After the Civil War, the landscape of the township began to change. As wealthy Philadelphians discovered the lush scenery, delightful breezes and large open spaces, they descended on Nether Providence. They built summer residences and vacation .resorts. At first, local farmers would board guests in their homes. Then hotels began to appear to accommodate the more affluent visitors.

     The most noteworthy of the resorts was the Idlewild Hotel, built in 1871 by David R. Hawkins. It was located at the edge of the township in Upper Providence (on the corner of Idlewild Lane and Galey Street). The building at the corner of Providence and Brookhaven Roads (Hinkson's Corners), built in 1764 as a store, was changed into a resort hotel. At 609 East Baltimore Pike, the eighteenth century farm house was remodeled to be a summer resort by Peter Worrall. The building at 403 North Providence Road (across from Plush Mill Road) which had been built in 1746 and changed to a general store in 1849, became the Briggsville Inn to accommodate the flood of visitors. The appearance of hotels in the Township attracted the attention of other prominent Philadelphians who began to spend their summers here. They built new homes or expanded the old farmhouses that dotted our landscape. T. Ellwood Allisson built "Cony Meade" in 1905, just off Turner Road. By the time it was demolished it was known infamously as "The Castle". E. J. Caldwell, the jeweler, built next to the Wallingford Elementary School.

     The Gratz family moved in, building or remodeling homes around Hinkson's Corners. Simon established summer residents for three daughters. One daughter married Colonel A. J. McClure, former Secretary to President Lincoln, owner of the Chester Times and founder of the Delaware County political dynasty. A home for them was built on Providence Road, next to the Caldwell home, in 1882 and called "Norland". It stood where Purdy Lane is now. Another home was built for the daughter who married Felix de Cranos, the French Consul General. It is located at 6 East Brookhaven Road. A third daughter married Alfred S. Gillette, owner of the Philadelphia Times. They expanded the old Vernon house at 41 South Providence Road. Even Simon's brother Harry, moved in. He built a large frame house just off Hinkson's Corners. It was named "Thunder Castle" and was located at the end of what is now Dale Lane.

     The renowned Horace Howard Furness erected his home, called "Lindenshade" at the end of Furness Lane. There he entertained Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman.

     Howard H. Houston, Mayor of Chester, 1902-1906, banker and businessman, built his home "Houstonia" overlooking Ridley Creek at the southern end of the township. Mr. Houston, in his capacity as a director of the Chester and Media Electric Railway, was responsible for bringing the trolley line to Nether Providence.

     John P. Sykes, Vice President of Baldwin Locomotive Works inherited farmland from his aunt, Matilda Turner, through his mother, Anne Kershaw Sykes. He added more land inherited from his other aunt, Amanda Kershaw Vernon and formed the Sykes Estate.

     As other large homes were built by distinguished executives along Walker Lane and Highland Avenue, Nether Providence came to rival the "Main Line" in wealth and influence for many decades.

     As mass transit and better roads made traveling easier in the early 1920s, there evolved the creature we call the "commuter" who entered our area alongside of the "developer." The farms started to disappear, giving way to mass building. The manufacturing mills, their self-contained villages and the employment they provided also vanished. Employment had to be found elsewhere. However, people were more mobile by then, so they were able to move away from the smoke and noise of the mills. Travel was easier, so workers no longer had to live adjacent to their workplaces. As the railroad and trolley lines were developed, outsiders came to live and raise families in Nether Providence.

     Planes, trains and automobiles! The first trains came to our town in 1854. It was a single track with a passing side at Wallingford. A stop was established in Moylan in 1868 and a station was built there in 1874. The station was called "Manchester" (a name it carried until the late 1880s) and was used by Idlewild Hotel guests. Carriages carried the visitors up Manchester Avenue to the hotel. The original station was replaced in 1881 and that station is still used today. The present Wallingford Station was built in 1890 from a design by Frank Furness, Philadelphia's premier architect and brother of Horace.

     As a result of the railroad, the post office entered our community. Since trains could carry mail, post offices were instituted at both stations. Moylan Station still houses the post office established in 1890, but Wallingford's moved to a small building on Kershaw Road in 1920 and then to its present location on Providence Road at Wallingford Avenue in 1951. At this time, Nether Providence was served by five separate post offices: Wallingford, Moylan, Media, Swarthmore and Chester. In 1962, these were combined into one and Wallingford was made a sub-station of Media.

     Nether Providence had an aviation field on fifty acres between Beatty and Turner Roads, just off Baltimore Pike. The Media Flying Field was opened in 1924. It was operated by the Media Businessmen's Association and was the setting of one of the nation's earliest air shows. More importantly, it was the site of Delaware County's first air mail flight. Air mail in the United States started in 1918, but had not been tried in Delaware County. The postmaster of Media, Matthew C. Fox, Jr., and the postmaster of Wallingford, Stafford Parker, undertook an experiment with airmail on May 19, 193 8 from the aviation field. Nether Providence and Media students left school to witness the event, the two high school bands played and four Navy pursuit planes encircled the field. At one o'clock an Autogyro took off with mail for the 30t' Street Post Office in Philadelphia. The take-off was fine, but it was unable to land at the Philadelphia Post Office. Proving to be impractical, the project ended, never to be considered again.