Asked if she remembered the Ambler Opera House, Frieda had this to say:  "I was about four years old when Mama first took me to Sunday School at the Trinity Mission. We met in a room on the second floor of the Opera House building. The Mission was organized by St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in 1891, the year I was born.  Later it became Trinity Memorial Church when Doctor Mattison erected that beautiful building for us out on the Pike." 

"My Sunday School teacher's name was Miss Houghton.  About a week before Christmas, we spent a whole afternoon decorating our beautiful Christmas tree.  It was a gift from Doctor Mattison, who had received a carload of trees from Maine.  The two biggest ones were for the stage of the Opera House and his mansion out on the Pike. That's the Castle today, you know.  Miss Houghton showed us how to string popcorn and cranberries, alternating white popcorn with red cranberries. She had us make decorations from old Christmas cards too. These we cut out and trimmed with tinsel.  It was a lovely tree."  

These were the words of Frieda Manderbach as she spoke fondly of growing up in early Ambler.  But, who was Frieda and what was her role in the town's early days?  Born on the west side of Bethlehem Pike, within sight of Mattison's mansion, she was the daughter of Aaron and Anna Nash Manderbach. Her grandparents were Frederick and Mary Palmer Nash, whose homestead stood almost opposite the terminus of Mattison Avenue, in front of the present-day Castle at St. Mary's.  They acquired it from the Reiff family way back in 1846.  After Frederick died, Mary Nash sold the homestead to Doctor Mattison in 1890, the year before Frieda was born.  Soon he tore it down to create a more impressive lawn. 

"Uncle Harry Nash, he was cousin Mary's father, had a haberdashery in the Opera House Block of stores. I can still remember what it looked like back around 1901, just before he sold the business. Uncle Harry's store and Joe Angeny's Drug Store flanked the entrance to the theatre."   Years later, Frieda was able to describe the complete lay-out of her uncle's store and its display windows, even drawing a complete floor plan. 

Asked to describe the interior of the original Opera House, she responded with this: "The stage was very wide, with two lovely boxes on each side, one above the other.  Their curved  fronts were ornately decorated.  I think it's a shame that the Doctor destroyed that beautiful interior just to convert it to a movie house.  I remember one year attending Sunnyside Academy's graduation there.   It was a sweltering day, and long before air-conditioning. That's where Ambler High School held their graduations for years.  I went to many shows there with my cousins and friends.  These were usually very well attended.  It was so close to the railroad though, that once in a while the performance had to stop while a long, noisy freight train went by." 

Frieda was proud of the fact that her father, Aaron Manderbach, was the first principal of Ambler schools. He held that position when the new Forest Avenue School was built in 1891.  "I remember the day it burned to the ground.   It was a Saturday afternoon;   I think it was 1926.  Mama and I had been visiting friends in Ambler when someone came to the door with the news that Papa's school was on fire. It looked  like it was going to be destroyed.  We went over to Forest Avenue as fast as  we could.  I was so glad that Papa didn't have to see it destroyed this way. He had died several years before.  He so loved that school and felt a part of it.  I never had the chance to attend there because Papa took a new teaching position at Bethayres. We moved from Ambler some time later." 

"But that wasn't the end of Ambler for me; I spent much time at Grand mom’s place. After she sold the old Nash homestead to Doctor Mattison, she built a new home on the other side of the Pike, right next door to Papa and Mama's place."  

My planned meeting with Frieda never came about.  Before it could take place, she tripped and fell over one of her dogs, his name was "Fonzie", making it necessary for her to be hospitalized.  Several days later she died at the age of 98 years.