x-Virginia Merion DeNenno. A Life Well-Lived.

Virginia Merion DeNenno. A Life Well-Lived

Ginny is the fourth generation of the Merion family to live in Concord Township, which gives her an excellent perspective on our township’s history, as she has actually lived it. She is the eldest of two children and married Harold DeNenno, a dairy farmer, at a young age. They lived on the corner of Kirk Road and Smithbridge Road until the farm was sold for development in the early 1990’s. They have two children, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Ginny as a three year old at the family home on Featherbed Lane (now on Rte 322), with parents Virginia and Preston Merion.	Ginny and younger sister Bobbie Ann, circa 1950.  Her mother wanted a formal photograph taken.

Always active in her community, Ginny was a founding member of the Pony Club Mothers, having ridden all throughout the township when land was open and farming was a way of life, and when future development was on the distant horizon.
Ginny remembers when zoning came to the township, in the late 1950’s, as a new idea for managing growth. She saw the downgrade from 3 acre zoning to 1, when it was challenged for the Fox Valley development. At that time, a modest millworker’s home was given to the township on one acre, and Ginny was one of the founding members of the Concord Township Historical Society, which was formed to save and restore it. She has served the Society since then, serving most of the time as President, and growing its varied collection of documents, photographs, books,furniture, and artifacts

Ginny in a horse show, 1949, off Philadelphia Pike near the old
Merchandise Mart along the Delaware River in Delaware.

In 1979, Ginny was appointed to the Planning Commission, serving as Project Manager for many plans that changed the face of our township. She began the custom of naming new roads for historic people and places, which gives Concord’s developments a unique flavor, and reminds everyone of our historic legacy. She also reported regularly in the township newsletter on the many historic homes and buildings and their story, to inform and engage our residents about our local history.

Ginny wearing a coat and suit to try out for a modeling job in Philadelphia, early 1950’s.	Ginny and Harold wedding photo in 1953 at St. John’s Concord.

In the early 1980’s, Ginny was instrumental in getting our historic properties, built before 1900, surveyed, which provided the foundation for the Historic Preservation Ordinance, passed in 1997, which was one of the first in Delaware County.

Ginny, Harold and their two children, Eddie and Leanne,
Crystal Beach, Md., 1955-56

Concord Township celebrated our nation’s bi-centennial in 1976, and our township’s tri-centennial in 1983, and Ginny served as Co-Chair of both events. She was a contributor to Prosperity and Progress: Concord Township, Pennsylvania, 1683-1983, Volume 1 The Colonial Legacy by Robert P. Case, 1983 and co-author of Concord Township: Progress and Prosperity in the Nineteenth Century, along with Robert P. Case,1998.

Ginny entered the Miss Media contest in 1950 while a Junior at Media High School, sponsord by the local Rotary.  She borrowed a friend’s dress, and came in third.	Ginny and Harold at her Senior Prom in 1951, Media High School, held at a woman’s club in Chester.  Her graduating class had about 140 students.  At that time, Concord school only went to the 8th grade, so students who wanted a high school education had to arrange their own transportation to attend Media.

Ginny is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Delaware County Historical Society, National Society of Colonial Dames XVII Century, Historical Society of PA, The Brandywine Battlefield Park Association, The Christian C. Sanderson Museum – Life Membership, The Red Hats, and Concord Seniors, and a Board member of the Newlin Grist Mill.

In 2009, the Concord Township Historical Society Headquarters on Smithbridge Road was renamed the Virginia Merion DeNenno History and Educational Center, to honor her significant contributions to the Society, as well as to Concord’s overall quality of life through her preservation efforts.

We are privileged to have had her as our historic preservation champion, who researched information, gathered artifacts, and brought awareness of history to us all, all of which she did in a humble, low key way, so before long, she had us engaged.

Her legacy is everlasting, and becomes another important part of our township’s history.