Upper Darby’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 2 old photos of Upper Darby. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗In 1650, the area that eventually became Upper Darby had been inhabited by the Lenape tribe of Native Americans for thousands of years. The Lenape were part of the larger late Woodland culture, living in longhouses and birch bark homes, and engaging in the type of agriculture featuring companion planting of the Three Sisters (winter squash, maize, and beans).
The first permanent Europeans settlers arrived in late 1653 with a group from New Sweden. Soon after, in 1655, New Sweden was taken over by the Dutch, and then came under English rule in October 1664 as part of England's overall conquest of New Amsterdam. The region was controlled as a possession of the English king until it was included in a large land grant to William Penn in 1681.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Upper Darby’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Upper Darby’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🗓️Date a photo1 archive item has no date+2 🔁Retake an old viewUpper Darby, Pennsylvania. Signs …, 1936: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Upper Darby
See all 26 →
Upper Darby, decade by decade
1990s
unknown1 item
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Signs over the Terminal Theatre (1936) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From the Library of Congress (2) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.