At Devon, pace quickens to save a storied past

When it debuted in 1896, the slice of Philadelphia society that supported and attended the Devon Horse Show was so exclusive that the New York Times was able to pinpoint its gilded geographical borders as "the aristocratic portion of the city, bounded by Chestnut, Pine, Broad and 22d Streets."

In the 115 years since, the Main Line's main event has become more egalitarian, so much so that one of the high-profile riders at the 2011 Devon Horse Show and Country Fair will be Jessica Springsteen, the daughter of the rebellious, working-class rock star who did all his racing in the streets.

The annual equestrian and dressage competition, which will open Thursday and for 92 years has benefited Bryn Mawr Hospital, hasn't changed quite as drastically as that irony might suggest.

Du Ponts, Clothiers, and Wanamakers still compete for ribbons and trophies, and some continue to occupy the prized private boxes and parking spots their families have passed down for generations. Riders still dress as if they're going to the hunt. And the locale, on grounds near Lancaster Avenue and Waterloo Road in Devon, remains the same.

That history, though, was in danger of being lost when longtime volunteer Bobbi Cowley was asked to save, collect, and archive whatever artifacts she could locate from the tony event's long and fascinating run as one of the nation's most prestigious horse shows.

"We do hope to make an exhibit of all this at some point," said Cowley, as she spread out her collected treasures on the dining-room table of her Wayne home. "But the most important thing is to save it. We're losing the people that know the beginnings. Quickly."

Cowley has uncovered photos, newspaper clips, and programs from a mice-filled barn in Devon. She's received memorabilia from elderly citizens who remembered competing and attending as children, from the descendents of the show's founding families, from a cardboard box - Box No. 22 - that survived four generations and a divorce.

Her quest also has led her to the Library of Congress archives and the musty files of defunct Philadelphia newspapers such as the Bulletin, the Public Ledger, and the North American.

Begun in 1896 by several Main Line estate owners who were hoping to encourage local farmers and breeders to produce better horses, Devon in its infancy was not a public event.

"I wouldn't say it was closed. But how many people were interested in a horse show?" said Cowley. "They felt it was a way for the fancy rich people to be with the farmers who were raising the animals."

Newspaper coverage in the show's early years focused more on its society aspects than on the competition among horsemen.

"Looking at the Public Ledger from those early shows, I could tell you what [longtime Main Line society figure] Hope Montgomery Scott's mother wore. But I couldn't tell you which horses actually won."

When a World War I fund-raising effort proved successful - taking in $9,000 - the show became a charity for Bryn Mawr Hospital. After World War II, when there was an erosion in the wealth and numbers of the Philadelphia area's aristocracy, the directors decided to charge for admission and open it up to the wider public.

"They had to start attracting everybody," said Cowley. "So at that point you begin to see a difference in advertising."

The oldest program Cowley found dates back to 1929. Costing 50 cents, the thick, paperback-sized book is filled with advertisements for Chestnut Street clothiers and long-gone Center City banks and insurance companies.

One yellowed newspaper page from 1937 contains an ad displaying a two-bedroom house. The dwelling was Devon's raffle prize that year, and the accompanying text noted for the blue-blooded Devon crowd that it was a way to have "a lovely home without the burden of a servant problem."

A series of aerial photos from the show's early years to today reveal the changing landscape of Devon. In the earliest of them, the horse show grounds are dominated by the enormous Devon Inn.

Built as a resort hotel to lure Philadelphians westward via the Pennsylvania Railroad line that eventually gave the Main Line its name, the hotel hosted the society soirees of the wealthiest guests, many of whom can be seen observing the scene from its vast porches.

Eventually the hotel closed and the building was used first as a girls school and then as the initial home of Valley Forge Military Academy. It was destroyed in the 1930s by the last of several fires.

The artifacts also reveal the famous horse lovers who have visited Devon through the years.

Among the notables to attend were Vice President Calvin Coolidge in 1922; Dwight Eisenhower, after his presidency in 1961; James Cagney; Paul Newman; Gypsy Rose Lee; and Bruce Springsteen.

The well-known local names include Isaac Clothier of the Strawbridge & Clothier department store families; Rodman Wanamaker of Wanamaker's; Samuel Riddle, the owner of thoroughbred legends Man O' War and War Admiral; and, astride Devon-tested horses named Namby-Pamby and Witchcraft, William and Jean du Pont.

Some of the items came from people Cowley contacted, others from those who reached out to her. A group of southern Chester County horse people, for example, held a party at which they helped her identify faces in the photos. And much of her haul came from a damp old barn on Devon's grounds that has since been torn down.

"I would take the boxes out; close my eyes; grab it; stuff it in a bag; and yell: 'Go away! Go away!' so that all the mice would go away," she said. "It was gross."

Cowley has transferred many of the photographs to a power-point program, which will be presented at two horse-show locations. The search, she said, will go on.

"I would love some programs from before 1929," she said, when asked if there was a Holy Grail she was hunting. "But what I have to keep in mind is that what's going to happen tomorrow is going to be history. Devon is going to be around. I keep pushing for the early stuff, and people get excited about the early stuff. But, truly, looking at the whole picture is the important thing."