Our Collections

Hilda Lucas Memorial Library & Museum

Located in the Thomas Massey House, this resource contains information on genealogy, social and local history. We are currently in the process of reassessing and cataloging our collections. The Historical Society’s collections include:

• Historic photographs of Marple Township

• Newspaper clippings

• Notebooks and scrapbooks from local historian Clarissa Smith

• Late 19th/early 20th century business records

The library is currently open only by appointment. For more information, please e-mail us marplehistoricalsociety@gmail.com. All research is to be done on site by the researcher.

Marple Township Newspapers Collection, ca. 1940–ca. 2000

• These newspapers are mostly issues of the County Leader, County Press, and Springfield Press, with some smaller papers, such as the Marple Mirror included. These newspapers are in the the process of being cataloged and are not yet available for researchers.

Dolores Ball papers, 1958–1959, 1963

• Dolores June (Sandstrom) Ball (1927–2019) was a nurse who lived in the Rose Tree Woods development of Marple Township. This small collection is comprised of reports, typed minutes, and handwritten notes relating to the Marple Newtown School District, Marple Township Board of Supervisors, and the Rose Tree-Trout Run Civic Association dating to 1958–1963, with the bulk of the papers dated between June 1958 and spring 1959.