Category Archives: E-History Fact

The old clock tower stood for many years at the King of Prussia Plaza in the outdoor mall, and its chime could be heard throughout the township. When the Plaza underwent renovations in the 1980’s, the tower was dismantled and stored in the back corner of the parking lot. Years later, the mechanism was overhauled and used in the new mall clock. Interestingly, it was the only clock in the entire Plaza complex.
(Photo courtesy of Russell Rubert and sketch courtesy of Kravco, Inc.)

If you were standing across the Schuylkill River in Norristown looking over at Bridgeport in 1828, this is what you would have seen.   In the early 1700, Swedish settler Mats Holstein stretched a rope across the river, and the location became known as Swedes Ford.  Then Holstein started a ferry service about 1760.  Travelers on foot or on horseback often encountered a delay.  The boat would be on the other side of the river and it was necessary to blow a horn to summon the ferryman who would be working at his farm.  Travelers could find a pleasant wait at Holstein’s Swedes Ford Tavern nearby.

In 1713, Matts Holstein, who owned 400 acres of what is now Bridgeport, along with Lewis Walker, the first settler in the Great Valley area and neighboring Tredyffrin Township, laid out a road from Walker’s property near the intersection of present day Old Eagle School Rd. to the Swedes Ford on the Schuylkill River. Swedesford Road has grown, changed, and been absorbed by other byways (most notably 202 and Route 30) through the years. It is unimaginable today to picture these roads as they were – little more than widened dirt paths through largely unsettled wilderness depicted on this Plan of Swedesford Road approved by the Provincial Council in 1725.

(Courtesy of the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society.)

Interesting facts and photos about the Moore-Irwin House from the Upper Merion Township Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan, pages 83-86, published January 2016.