Gypsy campers were known to aggravate adults and delight children early in this century. One campsite was on the bank of the Schuylkill beside Rudolph’s Row, today underneath the Expressway and beside the Green Lane/Belmont bridge in Belmont Hills. A Rudolph family member objected when gypsies flaunted propriety by washing clothes in the river on Sunday.
The second campground was in today’s Gladwyne near Old Gulph Road, then empty space. Jenny Haley, a child in 1900, recalled gypsies begging corn or fruit from farmers’ wives in exchange for fortune telling. They traveled in covered wagons drawn by poor, thin horses...arrived in May and departed in October.