Then and Now: Three Readers Dug Up the Answer

There were quite a few comments on but only three readers had it right. Hearty applause to MJ, George Mansur and BW, who correctly noted the location. Here's the explanation from The Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area:

This photograph, taken sometime before 1920, shows the 200 block of Main Street looking south. The stone wall remains, but the cemetery and house are gone.

The home on the corner of Church and Hall was known as the Cullen house and was occupied by the family of Frank J. Cullen. Mr. Cullen owned a plumbing and gas fitting business on Main and Bridge streets.

Buried in the cemetery were Mennonite members of the first religious congregation to be housed on the southwest corner of Main and Church Streets. The cemetery markers were interred and the entire graveyard was leveled and landscaped in 1923, prior to construction on the church parsonage.

The house which now sits on the site of the cemetery was built in 1926 and was designated the Fischer Memorial Parsonage. It served as a residence for the pastor of the Central Lutheran Church and his family. Phoenixville Federal Bank & Trust occupies the corner of Main and Hall streets, where the Cullen House once stood.

As for the bodies, Sue Marshall, president of The Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area, notes, "Some were moved to Morris cemetery. I think some are still there. There weren't details about who got moved, who paid for it, and what happened to everyone else. They were very old graves even back in the 1920s."

Watch this space next Monday for the next installment of Then and Now.