With Congressional re-incorporation of The American National Red Cross in 1905, the Wallingford Red Cross Organization became a Chapter and received its Charter.

     The 1915-1916 reorganization of the Red Cross in the Philadelphia area created the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter. It had complete jurisdiction of the five area counties - except the Wallingford Chapter - which for reason of its good service was excepted and continued as a separate and distinct Chapter.

     In 1928, James P. Henry (Henry Lane) joined the Chapter Board to organize its fundraising activities. By the early 1930s, the Wallingford Chapter was known as the "Banner Chapter," being always the first Red Cross Chapter in the country to "report over" on fund drives.

     The Chester Area Red Cross was an outgrowth of the Pennsylvania Women's Division for National Preparedness. On March 2, 1917, the Chester Branch of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of The American National Red Cross was formed. On October 27, 1958, the National Red Cross granted the Chester Branch Chapter status.

     The total life of the Chester Chapter was only seven months. On May 18, 1959, the Chester and Wallingford Chapters were officially merged and continue to this day as the Chester-Wallingford Chapter of the American Red Cross.

     The Wallingford Chapter is recognized as the oldest continuing Red Cross Organization in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the third oldest in the United States.

     As the population of the township grew, public safety became a consequential concern. Safety conscious volunteers formed fire companies in South Media in 1922 and Garden City in 1944. Although Nether Providence had Justices of the Peace and Constables since colonial times, the first organized police department was not established until 1939 when one police officer was hired. A second officer was hired in 1940, a third one in 1948 and a fourth one in 1951. Because of the increase in motorcars, traffic regulations affecting parking were adopted in 1947 and speed limits on Providence Road, Chestnut Parkway and Hastings Avenue were enacted in 1949.

     The township government outgrew its meeting room in the old blacksmith's shop at the corner of Providence and Brookhaven Roads. The township converted the old barn on the Sykes Estate and moved there in 1953.

     In 1902, William Henry Furness, son of Dr. Horace Howard Furness and Helen Kate Rogers, donated land on Providence Road for a public library and named it for his mother.

     Churches began popping up: Old Union Methodist (1807); Packard Memorial Methodist (1875); Wallingford Presbyterian (1891); Garden City Chapel (1929); Pendle Hill Quaker (1930) and St. John Chrysostom Roman Catholic (1952). Religious groups from Chester also came and built places of worship: Holy Trinity Lutheran (1947); Grace Bible Fellowship (1963); Ohev Shalom Synagogue (1964) and St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox (1973).

     Even before the founding of the township, education was important to the residents. By the time the Pennsylvania Public School Act was passed in 1834, Nether Providence had a well established system of small private schools. In 1810, the Union School was built at 111 Brookhaven Road, supported by some wealthy families and others desperate to educate their children. In 1861 it was transferred to the Nether Providence School District. In 1866 the old school house was torn down and a new school, now a private home, was built. In 1812, the Society of Friends founded a school on the north corner of Beatty and Providence Roads. When the Media Borough School District was organized in 1856 it became the property of Media, later sold and torn down. Samuel Briggs built a school for the children of his brickyard employees in 1825. The original building is located on Providence Road at Shepherd's Lane. Even Wolley Stille served as a school, starting in 1834. Unfortunately no records remain of the many small mill schools that were active, but one of the earliest recorded mill schools was built at Pleasant Hill (on the corner of Providence and Harvey Roads) in 1840 and lasted until 1915. Also in 1840 the employees of Avondale Mills constructed a school near the Leiper House. 1849 was the founding year of the Crookville School District and a school established for the Todmorden Mills in 1850. It remained in operation until the 1930s when the area was virtually deserted by an Anthrax outbreak. A school in South Media was founded in 1856 at the end of Ronaldson Street and the building is still in private use today.

     Until 1856, when the Nether Providence School District was formed, there were no clear school boundaries for parents to follow. They sent their children to schools they preferred, mostly in Media or Swarthmore. The school on Providence Road across the street from Chatham Place began its existence in 1902 as a mill school for Thomas Allins' Wallingford Mill. As mill schools began to close, this school was officially recognized as the Wallingford High School in 1910 by the School District. Although the original wooden building burned down in 1930, its replacement stands today as the Wallingford Elementary School. The Nether Providence Junior-Senior High School (now the Middle School) was built in 1928 and added onto in 1952. The Garden City School (now Nether Providence Elementary School) was built in 1939 and was expanded twice. Summit Elementary opened in 1957 and was closed as a public school in 1975. The Nether Providence High School was built in 1970 and was renamed Strath Haven High School in 1983.

     Although township residents have discouraged commercialization over the years, the last decades have witnessed a growing number of professional offices - medical, legal and real estate. Some of the old residences now serve new functions and what were once open fields now sport new office complexes, such as Chesley Campus.

     Nether Providence is again changing. Agriculture is gone, the mills are gone, the resort inns are gone, the hardwood forests are gone and the creeks flow at a quarter of their old volume. Still a new era has started with the entrance of the service sector, which is alive and well in Nether Providence. The township is prosperous and stable. Its residents are still community minded. The future looks good. But let's not forget the names of the past: Victoria Plush Mill, Cleftrock Springs, Crystle Dairy, Bickmore Farms, Crumwald Farm, Sharpless Rock, the Aviation Field, Mary Lyon Golf Course, Briggsville, Crooksville, Palmer's Corner, Parkview Slope, Rotten Row, Springhaven Estates, Oak Knoll, Echo Glenn, Top-o-the Morning, Castle Thunder, Jordan's Acres, Allen's Hill, Shoemaker Hill, McCurdy's Hill, and Confusion Hill. Let's also be mindful of those who lived here: Dick Clark, Tug McGraw, Joan Mondale, Mickey Vernon, Governor William C. Sproul, Author L. Sprage de Camp ("Conan The Barbarian"), General Edward E. MacMorland, and the six county judges who all lived in the township at the same time. In addition, visitors to our area were as follows: George Washington, General Anthony Wayne, the first nine Presidents of the United States, General John J. Pershing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Cecil B. de Mill, Colonel Charles A. Linburg, newscaster Bill Stern, actress Elinor Donahue from Father Knows Best and J. Howard Pew from Sun Oil Company.

     Not bad for the twelfth largest municipality in Delaware County!