Philly: Walkable Suburbs (Philadelphia, Lancaster, Chester: houses, school district, living in)

[Michigan12345]

Hello! I am trying to find a walkable suburb with excellent schools within one hour of Philadelphia. Are any of the suburbs in that area situated around downtown "villages?" Thank you.

[thedirtypirate]

There are a number but my personal favorites are Doylestown or West Chester.

[1ondoner]

The question is not whether there are walkable suburbs with excellent schools within one hour of Philadelphia but where you can afford to live. Unless affordability is not an issue.

Please see the sticky on this forum to provide more information to guide you better.

[Michigan12345]

Price is not an issue. So, the criteria would be A+ schools, historic homes within walking distance to a downtown village, walkable schools from homes, close knit community, a park system and high parental involvement in education system. Please let me know if I should add additional information. Thank you!

[mphilly]

Media, Doylestown, West Chester, New Hope and Phoenixville are all walkable suburbs with good to great schools.

[Gerania]

Haddonfield, New Jersey.

[banjozac]

Seconding Haddonfield and adding Collingswood. They’re both a much quicker ride to center city Philly than a bulk of the other suggestions.

[MarketStEl]

Since price is no object, you can add three communities and one borough along the Main Line to your list:

Ardmore, Bryn Mawr, Wayne and Narberth Borough.

All but Wayne are in the Lower Merion School District, one of the region's most highly regarded. Wayne is in Radnor Township, one of two or three districts that rank above Lower Merion.

Not all of them have grade schools within walking distance of their centers or most houses in them, however, and if that's a must-have, you may be constrained as to where you can look in those communities.

Living in Narberth is like passing through a time warp and entering the 1950s. It has the strongest small-town feel of any of the Philly 'burbs I've visited (and I've been to just about all the walkable ones).

Two others that would make your list: Jenkintown and Ambler in the northern 'burbs. Jenkintown's Regional rail station is located about a third of a mile away from the center of the borough, but it is the busiest Regional Rail station outside Center City Philadelphia, with service at peak hours approaching rapid-transit frequencies on the four lines that pass through it. If you plan on working in Center City, it and neighboring Glenside (on three of those four lines) may be some of the most convenient places to live.

A note on the Main Line: Houses in Ardmore and Bryn Mawr are less expensive, and more densely built, south of Lancaster Avenue and the parallel railroad tracks than they are north of them. Narberth lies north of Lancaster Avenue but its homes are also closer together and less expensive than those in Penn Valley on the other side of Montgomery Avenue. (Narberth and Penn Valley share a grade school.)

[Michigan12345]

Thank you all for this information!

[Michigan12345]

When an area is called a borough, does that mean it has its own downtown? I’m very unfamiliar with Pennsylvania!