Description: This Sampson image, believed to have been taken in 1908, looks south down Cassatt Avenue toward the village of Berwyn as it stretches out along the Lancaster Turnpike parallel to the railroad tracks. This photograph was undoubtedly taken from the front porch of Hillcrest, the mansion owned by Philadelphia funeral director Oliver Bair. The mansion rises from its location where Conestoga Road is intersected by Cassatt Avenue, providing just the right elevation to provide perspective. All of the agricultural land bounded by the tracks on the south, Cassatt Avenue on the east, and Conestoga Road on the north is part of the farm owned by the Fritz family (who also owned the lumber company). The steeple on the left horizon is believed to be St. Monica Roman Catholic Church. In the middle of this image, Waterloo Avenue can be seen intersecting with the Pike, and the two-story building to the right of that intersection is the predecessor of today’s Clay’s Bakery. - Herb Fry and Roger Thorne
