When Mercer was dirt

It must have been around 1952 when we first moved from our house on Princess Place Drive to Mercer Avenue. At that time Mercer was the last street in the city. It was a long dirt road between Market Street and Wrightsville Avenue. On the corner of Market and Mercer was Brock's Grocery and on the other end of Mercer at Wrightsville was another grocery store that would later be owned by Mr. Strong. There were a number of dirt roads and paths along Mercer that joined it to Live Oak Avenue (now Covil), Wayne Drive and Forest Hills Drive. All but one of these are gone now and that one is Wakefield Drive. Mercer no longer crosses the creek where us kids spent many a day playing and fishing. In the name of progress the bridge was removed and Mercer was redirected into a new 4 lane Independence Blvd. and Randell Parkway. One of my fond memories is of being a young father back in the 70s taking my wife and daughter for a walk down that creek that I had play in when I was a child.

The picture in this section shows my father and mother on what must have been a Sunday morning coming home from church. The picture is taken from the lot beside our house which later would be were Charles and Louise Cannon would build there home. Directly behind them is a vacant lot, which to this day is still vacant.The house belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Walker, it is still there. Only a few years later the road would be paved.