The Mercury from Pottstown, Pennsylvania • Page 15

Por Prompt and Efficient CALL ATLANTIC OIL HEAT R'D. 2, BOYERTOWN PHONE 367-2551 WM. GIFT, Inc. Mercury Page HEATING OILS GASOLINE CALL 323-3900 Schuylkill Valley Oil Co. Pottstown, Friday, October 1, Page Fifteen BAD INVESTMENT UNCOVERED Cleaning the family attic one day, Joseph Keyser lifted a board and discovered a century- old cache of private papers and a $100 bond purchased from the Penn Street Passenger Railway Reading.

Top, Keyser examines an old deed and pictures of George Smith, a lawyer who apparently hid the documents under the floor. Bottom, the bond, its coupons still unclipped. (Mercury Staff Photos) Penn Village Move Permitted 9-Story High Rise Building Ready for Elderly Tenants Attic 'Treasure' By JOSEPH E. DOUGHERTY Mercury Staff Writer A $1.6 million low cost housing project for the elderly, under construction for a year, will open this month at High and Washington streets and some of the tenants will be from Penn Village. Disclosure of a change in a policy of the Montgomery County Housing Authority was made Thursday by Mrs.

Ruth E. Shaner, executive director of the authority. She also released for the first time the new name of the 9- story high rise building now ready for occupancy at High and Washington. It will be called Pottsgrove Towers and is the tallest building. No reason for the name selection was given, just sounded like a nice name to members of the Mrs.

Shaner explained. DEPARTURE News that elderly residents of Penn Village will be eligible to move into the high rise represents a departure from a policy the housing authority announced the past February. At that time Harry Burdan, when executive director, said the authority decided it was under no obligation to supply increasingly more attractive or newer housing to people already living in public housing. living in Penn Village already were provided with public Burdan said in February, contrary to policy to move them from there to some other place just for something where matters stood through the spring, despite comments from local officials that the elderly in Penn Village be prohibited from applying for the new housing. GIVEN PREFERENCE The same public officials reluctantly agreed to permit construction of the facility in the borough.

That permission was given only after assurances from the housing authority that Pottstown residents would be given preferance in leasing the apartment units. This calmed objections that the borough would become a dumping ground for all of the poor elderly from all over the county. Mrs. Shaner said Thursday a number of elderly in Penn Village will be moved into the new building. Papers Uncovered After 90 Years In 1882 a local lawyer named George Smith Sr.

invested in a $100 bond issued by the Penn Street Passenger Railway Reading. But apparently Smith never recovered his money. The bond he purchased saw the light of day this week for the first time in 90 years and none of its 16 coupons was cashed in. The bond was among a varied treasure-trove of papers and personal effects discovered under a board by a 14-year-old North Coventry youth while cleaning the family attic. Joseph Keyser, son of Mr.

and Mrs. Winfield Keyser, 778 S. Hanover found more than enough letters, papers and documents to cover the dining room table. Winning Tickets In New Jersey Lottery The winning number drawn Thursday in the New Jersey lottery, for four first prizes worth $50,000 each was: 074040 Second prize, worth $4,000 each: X74040 Third prize, worth $400 each: XX4040 Fourth prize, worth $40 each: XXX040 Fifth prize, each worth a chance on $1 million: XXX40 Winners of any of the prizes have up to one year to claim them by filing a form at any state motor vehicle licensing agency. A check then is issued by the state treasury.

Among them are two daguerreotypes of Smith himself, bearded and posing grandly with one hand resting on the pedestal of a fake monument. Smith apparently lived in the old brick house, which was surrounded by farmland a century ago. still a big next door but it was built last year to house a short-order restaurant. Smith seems to have been an important man in his day. The papers include tax bills for several properties he owned in Pottstown, Reading and Birdsboro.

He also was a state committeeman of the Democratic Party. Among the letters discovered is a note from W. V. Hensel, state chairman, asking Smith for a list of the names of Republicans open to reason and before the election of 1885. PRESS NOTICE One of the most remarkable documents in collection is a notice to all of the in the United States, signed by the publishers of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Inquirer and other Philadelphia papers, urging support for a new, enlightened federal policy toward the Indians.

A quaint item is an insurance policy Smith bought for his housekeeper from the Fleetwood Mutual Relief Society. The report on the housekeeper, a Mrs. Krummler, iated her appearance and her figure The doctor said that to his knowledge Mrs. Krummler was and and of an rather than disposition. She got the policy.

Mrs. Keyser searched the papers in vail for any mention of Mrs. Smith, who must have existed because Smith had a son and evidently was a respectable man. What ever happened to the Penn Street Railway According to W. Edmunds Claussen, area historian, the firm was set up in 1877 to build a trolley line down Penn Street in Reading.

NO REPAIRS In laying tracks they never bothered to repair damage done to the private turnpike it followed, which led to a series of lawsuits, Claussen said his research revealed the outcome but he assumed the trolley company won because trolleys were the coming thing in those days. But uncashed bond may mean the company was bankrupt soon after he bought it. Where did the papers come from? Smith must have owned the Keysers house in the late 19th century. The bought half the divided dwelling from a widow, Mrs. Bessie Mintzer.

As far as the Keysers can tell, forgotten papers have been lying under the board in their attic undisturbed for nearly a century. Unexpected Cards Aid Thousands Thousands of people who were sick and alone in hospitals over the past 23 years found comfort in an unexpected get well card from a woman they never met. A note on each card explained its purpose to cheer up the recipient and help him make a speedy recovery and it was signed by Mamie Hoffman, Palm RD 1. I was younger I was in the hospital a long Miss Hoffman said, know what it is to be in there and not get any She began sending cards to hospital patients in her hometown, Bath. Since coming to the Palm area as housekeeper for Lyman Schultz 10 years ago, she sent cards to patients in Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, Phoenixville Hospital and any other medical facility that makes its admission list public.

check The Mercury every day for hospital she explained. get many nice letters thanking me and sometimes I return a she added. She continues sending cards to people who remain hospitalized for a long time but she never visited any of the patients or met anyone who corresponded with her. Miss Hoffman also checks birthday lists in The Mercury and sends cards to children. write nice letters she said, sometimes they send me their She said she estimate the number of cards she sends in a week but she buys 200 at a time, birthday and get well combined, in packs of 16 or 20.

my only Miss Hoffman said. of the people living in Penn Village have a mental strain because of all going she added. by the same token there are elderly who move from Penn Village under any She cited the cases of an elderly resident of Penn Village who gained the erroneous impression that she, along with all other Penn Village elderly, would be forced to move into the new high rise when it was completed. rather than face said Mrs. Shaner, woman moved out of Penn More than 300 applications for apartments in the new building were received by Mrs.

office and many of them were submitted from residents of Penn Village. MOVING SOON Mrs. Shaner said she hopes to begin moving tenants into the building Oct. 11, so that be living there when a day-long open house is conducted for the public Oct. 19.

People will move into two apartment units daily until all 80 are filled. lobby and elevators would become too congested if we had any more people than that moving in each said the executive director, we move in any less than that because it would mean someone would have to live on an entire floor alone. rather not do this because with two on a floor always someone to call if a tenant needs assistance. Most of the people who will be given units already were selected on the basis of their qualifications. An elderly vidual who lives alone will be placed in an efficiency apartment, while elderly couples will be given one-bedroom apartments.

There are no two-bedroom apartments because the rules prohibit occupancy by children. Settlement for the building, at $1,624,500, was made Friday in the King Street offices of Philadelphia Title Insurance Co. On hand for the transfer of two checks, one for $1.2 million and the other for $240,000, were officials of the authority and representatives of the building contractors. JOINT EFFORT Construction of the high rise building was a joint effort by 'the Ducat Construction and Leon N. Weiner Associates.

The contractors erected the building under a relatively new federal program for public housing. The program, called the concept, required the contractors to erect the building with their own money and in line with their own architectural plans. The only assurances they received was that the plans were favorable to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and that the government would buy the building upon completion if it conformed to all federal requirements. During the course of conduction. an architect employed by the government made weekly inspection visits to the site to be certain the plans were being followed.

An inspector from HUD also made frequent visits to the site to check construction. After the building was declared completed by the contractors, a final inspection was made by the government. The authorization for settlement followed. Mrs. Shaner said 1 per cent of the selling price was withheld by her agency pending completion by the contractors of some minor finishing touches such as removing excess cement from bathroom tile and touch-up painting.

SHORTER TIME Groundbreaking for the building took place Sept. 3, 1970. Construction time was estimated at beween 16 and 18 months. As it developed the building was completed in little more than 12 months, despite the original plan. Admission to the apartment building is limited to those meeting certain qualifications.

An individual must be at least 62 years of age. In the case of a married couple, at least one must be 62 or over. Income for the individual cannot exceed $3,600 annually from all sources. For a couple the maximum income allowable is $4,200. Montly rent is based on income and a housing authority formula sets rent on a ratio with income.

The lowest rent charged by the authority is $23 a month. In the case of individuals or couples whose income would place them in a lower rental category, the federal government makes up the difference to $23 with monthly subsidies. Maximum rent under the formula would be $70 per month and that would be charged to couples with a $4,200 annual income. Fourth Operation Faced With Courage and Hope After four years of seeking permanent relief from deteriorating hip joints as a result of rheumatoid arthritis, Mrs. Edward Gabuzda hopes to walk again unaided, within two months.

The operation that will allow her to lead an active, normal life is called the Charnley Bipolar Hip Prosthesis, which she and her husband learned about in a magazine article over a year ago. read about Dr. Charnley and his total hip replacement operation and it sounded to us as though we wanted to try Mrs. Gabuzda, South Pleasant View Road, Sanatoga, stated. 2 OPERATIONS She already underwent surgery twice for disabled hip joints, after steroid injections and other medication proved fruitless.

An operation was performed in May, 1968, and another the following year placing a metal cup between raw bone surfaces in each hip, after the surfaces were re-formed by the surgeon. Arthritis has an uncanny way of destroying both bone and cartilage. By October, 1969, Mrs. Gabuzda was recovering from the two operations. She was walking with a cane instead of Pottstown View the cumbersome crutches she had been using and was optimistic.

But the operations failed. bone deteriorated under the she explained, and the cups tilted. I had as much pain as before WROTE TO DOCTOR When the Sanatoga couple heard of Dr. John operation, Gabuzda wrote to the British doctor and asked him to operate on his wife. The doctor explained he was unable to do so because of the work load in his country but soon after that, the Gabuzdas heard of Dr.

Richard Rothman and r. James P. Marvel, Philadelphia, who use the Charnley method. Dr. Rothman performed Mrs.

first total replacement in January at Pennsylvania Hospital with total success, and surgeons will operate on Mrs. right hip within several weeks. The method involves placing a vitallium ball and pin with a plastic socket in the hip and cementing it in place. have perfect movement in the hip Mrs. Gabuzda said.

GREATEST DANGER As an extra precaution against infection, the greatest danger in this operation, the doctors will use a new the first of its kind in this country, which Dr. Marvel described as operating room within an operating Dr. John Charnley also perfected this. like an enclosure entirely in Dr. Marvel explained.

the part of the patient being operated on is exposed, through a kind of porthole, and only people immediately responsible for the operation are These people wear spacesuit- type helmets and apparel and their breath is exhausted outside the room. The air inside is absolutely bacteria free. The doctor said infection is the only real danger in the operation and since the greenhouse virtually prevents infection, the operation is almost a guaranteed success. The greenhouse is expected to be completed next week, and Dr. Marvel said Mrs.

Gabuzda probably will be the first to use it. VERY PAINFUL One of Mrs. surgeons at Pennsylvania Hospital pointed out that orthopedic surgery is extremely painful and Mrs. Gabuzda had three so far but she never complains. the most courageous person I he said.

A former supervisor of the blood bank at the hospital, Mrs. Gabuzda now spends most of her time at home making necklaces and bracelets from yarn and beads for all the nurses and friends she said helped so much. looking forward to doing all the things I couldn't do in the last four she said, "a little weeding, some painting around the house. might even go back to nursing but that will depend on how things she added hopefully. ON THE Tm buying six pairs new.

Heaven knows what they will cost under Nixori's Phase Two Main Drag JEAN CONNORS to keep from falling off the comfortable porch furniture. PETER SEGAL friends history does not repeat itself. JOSEPH CORRY books..