Wrecker’s ball topples pair of Easttown houses

By Linda Courtemanche
Suburban Staff Writer

Two houses in Easttown Township were torn down last week, according to township Director of Public Works Michael Hanna

Saying no other Easttown building had been torn down since he came on board February 8, Hanna noted that most of the township’s structures are in pretty good shape.

Hanna said the remains of a ranch house at 35 Arlington Road in Devon were razed. A March 16 fire caused the homeowner’s death and destroyed all but the home’s garage and a couple of ground-floor bedrooms.

Also demolished was the house at 604 - 606 Berwyn Avenue in Berwyn, next to St. Monica’s Church property. Hanna said he had written March 18 to the Rev. George Hagenbach at St. Monica’s that the property’s doors must be secured and the house cleared up to ordinance specifications to avoid legal action by the township.

Hanna recalled that the two-story frame building, about 150 years old, contained evidence of teenage partying, with beer bottles littered there.

The house had been used by the church for storage, and Hanna said the demolition team took out a truckful of shoulder pads and football helmets before tearing it down. Had St Monica’s done nothing to the house before April 18, it would have been due for reinspection, and a citation issued if it were in voilation of ordinance provisions then.

“I guess he decided to avoid the problem by getting rid of it,” noted Hanna of Hagenbach’s eventual decision.

And that was just fine with Hanna. “It’s nice and legal and the building’s gone and I’m delighted.

Suburban April 1988