I’ve written about Gladwyne, PA before. It was the first place we lived when we moved to the Main Line many years ago when I was a kid.

When I was a kid, it was truly a magical unique place. Then like the rest of the communities on and off and adjacent to the Main Line who suffered from Main Line-itis or wanna be status, they believe their own press releases at this point and it’s time for them to go talk to Vanna and buy an overpriced clue.

As an adult, I have been in and out of Gladwyne for years because my parish church was there growing up, and I have had many friends who have lived there and still live there.

It has only in the recent past come to pass that not very many of my friends are either involved with the civic association there or in leadership positions. I mean, I can’t think of how many years in a row dear friends were either president or a vice president or on the board of that civic association. As a matter of fact, I was around when they started their Facebook group and was one of the early people invited to join it.

So as the people whom I knew moved on and new people filtered in, you started to notice a big difference in Gladwyne Civic Association, and even in their Facebook group. I noticed that in spite of big issues going on there locally with different things the page was getting dumbed down and seemingly sanitized?

For example posts about the 19035 Madoff types (convicted and jailed felons Josh Verne and Scott Mason) although news for right there were removed. I mean they couldn’t possibly admit they were taken in by their schtick, right? And what about Christopher Hogg from a couple of years ago?

Then other posts would also appear that made me laugh literally. One of my favorites was the person who posted an outrage about why wasn’t someone picking up their horse’s poop when they went down the road? When I saw that post I instantly flashed back to when the sound of horses on the roads of Gladwyne was the rule rather than the exception.

And gosh how would these current 19035-ers have reacted to the mid 1970s burglar nicknamed the “Fat Cat Burglar”? Yup look it up. 1974 and 1975. Victims included Ruth Junkin, J. Permar Richards, Walter Pew, E.R. Fenimore Johnson.

Does the Junkin name ring a bell to any of these people? Or do they realize that was the last name of the little old lady who sold her estates that would become a lot of what became Waverly Heights and once we used to visit the horses on her property? Were they aware of the crazy battle that ensued over the former estate of the late Ruth Rea Junkin circa 1983 to build Wobbly Heights? It was known as the “Junkin Tract” although the property had originally belonged to her late father, Samuel Rea, who had been the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and built the mansion still part of the property today in 1914? Did they know about all of the crazy accusations of all sorts of things like political lobbying and the criticism of the late Commissioner Howard West whom as the Realtor brokered the deal I guess? And that was definitely true because he was my parents’ next door neighbor back then. (FYI you can read about this in the archives of the Main Line Times and Philadelphia Inquirer.) The initial 53 acres that would become Waverly Heights was approved by Lower Merion in May of 1984.

Or remember Kurt Davidyan who went from social butterfly and having the Real Estate firm Davidyan and Nichols in the basement level of the building that housed PNC Bank and Gladwyne Pharmacy to umm his 2004 fall from grace having to do with fraud charges?

Are people allowed to remember the house that blew up on Dodds Lane in 2019?

Of course, the latest scandal in the 19035 that they definitely don’t want discussed is what will happen with the historic village of Gladwyne? Will it be Yasswyned? So as related to that, I posted a couple of weeks ago a simple question in the Gladwyne Civic Association Facebook page: I wanted to know if there was a link to the Zoom recording of the recent Lower Merion HARB meeting that people could watch? I got a roundabout non-answer answer from the new commissioner who used to be involved with the civic association Facebook page and the civic before he was elected commissioner for Gladwyne.

And then came a message:

Ahh I see.

I responded back to him that I didn’t understand his message basically because I’d always been a member of this group and I lived in Gladwyne as a child.

It was utterly ridiculous to receive such a message. Also worth noting is I am hardly the only one in that group who doesn’t live in Gladwyne. They’re quite a few people who never lived in the 19035 including a woman from upstate New York who now lives in Malvern, who will never live in Gladwyne.

I still think it is because I asked an uncomfortable question for some. Of course that question shouldn’t have been uncomfortable because it was pretty basic. I mean, what’s the big deal about the HARB meeting? It’s like when someone had posed a question months ago about who bought the buildings, and I didn’t actually know who was behind the limited partnership or whatever it is, but I posted the public real estate record showing the transaction and that comment was removed and why? It wasn’t even posted with particular comment. It was just the public record so what was the big deal? Was it a secret?

So after I responded to the guy, I never heard anything for I guess more than a week. I’d forgotten about it because I just thought the whole thing was stupid and then came the messages I received yesterday:

Oh my gosh, oh golly, he threw me out of the gated community of 19035! Yet he wants my support? Huh?

He is one of the new co-presidents of the watered down Gladwyne Civic Association has thrown me out of the Gladwyne Civic Association Facebook group, which again I’ve literally been in since it was started. At the end of the day I’m amused by this. He’s a jackass. Yes, that is an opinion.

Yes, I told him off. And it’s not because I am in one less Facebook group. It’s the principle of the matter. And I did mention to him that I’ve been contacted by lots of people who currently live in the 19035 because they feel that the Civic Association is doing a whole lot of nothing when it comes to protecting the community and it’s historic character. I think that’s worrisome. Also worrisome? They’re so concerned with their appearance in a Facebook group that they are not actually encouraging public discourse on anything meaningful and why?

So essentially he is like treating Gladwyne like it’s a big HOA and I’ve been tossed out of the gated community 🤣

So yes, I’m apparently banned from the 19035. Whatever. Better lock up the gates right?

The last word is most simply put keeping me out of a Facebook group because I asked a question that made some people uncomfortable for God knows what reason isn’t going to stem the tide of questions or concerns about a modern day robber baron coming to the historic village center will it?

And at the end of the day, my opinion remains the same. I have zero objections to adaptive reuse of historic structures and restoration. It’s the whole make it like a stilted nouveau Main Line Peddler’s Village and messing with the zoning that raises concerns and why is it bad to show concern? And they haven’t revoked the First Amendment yet so I can have those opinions.

It’s not just about opportunity, it’s about community. Community means many voices, not just what some want scripted.