The grounds represented a gift of two hundred thousand dollars, and the building a gift of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

This building, now about to be erected, will be one of the most beautiful and complete community centres in the United States.
Perhaps no other suburban civic effort proves the efficiency of community co-operation so well as does the seven years' work of The Merion Civic Association.

It is a practical demonstration of what a community can do for itself by concerted action.

It preached, from the very start, the gospel of united service; it translated into actual practice the doctrine of being one's brother's keeper, and it taught the invaluable habit of collective action.

The Association has no legal powers; it rules solely by persuasion; it accomplishes by the power of combination; by a spirit of the community for the community.
When The Merion Civic Association was conceived, the spirit of local pride was seemingly not present in the community.