Lansdale "Then & Now" – Part II

I love old pictures from the area, especially ones of Lansdale. But I really love “then & now” picture combinations in which a current picture is taken at the same location & angle of an old photograph and then placed side by side so you can really see the differences. 

This “Then & Now” combination is a photograph from Lansdale’s Memorial Park. The previous “Then & Now” talked about the baseball field at Memorial Park and as everyone knows Memorial Day is just around the corner so why not stay on topic. Don’t forget to come out for the annual Lansdale Memorial Day parade up Main St. followed by a memorial service in the park. This is a very important event that commemorates and honors our U.S. Soldiers that have died, had served and/or are currently serving in any one of our branches of military service.

In this picture combination are two photos of the water fountain in Lansdale’s Memorial Park. It sits in the area behind the visitor’s dugout of the Weaver Field baseball field. I’m sure many didn’t know that the unusual looking mound of cement and stone in the center of the low brick wall circle was a fountain in the center of a small pond. I do not know when the ‘Then” photo was taken (early 70’s?) but the ‘Now” photo is from May 7, 2013.

I remember as a kid seeing various fish in the pond. I don’t know what kind they were but my memory recalls them looking like big gold fish. During the cold winter months we would walk around on the frozen fountain pond and look at the fish, frozen in place within the ice.

When my brother & I were young we would act as bat boys during many of the summer baseball games. The coach would give us a buck after the game. To us it was a big deal. It was always comical once in a while when a batter would hit a foul ball and it landed in the fountain, it would be followed by a storm of us kids running over to be the first to pick the drenched ball out of the pond.

I assume maintenance costs eventually spelled the end to the fountain. It was a nice feature to the park and one that I have fond memories of