Fords on the Board
Haverford College's location on the "Main Line, PA Edition" of Monopoly lies between Villanova University and a Community Chest.
The new “Main Line, PA Edition” of Monopoly features some well-known spots on its locally oriented board— including Haverford College.
A newly released “Main Line, PA Edition” of the iconic game Monopoly features some well-known spots on its locally oriented board—including Haverford College. Replacing the properties of the classic edition (Park Place, Baltic Avenue, Marvin Gardens), the game includes public parks and gardens, local businesses (that paid advertising fees), and train stations. And just as in regular Monopoly, a player landing on Haverford College (or Villanova University, or Bryn Mawr or Harcum College) has the option to purchase houses or hotels for that property, at 200 Monopoly dollars apiece.
Actually, this is not the first time the western suburbs around Haverford have appeared on a Monopoly board. As reported in the fall 2018 issue of the magazine (“Haverford and the History of Monopoly”), two students, Edward Taylor, Class of 1922, and his brother Lawrence Taylor, Class of 1924, created what was known as a “folk monopoly” board in 1921. (This was part of a long tradition that started with Monopoly’s precursor, The Landlord’s Game, created by Elizabeth Magie in the early 1900s.) The Taylor brothers’ game featured Haverford and Bryn Mawr avenues, and several now-defunct inns and a café as properties.
Now recognized as the only existing “folk” board with the word “MONOPOLY” printed on it, the handcrafted game’s existence was documented in a 1924 Haverford yearbook—a reference that later figured as evidence in a trademark infringement lawsuit involving Parker Brothers. For more than 90 years, the brothers’ game was thought to be lost. Then it turned up on eBay in 2014 and was snapped up by a collector, who keeps it in a bank vault.
