at site of the The Radnor Picquet [click to view]

In 1832 the Pennsylvania Railroad arrived on a westerly route out of Philadelphia directly through St. Augustine's Academy (today's Villanova University), parallel with the Lancaster Turnpike. Known as the Main Line of Public Works of the State of Pennsylvania the railroad connected several existing communities and created many more in its path, giving birth to the name The Main Line. The Railroad was funded by wealthy industrialists to ease their journey into Philadelphia from their summer residences, country estates and gentleman farms. It added much additional prosperity to the area and, in keeping with the owner of the Ardrossan Estate's thoughts much later, led to the need for artisans to live nearby to service those with greater wealth.

PRR map, 1874 [RHS] - Click to view.

In 1864 a 12-acre plot was divided from the extensive estate of John & Anne Siter, now owned by their three married daughters, Eliza Parke, Mary Ann Jacobs and the widowed Sarah Jane Matlack. The first two sold them to the last, but it was not until 21 years later, Feb. 4, 1885, that Sarah Jane Matlack employed the Berwyn based surveyor John F. Kauffman* to draw up 36 separate lots to the west of the so-called Matlack Tract. He arranged it in three rows of 12 lots running roughly north/south. Twelve of them faced onto Newtown Rd while the remaining 24 bordered the dead-end 40-ft. wide private "avenue" which was to become Matlack Lane [see left].

We can only guess why the 70-year-old Mrs. Matlack, who owned 40 acres in Radnorville, suddenly decided to split this particular tract. Did she need money from selling the land? Was there an increased demand for artisans in the Ithan/Wayne area or were there already rumors of another railroad coming by? We may never really know.

Over the years the lots were combined and renumbered as they were sold and re-sold, mostly by investors, but before 1900 only 11 structures were built, one of which was a twin, later merged into one house. In the 20th century a stone duplex and two additional wood frame houses were added, one of which was replaced by three large stone mansions in 2002-3. Three of the initial wood frame houses on Matlack Lane burned down some time between 1912-17, but they were rapidly destroyed due to their frame construction and an inadequate water supply. Today just eight houses and two original barns from the 19th c. remain.

The boundaries of Banjo Town have always included the 3.8 acres to the east of Matlack Lane, however there were no permanent buildings on that tract until the 1961 map.

A very similar sized parcel split occurred a short while later ½-mile east on land wholly owned in 1900 by noted architect, housing developer and landowner Theophilus P. Chandler who owned land all around, and within, Banjo Town [see left]. Chandler owned, designed & built his own Ithan Farm and various adjacent properties on the south side of Newtown Rd. He also designed and built Christ Church Ithan on Conestoga Rd, on land he personally donated [see right].

At least three houses on the north side of a street now called Radnor Ave appear to be identical to some of the original Banjo Town houses. It was written in the 1955 Bulletin of the Radnor Historical Society [p.8] that Joseph W. Worrall (aka Worrell), the miller, built these houses in the 1870s and that it was the area's first speculative real estate venture, but we now know Radnor Ave was not laid out until 1887 by John S. Garrigues, and the first map to show houses there was 1892, seven years after the Matlack Tract had already been subdivided by John Kauffman. But it seems reasonable to assume the two developments were built somewhat contemporaneously in the late 1880s because of the identical structures, the timing, and geographical proximity. Other facts contradicting the "first speculative development" claim for Radnor Ave is that we know Garrett Ave was laid out from 1871, and the town of Wayne even earlier, starting in the 1860s.

*In 1888 John F. Kauffman was listed in The Wayne Signal as V.P of the Alpha Choral Society which met on the 3rd floor of the Wayne Opera House and performed in the 2nd floor auditorium.

above: postcard of St Martin's Chapel, est.1894, looking S. on Radnor Chester Rd, to Conestoga Rd. junction at Ithan Gen. Store.
[photo: RHS, restored 2022]

below: the Chapel's 1916 replacement, Christ Church Ithan, further E. along Conestoga Rd.

The 1881 Railroad Atlas showed no buildings here but by the 1887 map there were three permanent houses indicated [left above] on what was then identified as The Matlack Tract - one on each of Lots 1, 35 and 36. A small wooden barn by the stream in the center of Lot 3 lasted until c.1948. Its stone foundations still remain about a foot below ground level, while the larger barn straddling Lots 3 & 4 appeared at the same time as the very first house. Another on Lot 1 remains to this day, probably rebuilt on the same stone foundation.

Deeds indicate that the Railroad Atlases of this era were several years out of date by the time they were published, and in fact the compilers were not surveyors – their drawings merely approximated the location of buildings and lot divisions – so while they are a rough guide the deeds show these maps to be anachronistic. Fortunately as each Banjo Town property was sold words such as "with frame dwelling" were noticeably added in to the deed of sale, giving a much more accurate date for each building's construction. This was then confirmed in most cases by the subsequent map's publication.

The two oldest structures still standing in Banjo Town today were built 1885-6 on Lots 1 & 3 (728 & 724 Newtown Rd), originally owned by George W. Derrickson and James Herrin respectively. Derrickson was a local auctioneer, who also owned Lots 2-3 until 1886, & 20-21 (22 Matlack Lane) until 1889. Derrickson’s three southernmost lots were rearranged as two in 1889 when he sold off some of his land.

The original eleven houses of Banjo Town were built of wood frame on a field stone base, covered with a hard white pinewood siding. Taking the house at 724 Newtown Road as an example [left & below], many changes were made over the years. This house, built 1885-6 by or for James Herrin, like all but one of the others consisted of one front section, had two rooms downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs. Chimneys at both ends of the house allowed it to be heated by wood stoves in each of the four original rooms, one of which was used for cooking. Some houses were built with the front door and staircase in the center, others with them on the left. All of them were built with covered, wooden front porches. The porch on Lot 3 was demolished after 1949, Lot 1's earlier, and both were replaced with a brick patio similar to those designed for the stone duplex shown in a 1920s blueprint by Louis S. Adams. All the other remaining houses, bar Lot 22, still retain front porches to the original design.

There was no running water inside the house, it being collected either from a well or Van Lear's Run, the creek that bisected Banjo Town, and the privy was an outhouse at the far end of the garden. At #724 an extension was attached at the rear in the early 1900s for a separate kitchen, and a third bedroom added over that. A porch alongside the kitchen to the rear of the house was added and then enclosed to make a small living room and, still later, a small room was added to the rear of that by the second owner, Davis Whiteman. He used it as a cobbler's shop when he retired from his premises in the Wayne Toll House, primarily run by his wife Mary who had been in the Pike Company's service since 1863. This briefly became a downstairs full bathroom before the current remodelling. The kitchen chimney was demolished by Bertram Wolfson (lawyer, owner 1958-66, and author of this original article) to make way for a washing machine.

Rear of Lot 3 [now #724] showing 20th c. add-ons (left photo) & 21st c. changes (right). Front section remains intact.

Original Lot 4 [now #720] showing original front structure and early addition (left photo), & much later addition (right).

By 2008 it was clear that all the leaky, rough, make-do additions on Lot 3 would either fall down of their own accord or would have to be replaced - so they were demolished. A new kitchen and family room has now been built on approximately the same footprint and a screened porch replaces the cobbler's shop. Similar updates, expansions and improvements have now been made to all the original Banjo Town properties still standing, though as most have managed to retain the original front sections visible from the street they are largely true to their overall look in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1988 Radnor Township added the eight original Banjo Town houses that remain to its list of Historic Resources, along with the central 1918-19 stone duplex, and in 2004 again recommended to “make sure that important resources such as Banjo Town are included in the expanded resource inventory being undertaken” as part of the ongoing Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Work Program. 20 years later all nine properties are included in the 2,000+ list compiled by Radnor Historical Society, though despite public recommendations for inclusion in a proposed ordinance there is still no official historic designation or oversight by any Township authority to review properties outside of three specific areas. Many have suggested a simple review by the Historical & Architectural Review Board (HARB) prior to granting a demolition license would be in the interest of the community.

Lot 24 [#29 Matlack], winter 2011 - both front doors can still be seen either end of porch. House first appears on 1897 map. An identically built duplex still stands at 120-122 Radnor Ave.

The remaining frame dwellings on Lots 9, 21, 24 & 29 on Matlack Lane were built by 1908. Lot 24 [above] was a similar design to the others but was built as a duplex. Although the house was combined by the 1940s two separate front doors still exist on the front porch to this day, matching an identical house on Radnor Ave.

How Banjo Town got its name is a matter of much speculation. In early days the community was also referred to as Banjo Alley and Banjo Row, but Banjo Town was the name commonly recognized well before 1900. While The Matlack Tract still remained initially on maps, Banjo Town started to appear alongside it from 1937. Those of us here today have heard the old stories handed down through generations telling how residents sat out on their porches strumming a banjo at dusk. (On more than one occasion my wife has woken from a deep sleep to the ghostly vision of an old, tall, white-haired African American folding linen in the corner of one of the original bedrooms. He appears to be moving it out from a location which we now know is a demolished closet, as if to make space for us to unpack!)

African Americans introduced many variations of the banjo from Africa and the Caribbean, and in the 1900s the pejorative term Banjos was routinely used not just to describe Southern plantation musicians but all Black people across North America. Others widely believed that most Black people possessed an innate musicality, at the same time undermining their intelligence. All we know for sure, from photographic evidence, is that every original Banjo Town house was once fronted with a wooden porch, and here residents were said to relax with home-grown music at the end of a hard working day.

Black and White occupants are indicated in the early censuses, and lived and worked alongside each other in Banjo Town. The whole community was racially integrated, and music would have been a uniting force. As a pastime throughout Penn's Woods, music had long been a tradition. The historian Thomas Allen Glenn wrote in 1896, "Often, especially on Sunday evenings, the Welsh were accustomed to gather at each other's houses to sing and play upon their national instruments, and held periodic music festivals. In the morning, the maidens would go up to the hills to tend the flocks, returning in the evening, singing and playing on their small harps." To imagine any race here strumming banjos in the days before radio and television therefore doesn't seem too much of a stretch, so for now the tales handed down seem to fit.

For historical context, post-Civil War Black Reconstruction was widely viewed as a failed experiment in the late 1800s, and African Americans, many of whom had fled north to the Philadelphia area to escape slavery, were still subject to widespread prejudice. Banjo Town, though small, was more receptive, and by all accounts a fully integrated, progressive community. In 1893 the gifted Black painter Henry Ossawa Tanner, a former PAFA student who studied under Thomas Eakins, returned to the city and painted his most iconic painting, The Banjo Lesson. The image of the Black man playing the banjo had already appeared in paintings and photographs throughout the late 19th century, but Black minstrels had mostly been portrayed as somewhat buffoonish and dim-witted entertainers. What Tanner brought to his canvas was a sense of dignity, intelligence and sensitivity that was refreshing to American culture, and although he didn't personally find the kind of equality here that he experienced while living in Paris, he eventually became our first African American celebrity artist. The Banjo Lesson is now his most widely-known work, and in the 1890s this painting would have reinforced the widely held association between Black people and banjo playing.

There are additional connections to Tanner here. Firstly, Lewis Rodman Wanamaker, son of the department store magnate who was responsible for the continued success and major international growth of the family stores, rented the Ardrossan Estate's Murray House in the 1930s, ¼-mile from Banjo Town (where his Wanamaker Paddock was once situated). He knew Tanner well and personally sponsored the painter's trip to the Middle East in 1897. Both Wanamaker and Tanner had lived in Paris in the 1890s, though we can't be certain if their paths later crossed again in Radnor. While we know Wanamaker would have passed by Banjo Town we can't say whether Tanner ever came so close. What we do know is that The Banjo Lesson, although painted in his home studio in Philadelphia, was from a series of sketches Tanner had made while in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in 1889.

In 1893 he also created an illustration, similar to the painting, for Harper's Young People magazine, and this was drawn from a photo study which we could perhaps whimsically imagine being captured on any of our Banjo Town porches. Secondly, one of the best known photos of Tanner was taken in 1907 by Frederick Gutekunst whose work included many photos of our local area, including a series on Henry Askin's Louella Mansion. Socially it was still a small world in the early 1900s, so today's "six degrees of separation" were more like one or two back then.

Another theory about the origin of Banjo Town is that the name might have described the physical layout of the settlement, being roughly in the shape of the cigar box banjo, popularized at the time of the development by St. Nicholas Children's Magazine, and later The American Boy's Handy Book. Both had published a story and diagrams of how to make a banjo with little more than a few scraps lying around at home, leading to a nationwide cigar box banjo craze. Banjo Town started out as a round-edged rectangle of houses with a turning circle and open grass field near the center where lots remained undeveloped. Matlack Lane did at one time join Newtown Road at both the east and west sides, with the shape being completed by the driveway alongside #728 which once provided direct alternative access to Newtown Rd from Matlack Lane. It is easy to see from the Franklin Survey maps of 1937 & 1948 [above] how Banjo Town might look vaguely like a cigar box banjo. By way of comparison at least one recently demolished cluster of social housing on the South Coast of England is still described by former residents as having "East & West Banjos" in the 1920s. It was arranged similarly to any street named Circle in Radnor today.

The 12-acre plot had originally been marked on maps as The Matlack Tract, after the eponymous landowner, but it wasn't until the 1937 & 1948 maps that they officially recognized the local vernacular, and the name Banjo Town appeared. When the sub-divided lots were acquired by Colonel Montgomery, between 1914-17, he and his architect-in-residence, Louis S. Adams, used the name Banjo Town, but plans and correspondence about the area just as often referred to it as the Little Village. However, as the original name was already too ingrained the alternative suggested by the owners of the grand Ardrossan Estate & Farms never stuck. Instead The Village was later attributed to the plot where the Hopeton Lane cottages were built in 1941-2, and more recently, in 2016, to the new cluster of luxury houses being built on Ivy Lane, between Ardrossan's now-defunct Water Tower and its old estate house, Ivycot. Against all odds Banjo Town has physically survived into the 21st century, but beyond its characteristic stone walled borders it is largely an unfamiliar name to all but those who live nearby. Indeed its existence is probably one of Radnor's best kept secrets!

Other local characters with no known domicile lived nearby and were consequently either claimed by or attributed to the Banjo Town community. Among these were "Shaky Jim" who cut wood and did odd jobs. For this he received his board. Another was "Dog John" who never washed or shaved. He collected garbage in his two-wheeled cart to feed the pigs and lived in a springhouse with his four dogs. He only worked enough to eat and preferred to spend his days playing with his dogs which were trained to dance, jump, and even smoke pipes.

The people of Banjo Town, until at least 1917, were working class and racially integrated. They either had a trade or performed odd laboring jobs. George W. Derrickson, Caucasian owner of Lot 1 (#728), was an auctioneer, Davis Whiteman, also Caucasian, owner of Lot 3 (#724), was a cobbler, and William Short, an African American who also owned his lot, did odd carpentry jobs and ran a horse-powered saw mill. Jim Shield was a Caucasian bricklayer; George Willis, George Handy (Lot 25) and Jim Patterson were all African American laborers. Matt Edwards was a coachman and Frank Douglas an electrician, both Caucasian. Some owned their houses while others rented at rates varying from $8 to $12 per month.

Around 1900 much of the open land around Banjo Town was purchased, consolidated and large estates constructed. William W. Atterbury and his brother George owned 42 acres on the south side of Newtown Rd, running west from Radnor Friends Meeting House to today's Atterbury Rd. Atterbury had succeeded Cassatt as President of the PRR and purchased Cassatt's land when he took over the role.

In 1909-1910 Col. Robert Leaming Montgomery, founder of the present day brokerage Janney Montgomery Scott, purchased the land from Tryon R. Lewis at the far southwest corner of Newtown Rd and Darby Paoli Rd. He is said to have been hunting in the area and when he fell off his horse decided it was the perfect spot to put down roots. In 1911 he completed the construction of the large 50-room Horace Trumbauer designed Ardrossan mansion, named after his ancestral Scottish village and centerpiece of what expanded to an 800-acre estate and farm. By 1940 it had become, along with its occupants, the inspiration for Philip Barry's Broadway play and subsequent film The Philadelphia Story (starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant & James Stewart). The story was later adapted for the Hollywood musical production High Society (starring Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby & Grace Kelly). As lifelong friends of the Scott family Barry is said to have based his story, and particularly Tracy Lord, the character played by Katherine Hepburn, on the Colonel's daughter, Hope Montgomery Scott. More about that can be found here.

Ardrossan mansion, with distinctive black angus cattle, 2012

If one can conversely visualize Banjo Town at that time as a mixed community, with ducks, pigs and chickens running around, several families living together in some of the houses, and tin cans and bottles dumped in the backyard to fill the creek, it is no wonder that Col. Montgomery and William Atterbury thought that Banjo Town was, or might become, a shanty town. They were not about to spend hoards of money building big mansions only to have to drive by this shabby area in order to get to their palatial estates, so Montgomery and Atterbury conspired together to purchase the whole area and improve its appearance. Atterbury was to be in charge of buying the houses, but by all accounts he believed in the "bull in the china shop" approach and largely failed. He managed to buy just one house while antagonizing all the other owners so that no one else would sell to him. Montgomery then personally took charge of the bulk of the venture, was much more subtle in his methods, including the use of strangers who acted as straw parties, and thereby succeeded in buying up the majority of Banjo Town between 1914 and 1917. The Colonel finally bought Atterbury's sole acquisition from the latter's estate after his death in 1939.

The relationship of Montgomery and the tenants of Banjo Town was a patriarchal one, reminiscent of the feudal relationship between the Lord of the Manor and tenant. Montgomery had a great affinity with the neighborhood. He fixed up the dwellings and used them to house the employees of Ardrossan Estate & Farms. He was interested in the tenants and visited them regularly, frequently bringing gifts of dairy products. He felt motivated to preserve the feeling of the community by upgrading the houses. A wonderful memoir of life here in the 1920s by Isabel Jenkin Mahoney can be read HERE.

Of course there was an ulterior motive in the upgrades. The National Prohibition Act hit the social classes hard between 1920-33, though as the federal government did little to enforce it Montgomery set up his very own speakeasy, complete with full bar, in the vast upstairs room of the barn at 29 Matlack Lane. It's not known for sure who its patrons were but word has it that it was a bolt hole for Montgomery himself as much as for Banjo Towners. The same bar counter remained in situ until 2012 when the entire property was largely emptied for its sale. As the last, largely unmodernized house in Banjo Town it stood as a historic reminder of the way things were and the rickety old speakeasy has now become a beautifully renovated private office space.

His improvements, both structurally and aesthetically, were a luxury that the buildings had never known. For example in 724 Newtown Rd he addeded paneled cupboards, bookcases and dentil molding. The carpentry was done by Thomas Mayhem Pinckney (1857-1952), whom the Colonel had employed at his Mansfield Plantation house in S. Carolina. Pinckney, a celebrated African American craftsman now recognized as one of the most prized artisans of his day, was brought up from Charleston to work on Montgomery's Hopeland (Church Rd /Abrahams Lane) as well as his Banjo Town houses. If an emergency repair was necessary the tenant would call directly upon Montgomery and frequently he would arrive along with his workmen so he could supervise the job.

A couple of additional small barns or stables were built for the horses, and a stone duplex tenant house was built near the center of Banjo Town, with the original lane now being shortened and diverted through Lots 13-19 to accommodate the new stone duplex. This structure was built identical to three other tenant houses he had constructed contemporaneously; two further west on Newtown Rd, and another on Godfrey Rd. All four of these duplexes remain, now refurbished for 21st c. living but still fundamentally true to the original Louis S. Adams design.

Around 1929 Montgomery decided to move the personnel who worked on Ardrossan closer to the farms and thereby earn some income from Banjo Town. He wanted to create a community for young people at a rental they could afford. The property was transferred jointly to the Girard Trust Corn Exchange Bank and himself as trustees.

He made a careful study and decided that the rent should never be more than $75 per month per house. By his reckoning there were a great number of people who would be willing to pay that amount. If a tenant wanted certain repairs or improvements his rental was increased proportionately but in no case would it exceed $75 per month.

At that time the procedure was for a prospective tenant first to make application to the Girard Trust. If passed by them the applicant was then granted an appointment with Col. Montgomery for the second phase of the examination. He asked each applicant two questions:
– 1. Are you a Democrat or a Republican?
– 2. Are you Wet or Dry (i.e. do you drink alcohol)?
This was during the time of Prohibition. In accordance with Montgomery’s politics the applicant was only granted a lease if he declared himself to be a Wet Republican!

Banjo Town during the 1930s and 1940s was a remarkably close-knit community. Everyone was a friend of everyone else. When a vacancy occurred another friend was notified and the vacancy quickly filled. It was given that all personal tools, machinery and facilities were to be willingly shared across the community. At least one resident still carries his own fanciful, self-made Banjo Town community membership card declaring that to be the accepted code of conduct [see original left; new version right]. This warm relationship and strong group spirit gave rise to many interesting activities over the years. On the second floor of the stable still on Lot 23-24 (29 Matlack Lane) the tenants got together and initiated the Banjo Town Night Club (formerly Montgomery's speakeasy), serving up drinks and entertainment for the whole community on warm summer evenings. In the 1940s art shows were held and it was also used by children for the performance of plays.

Between 1941-49 the McAusland family were tenants on Lot 24. I caught up with Randy McAusland in 2012 (then hosting as DJ Randy Neal on wobofm.com in Cincinnati) whose parents, John & Helen, raised him in Banjo Town with his sister Linda and brother Neal.
"The happiest, most free-spirited times of my life were in Banjo Town," he says, "biking to the post office/grocery and gas station at the end of Newtown Rd, roaming and exploring the Montgomery Estate, riding the old P&W Trolley to 69th St and then going into Philadelphia."
He babysat at the former Slaymaker house at the back on Harrison Rd where he "spent hours reading Poe and playing a card game named Authors. On the western edge of Banjo Town was a wartime Victory Garden.
"It was about half an acre just the other side of our post and rail fence", he recalls – land now part of 22 Matlack Lane at the back of the speakeasy.
"Col. Montgomery would prep the land with plough and harrow and leave the tenants to continue. Everyone started seeds, hoed and weeded. All the kids pitched in. We grew peas, spinach and lettuce in the early season followed by pole, wax and bush beans, corn, squash, onions, beets, carrots plus cherry and other varieties of tomato. George Munger dug and kept his own garden to the north-west of his house and fenced it against rabbits." Munger's garden was on vacant land now occupied by a new mansion on Harrison Rd. 
"Heavy duty canning took place during harvest seasons in Mason jars. The Colonel expanded the gardens around Ardrossan and shared the bounty with everyone who helped."

The 1949 plan drawn up by local surveyors M.R. & J.B. Yerkes shows Banjo Town now consolidated into just 11 lots in various shapes and sizes with the remaining 4.6 acres north and east of Matlack Lane being wholly owned by George Munger. Munger was a celebrated athlete, football coach and later director of physical education at University of Pennsylvania from 1938-74. From 1947 Munger lived on Lot 27. Then in 1950 he built a house and barn on a separate parcel in the NE of Banjo Town. He constructed the barn across the same two lots where houses had burned [see Banjo Town Evolution & Development vid above]. In the 1950s Munger would regularly lead his horses between the gardens west of Banjo Town across Abrahams Lane into Ardrossan where he exercised them around Orchard Lodge, Hope Scott's own stables and pastures. Subsequently in 2000 his house and barn were demolished and the land subdivided. Four large, similar stone mansions were built there by a local developer in 2002-3.

The core Banjo Town hamlet has so far been preserved with current owners continuing to improve and restore the old frame houses while retaining as much of their historical integrity as possible. Containing some of the oldest buildings in Radnor Township it is without doubt an area of historical significance and is recognized by many as such. Its quirky history is a matter of great pride to the area and is often referenced in nearby real estate listings.

In 1955 the Montgomery Estate decided to sell the houses in Banjo Town and for the first time in almost half a century all the houses were put back into individual ownership.

Membership card, updated 2015.
[click to view]

George Munger with 'Bull Cactus', 1983

A Banjo Town block party and music festival was held early summer each year from 1957-1959 when the 10 families in residence combined resources. The cul-de-sac of Matlack Lane was closed off and decorated in a circus-like atmosphere. Each household was allowed to invite up to 25 guests. The wives arranged among themselves to bake and cook for some 250 guests and the whole community danced and revelled in the Lane as the band played through to the early hours of the morning.

The parties continued in the 1960s, and when the speakeasy became too small for the increase in numbers they were moved to the old 1880s barn (now garages) behind 720-724 Newtown Rd. We can see from the photos it was a chilly winter barbecue with snow on the ground. An old oil drum was set alight, where it burned throughout the festivities. At some point residents painted their surnames at waist height along the entire length of the walls and while they've now been painted over the names Moore, Munger, Lamason & Kennedy can still be made out in these and other surviving photos.

A 1960s winter snow block party: 2nd photo from left shows Olga & Owen Walsh, Sr. at rear, and far right photo Carmen DiGiovanni (left) with Owen Walsh again next to the flaming oildrum. Others still to be identified. [Photos: Tex Lamason]

22 Matlack Lane - west facade after 2003 renovation; note pink paint residue still on trees!

East facade after renovation

This history has been adapted by Phil Graham from Banjo Town, Radnor – A Fact or a Legend? Originally researched and written by Bertram Wolfson, a former resident of Banjo Town, for his lecture to members of the Radnor Historical Society (RHS) in March 1963. Subsequently it has been updated with supplementary information from RHS, Ashmead's History of Delaware County, early atlases of the Main Line, original Delaware & Chester County deeds, and interviews with early inhabitants, including Edward Whiteman of Ithan (grandson of Davis Whiteman, the cobbler), Harry Miller of Wayne, Tex Lamason of Bryn Mawr, Randy McAusland of Cincinnati, Mary Shoemaker Bleecker of West Chester, Gregory Glading of Florida, and Diane & Jill DiGiovanni of Wayne.
All photos optimized & restored by Phil Graham, except where credited otherwise.
This is an ongoing history – if you have any corrections, additional historical information, photos, memories or anecdotes please email HERE.

Phil Graham is a graphic designer, historical researcher & former Board Director of Radnor Historical Society, 2012-19.
Annie Graham is a professional portrait painter & teacher at Wayne Art Center.