Riverton

Merion and Riverton shared first place in the Philadelphia Cup interclub competition of the Women's Golf Association after yesterday's second-round, 5-2 victory by Philadelphia Country Club over Huntingdon Valley. With three rounds left, Merion and Riverton stand at 2-0; and Philadelphia Country, winner of the title in 1993, at 1-1. Huntingdon Valley dropped out of a first-place tie and is at 1-1. Play was called off last year because of golf-course damage from the severe winter, the first interruption since 1897.

It was in 1851 when nine businessmen, most of them Quakers, began buying farmland in what is now Riverton to turn the pastures into a resort for the wealthy of Philadelphia. They divided Joseph Lippincott's farm, drawing up lines for homesites to be sold - and taking a few of the choice riverfront spots for themselves. On Thursday, the folks from Philadelphia are being invited back. For the first time, Riverton is part of the annual Philadelphia Open House tour. The organization has been conducting tours of historical and architecturally significant homes since 1978.

The Riverton Country Club team of Dottie Porter and Maryann Hajduk won the medal prize with a par 35-38-73 in better-ball competition yesterday in the qualifying round of the 45th annual Huntingdon Valley Country Club Invitation golf tournament. Eight teams with scores between 73 and 84 qualified for the championship flight of match play, which runs today through Thursday. PGA PRO-PRESIDENT The Meadowlands Country Club team of Jay Friedman and Sol Dimond won the Philadelphia PGA Pro-President golf tournament by 1 stroke with a better-ball round of 62 at the Overbrook Golf Club.

John DiMarco of Riverton won the $875 pro prize with a 2-over-par round of 74 in the $5,720 Wellness Council of the Delaware Valley Pro-Amateur tournament of the Philadelphia PGA at Sunnybrook Golf Club yesterday. The Pine Valley Golf Club team of pro Charles Raudenbush, Melville Dickenson, Ernie Ransome, Richard Scott and Tom Greenwood won the two-best- balls-of-fivesome competition with a net score of 14-under 130. The Laurel Creek group of pro Ed Sabo, Steve Fox, Len Fox Sr., Len Fox Jr. and Ed Meyer won the gross prize with 141.

Now that Riverton residents have voted down a proposal to construct a new municipal building, officials are trying to form a citizens' committee to study other ways to relieve the cramped quarters at the small riverfront community's rented borough offices. Officials said they wanted to include supporters and opponents of the building plan on the committee, in hope of getting new ideas on ways to expand the clerk's office, municipal court and police department. At the same time, they said, they hope to bring together those who remain divided over the issue of constructing a new municipal building.

Hoping to avoid the loss of Main Street's only bank, a 68-year-old downtown fixture, borough officials are urging PNC Bank to sell the branch to another bank after closing it on April 26. Shortly after acquiring the branch from Chemical Bank in a merger, PNC announced that it would be closed because of its proximity to other branches in Cinnaminson and Palmyra. The Riverton branch also has no drive-in facilities and is older than the other branches. But Mayor Bruce Gunn said Riverton's businesses, as well as senior citizens who have no transportation, rely on the bank on Main Street.

The Riverton Borough Board of Education has accepted the resignation of Administrative Principal John Flammer, appointed his successor and filled a vacancy on the school board. Flammer, who has headed the Riverton school since January 1987, resigned effective Sept. 30 to take a job in Mercerville. The board named Mary Helen Ward, Flammer's assistant since October 1987, to replace him. The action took place at a special meeting of the school board Aug. 4, but was not announced until yesterday.

The same families staked out the same stretch of sidewalk along Main Street. The mayor carried the same wooden staff that the parade marshal used in 1897. Though the flags that children waved were made of nylon instead of silk, and automobiles - not carriages - navigated the parade route, residents of the little Delaware River town of Riverton celebrated the Fourth of July yesterday much as they did for the first time in 1897 and every year in between: with a children's parade that sported plenty of red, white and blue.

Riverton is one of those communities that history has invested with singularity. The stately village recalls a once-opulent lifestyle on the Delaware, affords a treasure trove of Victorian architecture, and pleases the senses with its wide, shaded streets and large lawns. However, despite the view that some outsiders may hold, Riverton is not frozen in time. With less than three-quarters of a square mile of territory, the borough has long since exhausted most of its open land, but some small changes are under way in the business fabric, and the community appears to be experiencing one of its cyclical turnovers in the resident population, which stood at 2,950 in a 1986 estimate.

Assistant pro John Sweeney led the winning four-man team in Riverton Country Club's first pro-member tournament Sunday. Sweeney and partners S.J. Voellinger, Bob Evans and Bill Moennig, all Riverton members, carded a 21- under-par 121 for 36 holes in the best two-balls-of-four event. Second in the 17-team field was the foursome of Ron Rolphe, head pro at North Hills Country Club, Don Morano, Frank Quinn and Dick Baker, all of Riverton, at 122, and third were pro Ed Kramer of Pitman Country Club and Bob Arthur, Dale Smith and Tom Kennedy of Riverton with 123. Russ Davis of Atlantic City led individual pro scorers with an even-par 71. Tied for second were Mike Sultizio of Frankford-Torresdale and Mike Mack of Burlington County Country Club with 72. Three scored 73 - Kramer, John DeMarco of Riverton and Rolphe.

Women's Golf Association INTER-CLUB TEAM MATCHES Round 2 of 5. Philadelphia Cup Sunnybrook 4, Gulph Mills 3 Phila. Cricket 6, Manufacturers 1: Kerry Rutan, PC, def. Tracy Albertelli, 5 and 4; Sarah Easton, M, def. Melana Regan, 2 up; Alison Shoemaker, PC, def. Sue Klauder, 2 up; Marji Goldman, PC, def. Ann Gilmore, 6 and 5; Jan Albert, PC, def. Tricia Delaney, 1 up; Cynthia Clough, PC, def. Betsy Quinn, 6 and 4; Becky Sanderson, PC, def. Jeanne McKenny, 6 and 5. Second Cup: Whiteford 1 def. Coatesville, 4-3; Spring Ford 1 def. Radley Run 1, 6-1; Sandy Run 1 def. Wilmington 1, 6-1. Third Cup: Medford Village 1 def. Aronimink 1, 4-3; Overbrook 1 def. Waynesborough 1, 4-3; Little Mill 1 def. Phila.

If poetics were statistics, Reggie Leach would be a lock for the Hockey Hall of Fame. John K. Samson's efforts would be more than enough. The case for Leach is made artfully in a song released last week by Samson, the leader of the Winnipeg-based band the Weakerthans. The song is in the form of a petition, the petition is really a poem, and its title is ingeniously a website address: www.ipetitions.com/petition/rivertonrifle - typing that in your browser window will allow you to join the roughly 600 people who already have signed.

For 40 years, Nick Mortgu has hosted a Fourth of July porch party that sparkles when the Riverton Parade marches past his 1860 home. "The poor people who buy this house next" are in for a surprise, Mortgu said, explaining how people just show up at his Main Street home when the holiday arrives, even the one year that he and his wife, Beth Lippincott, were out of town. Their home, displaying flags, bunting, and shiny patriotic bows, was one of 11 vying for the decorating award that the tiny Burlington County borough has given out the last three years.

For 40 years, Nick Mortgu has hosted a 4th of July porch party that sparkles when the Riverton Parade marches past his 1860 Antebellum-style home. "The poor people who buy this house next" are in for a surprise, Mortgu said, explaining how people just show up at his Main Street home when the holiday arrives, even the one year that he and his wife, Beth Lippincott, were out of town. Their home, displaying flags, bunting, and shiny patriotic bows, was one of 11 vying for a Best Decorated House "Spiff up your Stripes" award that the tiny Burlington County borough has given out each of the last three years.

By midafternoon on a recent spring Sunday, about 40 visitors were cascading through the stately Riverton home of Mary Louise Bianco-Smith and Ken Smith. This was a "house tour" of a most unusual sort. The Smiths had invited over several generations of Clothiers. Yes, those Clothiers - descendants of Caleb Clothier and his son Isaac, the cofounder with Justus Clayton Strawbridge of Philadelphia's Strawbridge & Clothier department stores. "We knew that most of them had never seen the home, and when I was contacted by a family member, I was happy to arrange this visit," said Mary Louise.