A remnant of the Northeast Village neighborhood extends toward the Northeast Philadelphia Airport Runway. | Photo: David Coyne
Along the wide berm of Norcom Road, on a windswept Thursday the week before Christmas 2017, the rush of cars and trucks along the edge of the Philadelphia Industrial Park is constant. The setting exudes a general geographic anonymity amid the pre-holiday bustle. Low-slung, mid-century offices and industrial buildings are spaced with geometric regularity, designed for transport and commerce, snug against the adjacent Northeast Philadelphia Airport. Within this expanse of stark efficiency, a walker along the footpath paralleling Norcom Road could be forgiven to miss the brief gap in the woods to the south. The empty parcel offers the attentive pedestrian a glimpse of something invisible to the countless passing drivers just a few feet away: a lonely stretch of macadam, scarred and worn, running east and south through grass and scrub into the distance. It is fragmented in places and mostly overgrown, but bears the great weight of memory. It is the sole physical remnant of an entire community once known as Northeast Village.
The story of Northeast Village is unique. Countless studies by sociologists and urban planners document for us the cyclic fate of urban neighborhoods and change in general. They grow, and then age, decay, languish. Some are revived again. Their fates ebb and flow in cycles timed with the counterbalance of demographics, of economies, and of generations. Yet, what happens when a neighborhood simply ceases to exist completely? When, quite in the literal sense, it is utterly erased from the map?
The Creation and Cancellation of a Close-knit Community
In 1945, following WWII, the City of Philadelphia faced a local crisis. Thousands of returning veterans sought to begin new lives and careers in the city, but there simply was not enough affordable housing stock within its burgeoning wards to meet the demand. In response, the Federal Public Housing Authority funded the City’s acquisition of land in the Far Northeast, which at that time was a vast, agrarian expanse beyond Pennypack Park and the farming hamlet of Bustleton. Along the southern side of Roosevelt Boulevard, newly extended to the Bucks County line, the farms of the Root, Jenkins, and Humphrey families were bought and cleared. Stitching together an area nearly half a square mile in size, the Philadelphia Housing Authority began in earnest with the creation of a project it called Northeast Village. It was an ambitious project for the still-young PHA, having been formed less than a decade earlier, and returning soldiers were moved in as quickly as it was constructed. By 1947, slightly under two years from its original conception and land acquisitions, Northeast Village was complete.
An aerial view of Northeast Village nearing completion in November 1947. | Image courtesy of George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries
In stark contrast to the close-shouldered rows of the city’s old quarters, Northeast Village reflected the new suburban model, but with a military efficiency that was familiar to its residents. Tidy barracks buildings were repurposed for domestic occupancy and arrayed in close formation along streets bearing names that eerily echoed the geography of the wartime Pacific: Atoll, Wake, Dune, Cliff, Beachhead. Neatly mowed lawns and playing fields formed the spaces between the camplike gridwork of buildings. Although its 465 barracks contained over 1,400 residential units, Northeast Village was no mere residential subdivision; it supported a public school, the Benjamin Crispin Elementary, as well as stores, a community center, its own loosely-organized amateur sports teams, and even an all-volunteer fire department. The Village’s main entrance was located at what is now the driveway into 11451 Roosevelt Boulevard, opposite its intersection with Haldeman Avenue. From there, the neighborhood stretched over three quarters of a mile to the southeast, nearly to Decatur Road. A southern entrance originally connected to Red Lion Road which, before the expansion of Northeast Airport’s Runway 24, ran continuously to Academy Road.
A child waves “hello” on the streets of Northeast Village in the Spring of 1953. | Image courtesy of Tom Rodgers Jr.
“It had the aura of a community that seemed like a small town, even though it was within the city limits,” recalled Tom Rodgers, Jr., who lived in Northeast Village as a child from its beginnings in 1947. “We all saw each other as equals. The Village was a place where we had great childhoods and made lasting friendships.”
Throughout the 1950s, Northeast Village thrived, knitted together by a common bond of wartime service and fueled by postwar optimism. Parents found work among the expanding industrial and commercial corridors nearby, including the new, massive nine-story Nabisco plant, remembered by Village residents for having filled the air with the aroma of cookies. The combined economic force of the postwar industrial expansion and new opportunities for mortgage investments fueled private residential development across the region, from Torresdale to Somerton and beyond the city boundaries. By the 1960s, the Village formed just a small part of the interlocking weave of suburbia that became the Great Northeast. But unlike its surrounding neighborhoods, and in keeping with the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s original plans, Northeast Village’s days were numbered.
Some former residents actually trace the beginning of the end of Northeast Village to a jarring event that occurred much earlier in 1950. A U.S. Air Force twin-engine aircraft reportedly overshot Runway 24 on its approach, crossed Red Lion Road and crashed near two residences setting them on fire. The incident is well-remembered by those in the Village. “Nobody was hurt, thankfully, but it destroyed the two buildings,” said Rodgers. “It also got more than a few folks thinking about how close the southern part of the Village was to the airport runway.”
The crashed USAF C-45 at Beachhead and Lagoon Roads on August 7, 1950. | Image courtesy of George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries
During the 1950s, the PHA had been consistent in its message to the residents that the development was intended to be temporary. Thus informed, and lured by the new private subdivisions and further helped by the GI Bill, many families found permanent homes nearby. As they left and space became available, residents in the southern portion of the Village were moved northward. Eventually, as they became fully vacant, the buildings on its southernmost blocks closest to the airport–Dune, Lagoon and Chevron Roads–were removed. Enough space had been cleared by 1960 to allow for the extension of Runway 24. By that time, the PHA had clear plans and made its official notification to the residents of the ultimate fate of the Village.
A soberly-worded letter from the Philadelphia Housing Authority to residents on May 19, 1960 marked the beginning of the end for the Northeast Village. The letter began: The Philadelphia Housing Authority has been advised by the City of Philadelphia that the land upon which the Northeast Village is erected must be returned to them within the next two years. The letter ended: This is not an order to evacuate or a lease termination notice. However, evacuation of the Village is a necessity and your best interests will be served in planning and preparing now.
A worker dismantles the buildings of the Northeast Village in August 1962. | Image courtesy of George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries
Within two years of the date of that letter, in strict keeping with PHA’s written promise, the residential buildings, school, and stores were disassembled. By 1963, not a single building remained of Northeast Village. By various means, some original Village buildings are known to survive, having been purchased from the PHA and relocated. Several are reported to form a small enclave in Lower Township, Cape May County, New Jersey. “My guess is they were worth a few hundred bucks, plus transportation,” Rodgers said. According to Rodgers, it is likely that other buildings survived as well.
Only a few years after its vacancy, the street plan of the former Northeast Village was graded over and subdivided into the neat rectangles of the Philadelphia Industrial Park It was sliced cleanly with the broad, straight new transects of Norcom and Caroline Roads, bearing due northeast like fresh tire marks over a faded footprint. By the 1970s, the industrial and warehouse buildings, with their broad paved lots, wide driveways, and landscaping, had occluded nearly all remaining visible remnants of the old neighborhood.
The Northeast Village at its maximum extent in 1953 (left), and in 1965, three years after its closure (right). | Images courtesy of Tom Rodgers Jr. via NETRonline
Debbie Szymanski was born in Northeast Village, and, while she was too young to remember it personally, she grew up hearing the stories told by her parents and older brothers. Her family spent a little more than a year in the Village before moving to private housing in nearby Wissinoming. Despite this, her family’s time there remained deeply rooted in their collective memory. “My parents often pointed out to me where the Village was as we drove up the Boulevard,” Szymanski recalled. “My mom would always say, ‘you were born there, you know’. They also told me they would have never moved from there if the Village wasn’t closing.”
Both of Szymanski’s parents worked in factories nearby. “Even in that short of a time the experience stuck with them,” she said, recalling that the experience of her family was an example of how well people could live and work together. “They took some barracks and made them homes and functioned as a working community.” The lessons of those family memories have continued to inspire Debbie, who is writing her doctoral dissertation on Northeast Village. Debbie is also seeking to have a historical marker placed in the area, to permanently memorialize its civic example.
Shore Lane and Dune Road in the Northeast Village, November 1949. | Image courtesy of George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries
Several years ago, Tom Rodgers founded the Northeast Village Natives group on Facebook in an effort to keep its spirit alive through virtual means. The group’s members currently number over 440, composed primarily of former Village residents or their children. The shared images and posts yield tangible proof of the vibrancy of the community. Messages between former neighbors are set against photos of smiling faces in black-and-white, in living rooms and yards, at cookouts and on sleds. These are juxtaposed against the same smiling faces, decades older, but no less connected, no less a part of, the neighborhood they once formed and shared. More than 55 years after the last of the houses was disassembled and the last street sign pulled up, after decades of erasure, Northeast Village stands intact through social media and collective memory.
It was on a cold December day last month that yield the promise of discovery, aided by that ubiquitous tool of geographic reflection, Google Earth. A careful study the night before had shown a stretch of madam jutting southward from Norcom Road, at such an oblique angle from the current road that it could only have been from another era. Approaching the clearing in the trees from the walking path, and looking south, the old macadam suddenly appears. Pitted and cracked, choked with wet weeds, a faded ghost of the Northeast Village re-emerges into crystal reality. It is Echelon Road, extending east for a few hundred feet. From there, it meets the worn ghost of Dune Road, running south toward the airport perimeter fence.
At the clearing, there is a “No Trespassing” sign. Additional signs warn against approaching the airport perimeter fence a few hundred feet to the south. Tom Rodgers recalled an informal trip he made with a small group of former residents a few years ago, when they walked the surviving remnant of Dune Road. They had scarcely made it halfway along when airport security personnel approached the group. “They were friendly,” Rodgers recalled, “but told us that if we could see the Control Tower, we could be sure that they’d already spotted us.” Suffice to say that the sole remnants of the Village are best remembered from the walking trail of Norcom Road and no further. There should be no encouragement implied here to attempt trespass.
Left: Echelon Road extends to Dune Road in the distance, toward the Northeast Airport perimeter fence. Right: Machinery scars from the Village’s demolition remain on Echelon Road. | Photos: David Coyne
In a way, however, it’s quite appropriate that the physical remnants can’t be fully approached. Like the Village, the actual remains can no longer be experienced except from a sidelong, oblique angle. But what was once here can still be imagined in the more broad perspective of memory. That it survives in its virtual world, fittingly, is a testament to the true resiliency of community. For Northeast Villagers, their neighborhood lives on, absent of the asphalt and street signs that once tied them together, but by no means gone.
Wow – who new?! Hidden City is the best – thanks for always digging deeper into the ongoing life of the history of the city.
I lived in the northeast village as a child. I was very young so don’t remember a lot about it but my mother still keeps in contact with people she met there.
I lived there to. from 1954 to 1962 iam now 67
We lived on Wake from 1946-1959. My brother Ralph remembers the village well.
I lived there as a child in the late 50s. Always remember the smell of nabisco. We had milk delivered then, too!!
I lived at the village from 1951 to it’s demise. I remember the school being called the old tin castle, which I think is now on route 73. I also remember the circular bus stop at the front end near the Blvd. I lived on that road, a few rows down but don’t remember the name.
I lived in the Village for 3 years 1956 to 1959. My husband and I had 2very young children and 2 more there. The heat was from a fire stove whose oil was in a barrel behind the house. There were no closet or cabinet doors. It was however a safe and friendly place. We saved every penny and moved to Academy Gardensin 1959. I am now 85 years old. I thank God for the time we spent there.
Great article. Can’t get enough about the old neighborhood. I lived at 2102 C Sunrise Rd from 1954 to 1962(6yrs old to 14). Great memories!!!
Phil C
Any chance you remember the
“Tierney” family? We lived at 2129 B Sunrise Road. Jack and Betty,my brother Jack, the twins Marianne and Christine and youngest, BetteAnn. Great place to grow up. A million kids! Crack the whip, half ball, following the ice cream truck. 1947 to 1961
I do. paul and sue I think some called paul jack
that’s the year we moved in. but you are all ready on northeast village natives? right?
I spent the first 1 1 years of my life in the village, and cherish the memories
are you on the northeast village natives board?
great story. Truly fitting to be in Hidden City!
David, have you talked to Jack McCarthy about giving a talk on NE Village to NEPHN. I believe Whitey Sullivan long time FB coach at Father Judge also grew up there.
I’m in charge of the Library at Commodore Barry Irish Center.
Frank
That is a great idea. Fred Moore is looking into it.
whitey did live there, he was friends with my brother sunny haas
I lived in the NEV from 1948 until 1960. My folks were Rose and Harry Kreibick and we lived at 10604 B Lagoon Rd. and at 2313 B Beachhead Rd. I went to Maternity BVM and St. Hubert’s H.S. I never thought I would be a past inhabitant of a “Hidden City”, sounds so mysterious. Have good memories of playing “hide and seek”, riding bikes and skates while a child. Those were great days to grow up in and a safe loving community of families.
I loved it there
Hello All,
I lived there with my family the Smith’s. Some of you may know my older brother George E. Smith Jr. We lived there until I believe 1958 or 1959 and lived on B Dune Rd. Along with my grandparents aunts and uncles. My brother George played all sports and knew a lot of people. Does anyone have pictures of the Normandy Square Mart at Christmas with Santa. Please if you have can you post them I know who the real Santa is and please leave your name so I can pass it on to my brother
Fascinating stuff. I also wonder whether there is another story here, about how the federal government took the lead in creating this kind of public housing, with apparent success, but was too reluctant about having done so to allow it to survive. I.e., only private developers were supposed create the suburbs. The contrast with the high-rise towers of mid-century public housing projects is very interesting.
Your piece is a complete revelation to me. I wonder what the prospects are for creating a little archaeological survey. I’m a professor of architectural history at Franklin & Marshall College and I’ve been part of a group of archaeologists recently interested in the archaeology of the recent past, particularly, impermanent workers housing. See our recent article on a study in North Dakota: See, https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s41636-017-0020-8.pdf. It would be interesting to unleash some undergraduate students to mapping the site and co-ordinating oral histories. Thanks Kostis
Lovely article. BTW, if that’s the crashed aircraft, it wasn’t a jet but appears to be a Beechcraft Model 18, a plain vanilla prop-driven light aircraft that was a workhorse of the 1950s. An actual jet might have caused a lot more havoc.
Great article, David, very informative.
I did a Hidden City article back in 2011 that touched on Northeast Village, but focused primarily on Liddonfield, another now-vanished Northeast Philadelphia public housing project: http://hiddencityphila.org/2011/09/liddonfield-gone-northeast-village-lingers-in-memory-2/.
Following up on Frank Hollingsworth’s suggestion above, perhaps David Coyne or Debbie Szymanski would like to speak about Northeast Village at one of our Northeast Philadelphia History Network meetings. We meet the first Wednesday of the month at Pennepack Baptist Church in Bustleton. Check us out on Facebook.
Thank you so much for sharing your research. I’ve enjoyed learning of the lovely families who were able to use the old barracks.
I lived there as a child @ 2340 A Wake Road.
I still remember the cold winter and my father pulling me on the sled.
Parents then moved to Cornwells Heights and attended elementary school @ Cornwells Elementary.
Currently retired and live in Northeast Philadelphia.
Great Story.
Neal,
Any chance your Mom’s name was Elsie? I don’t remember how long I lived there it we moved in about 1958.
My mothers name was LOIS.
Hi Neal,
As a child, I lived at 2338 WakeRoad according to the 1950 census report. I have many fond memories of that time. Perhaps we were neighbors. My name at that time was Dallas Long.
David,
Thanks for sharing this engrossing nugget of Philly history, well researched and written.
I lived in NE Village from 1955-1962 and have nothing but fond memories. I went to elementary school at “The Old Tin Castle” until the Village closed down and I moved to Mayfair. I too mention it to whomever I’m with whenever I pass the industrial park. Every Sunday afternoon we went to Normandy Square and browsed the kiosks. If we were good, my dad bought my brother and me a yum-yum!
do you know if anyone has photos of that school? I lived there for 1st and 2nd grades on Atoll Rd and have looked everywhere for a photo
Our name was Hardy. We lived at 10602B Lagoon Rd. My parents, sisters and I lived in NEV until Oct of 1952. I have no idea when we moved to The Village. I went to the Old Tin Castle for first, second and the beginning of third grade.I remember that you could start school in Sept or Jan. Depending on when you started you either were in One A or One B I also remember that we could buy penny candy at school, pretzel sticks, etc. The people I remember are Naomi Parks, Bobby Baker, Cheryl Ireland, Ginny and Jimmy Fricke, and Bobby and Tommy Putney. I really didn’t remember the Putneys, but I married their cousin and Bobby somehow remembered me from school in the Village. We moved to NJ in 1952 and I cried at having to leave Phila. and my friends. I also remember the plane crash. We were forbidden to go near it at first, but I remember after a day or two walking to it, ( it was practically in our front yard) and worrying that someone might be in it. Until now I did not know it was considered a Phila. project. I know that I learned to read and write in the Castle and have always credited my Phila schooling with having good handwriting.
I attended “The Old Tin Castle” for kindergarten & 1st Grade
in 1947-48. It was a long Tin Quonset Hut located WEST of Castor Ave at Loretta and Solly Aves. It housed Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd & possibly 3rd grades separated in some way. It became obsolete when Rhawnhurst Elem opened about 1948-9
on Castor Ave. Question: Was this the same “Old Tin Castle” or different one from a NEV school? I’ve understood it was an “Annex” to Foxchase Elem? If a picture exists I’d love to see a post of it. I corroborated this info today with a friend that also went there. Interestingly, I lived near Cottman & Lorreta Aves and he lived on Rhawn & Castor Aves. A third friend lived on Faunce St near Cottman Ave. None of us lived in NEV. A completely different school with the same name? We’re are all 78-9 yrs old.
I went to the old tin castle and I also remember going to the other school. It was on a road that I remember as long and had open fields on either side. I love living there, the farms where we could pick wild black berry’s and get chased daily by the farmer, or spend the day in the woods playing and crossing the streams on a fallen tree, great times
The Tin Castle at NEVillage was the same one that was in Rhawnhurst on Loretto Ave between Stanwood and Arthur Sts. Two pictures are known to exist. One from the local neighborhood paper 1948 49 concerning the move to NEVillage, and another from 1941 about the need for a new Elementary school. Both can be seen in the Northeast Phila. History Network Youtube Presentation May 5 2021. Rhawnhurst a Pictorial history of a NE Phila.Residential neighborhood.
Northeast Village provided wonderful childhood experiences and memories as well as a sense of close-knit community. I was 4 and my brother Jack was 3 when my parents moved us to a 2-bedroom unit on Beachhead Road. We later moved to a 3-bedroom unit at 10600B Midday Road. Another brother and 2 sisters were added to out family during our time in the Village. In 1959, we moved to NJ, where my youngest sister was born. I have such good memories of friends, school, the clinics, hot dog sales, and movies at the Community Building, walking to the grocery store and the drug store, riding bikes all over without fear. What a great place it was! What a wonderful childhood we had there!
I, too, fondly remember the Village. “A million kids” is right! You could pack a lunch and ride your bike to a woodsy area, or just go down to the creek next to our row of houses. My siblings and I had fun! We lived there on Sea Lane from 1946 – 1959!
I lived on Air Lane .Was born there in 1956.I have the fondest memories of the first 5 years of my life growing up in the village. My parents were Al and Florence I had two brothers Danny and Paul and 1 sister Linda . Thank you for this article I can never get enough info about the NE village
I lived in NEV in 1952-1954. Is there a registry to look up where people lived? I don’t have any recall of the place and my parents never spoke about it.
My Parents were Bill & Gladys Nelson. If anyone remembers let me know.
2121-C Dune Rd.,grandmom & grandpop Harry c. Doneker live here till Jan.1961.
I didn’t live in Northeast village, but lived close by at red lion and ferndale. I went to Maternity BVM and was friends with a girl named Kathy who lived in the village, so I became very familiar with it. Reading this has brought back alot of memories, needless to say. Thank you for this article♡
My birthday is March 1955 I was born in the north east village on shore Lane, lived there until 1961 when they Knocked it down. I have great memories of the field out back of our house leading to swamps, the bigger tree that we had a tree swing from. My father ran the Dancehall my brother was on the football teamNEVAC, My sister was a cheerleader and I was there mascot.
My father was a World War II , Normandy beach and when they came home this was put up a temporary housing for them and their families.
I moved to the North East Village when I was 2 years old in 1950 along with my sister who was a baby in 1952 my baby brother was born and brought home to his new house in the North East Village. I live at 2230 A Atoll road. I lived there until 1960 when we moved To Morrell Park. I remember riding bike up to the drugstore and the food store, there was a baseball field right down the street from my house,also a giant hill that we went sledding down. At the bottom of the hill was a field that you walk through and then you were at the creek. What a great childhood. No one locks their doors ,everybody went in and out of everybody’s house.We road our bikes everywhere. There was also a doctor at the front near the pharmacy.
Lived at 10301AAir Lane 1952 1962 me and my three brothers we had a great time there.
My goodness! It is SO GOOD to read about, and be reminded of, the wonderful memories of living in the NE Village and attending the ‘Old Tin Castle’!! Yes, my sister Linda and I played with our back neighbors, Evon and Rosemary Hendricks. We lived at 10522B Midday Road and collected caterpillars in a jar from the nearby woods. My father worked, and retired from, Yale & Town, later named Eaton Yale & Town.
I lived in northeast village will my older brother an younger sister. We lived in a corner unit an the street we were on was on a down hill an lead to a creek an on the other side was farm. I can still remember the house
Remember when The Boulevard north of Sears Roebuck was a small divided road with crab apple trees in the center? I do. Remember when the NE airport was a grassy field for small planes? I do. Remember when the first tract homes went up in the midst of cow pastures , wheat and corn fields? I do. Those homes still exist. They are not part of the Village. They line Bloomdale Road of Verree Road off Welsh Road which runs into downtown Bustleton. A school bus took me from there to Fox Chase Elementary where I was the only Jewish kid in the school. In the 50’s my mom was secretary at the first synagogue north of Oxford Circle just south of Bustleton Av. Talk about the airport; my dad paid a pilot with a Piper type plane take us off from that grassy field for an aerial look at the neighborhood. It was SO exciting. I remember the Oxford Circle being built and I remember a foto of Castor Av. when it was a tree lined dirt road along a farm. The house we lived in cost my Dad, a discharged Army Lieutenant home from the Pacific Theater, $10 grand (yes, 10 grand). Our house on a quarter acre of land was next to last of a line of 3 bedroom homes along a fenced path that twice a day guided cows to and from barn to pasture. We never locked our doors unless we were going “down the shore” for a summer vacation. Close by there was a patch of woods with crawdads and watercress in its creek.
We lived just below Yale & Town and would often ride the SEPTA bus or walk to Normandy Square Mart with my mother and sister. I remember so well looking at the remnants of the Village and could only imagine how it must have been for those living there…. Truly intriguing. Have such wonderful memories of Normandy Square, the smell of cookies baking at Nabisco, stopping for lunch at Howard Johnson’s, resting under the big tree at Y& T and finally getting back home!Those were the days 🙂
I lived in the village. My parents moved to Levittown,PA in 1953. My dad was in the Army Air Corp. The village gave our family a home, great community and
a great friend that I still have to this day.
My dad was in the navy. I’m not sure of the date we lived in the village. My brother went to the school there. He was born in 1945. I was born in 1953 I’m guessing we moved out when they were planning to knock down the village
I would like to come to one of your gatherings at the church . Looking forward to someone contacting me via email thank you
I lived in the village from 1947 to 1950 with
my sister gale ,and my mom & dad bill& lill
morrell.Ibelive we lived by the ball bark.
I still tell stories about the ice man how when he would come back to the truck we would all
have a chip of ice.also I remember the phone
both and when it rang I would pick it up &run
to get the person they were calling.
My parents moved there when my Twin brother and I were 21/2 years old. We lived on Atoll road. Until they started knocking down the front homes. So we moved to the back . Our Street began with and L. It could have been Lagoon, but I remember something else. Another brother and sister was born in the Village. We moved to Morrell. But I think my Father would have never left. He loved it there. So many good people, so many friends even after they left. We remember The Northeast Village as a family place to live.
I lived there as a very young girl on Atoll Rd, I think corner house. I was there in early 50’s and so many cool memories of a great place to be a kid.Last name was Speak. Dad was Navy
I spent a lot of time with neighbor friends Patty and Butchie
This was fascinating. Did not read anyone that lived on Sea Lane which entered the village from the Boulevard. We lived there from 47-55. My memories are all great as seems to be the consensus. There were open fields behind our unit. Only names I can remember are McCulski, Gracie Pierct, I was young. I have some pictures I would like to share and definately would like to go to a meeting at the church mentioned. Anyone who lived on Sea Lane please post. My name was Cheryl Walker and my sister was 3 years older (3) in 47.
Forgot to mention my sisters name was Barbara.