What is Philadelphia's most beautiful neighborhood? (title, metropolitan area, market)

[AshbyQuin]

Originally Posted by PHL10

Oh wow, beautiful!!! That pavement striping is breathtaking! Don't get me started on the telephone poles!

I find it interesting that many are posting very suburban areas that are like a dime-a-dozen in the suburbs.

If you're gonna knock utility lines not being buried, keep the same energy for the entire city; that's an (unfortunate) Philly staple.

And we can all cherry-pick photos while we're at it:


https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9058...8192?entry=ttu

Isn't this beautiful? Philly is such a stroad haven; I don't understand why an urban nerd would want to live here when they can easily get the same for cheaper in SJ. *sarcasm*

[MarketStEl]

PhilliesPhan2013: A little while ago, I learned the story behind that invisible wall one crosses in the middle of the block between Meehan Street and Gorgas Lane in East Mt. Airy.

What is now East Mount Airy was originally two large farms. The northern one got sold and subdivided first, along the lines of West Mount Airy, with large twins and freestanding Colonials and Dutch Colonials.l

The southerly farm was sold and subdivided later — sometime in the 1920s — and it contains almost all of the working-class housing found in Mt. Airy. It looks more like parts of neighboring East Germantown and the Lower Northeast with its blocks of two-story enlarged workingman's rowhouses.

That invisible barrier is the property line separating the two farms. The abrupt transition is most noticeable on Chew Avenue.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by PHILLYUPTOWN

My guess is it has to do with proximity. Those neighborhoods you mentioned are not adjacent to Center City but happen to border some of the more violent neighborhoods in Philly. So middle class residents maybe felt they were targets due to proximity and left leaving all those mansions to be subdivided and the ghetto extended. Upscale neighborhoods like Overbrook Farms and Mt Airy didn’t face that kind of pressure while at the same time having being close to some of the best neighborhoods in the region (Main Line/Chestnut Hill) to ensure they didn’t go down the same route. University City has a similar housing stock and was close to failing but was propped up by Penn Parkside/Mansion had no such anchor so was vulnerable.


Interesting thing about those two neighborhoods is that they were Jewish neighborhoods. Originally built for the professional class; those neighborhoods were essentially suburbia. When the Main Line and other upscale areas were built up (satisfying that classes want of land and distance from working class); these upscale neighborhoods were left to Jewish population; many of whom had the income to sustain those houses but of course were shut out of suburbia. Post War when they were finally accepted, they left for places like Lower Merion and Cheltenham. Since there was no one left of means to support those large (and expensive) houses they were subdivided into apartments; which changed the character of those areas.

Some of my family lived in Parkside, and I imagine we had some Strawberry Mansionites among our cousins as well.

Certainly, some Jewish residents of those neighborhoods decamped for what were, at the time, the only two distinctively Jewish suburbs (although hardly the only suburbs where Jews settled in appreciable numbers in the post-War years). But many also moved to Overbrook and Wynnefield, Mount Airy (especially the section I dare not call Cedarbrook), Logan and the Oak Lanes, and especially the Northeast, both near and far, from Oxford Circle to Bustleton. White flight in the aforementioned non-Northeast neighborhoods happened a bit later, between the ‘70s and the ‘90s, depending on the area. Overbrook Park didn’t experience white flight until the mid-to-late ‘90s, but when it took hold, it did so quite swiftly.

[PHILLYUPTOWN]

Originally Posted by ElijahAstin

Some of my family lived in Parkside, and I imagine we had some Strawberry Mansionites among our cousins as well.

Certainly, some Jewish residents of those neighborhoods decamped for what were, at the time, the only two distinctively Jewish suburbs (although hardly the only suburbs where Jews settled in appreciable numbers in the post-War years). But many also moved to Overbrook and Wynnefield, Mount Airy (especially the section I dare not call Cedarbrook), Logan and the Oak Lanes, and especially the Northeast, both near and far, from Oxford Circle to Bustleton. White flight in the aforementioned non-Northeast neighborhoods happened a bit later, between the ‘70s and the ‘90s, depending on the area. Overbrook Park didn’t experience white flight until the mid-to-late ‘90s, but when it took hold, it did so quite swiftly.

Yeah I guess you can say that WOL and Wynnefield/Overbrook were between North/West and the suburbs though they were in those areas relatively breifly; maybe a generation.

I would look through my old Alma matter yearbooks and Cheltenham was already 2/3 Jewish by the mid 60s; when Netenyahu went there. So I came to the conclusion that the Jewish population was like all other populations; stratified by a class divide post War. Between 60s and 90s the wealthier class lived in the inner ring suburb (which you can include Abington (bob saget, Steven schwarzman) as well as Cherry Hill. While the more working class was still in places like Oxford Circle and Overbrook Farms (Seth Green) up to the 90s. Before the second war the Jewish population was like the black one in which rich and poor were clustered in the same areas….Parkside and Mansion both have working class 2 story rows as well as large 3 story mansions….same with South Philly. Jewish spatial history is one of the topics I find fascinating; you can still see evidence of Jewish life in these neighborhoods if you know where to look and what to look for. For example, Jewish shop owners would build shopping districts out of the front of their houses and you can still see some of the evidence on S 7th Street, Marshall Street, 40th Street and York Street in Mansion.

(Sorry for getting off topic)

[BOORGONG]

@PHILLYUPTOWN/ Sorry for getting off topic.


Nah, bring it on!

[james777]

The Reserve at Packer Park and Packer Park areas of South Philadelphia, bordering FDR Park, and bordering the practice field used by the Phillies. The black iron fence that you see along that one stretch looks like something you would see in a Paris park.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9069...8192?entry=ttu

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9079...8192?entry=ttu

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by PHILLYUPTOWN

While the more working class was still in places like Oxford Circle and Overbrook Farms (Seth Green) up to the 90s.

I'm not remotely a West Philadelphia expert but lumping Oxford Circle (airlite rowhomes from the 1950s) with Overbrook Farm (which looks more like Chestnut Hill) seems like a strange pairing. Was OF in the 1990s really working class?

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by PHL10

I'm not remotely a West Philadelphia expert but lumping Oxford Circle (airlite rowhomes from the 1950s) with Overbrook Farm (which looks more like Chestnut Hill) seems like a strange pairing. Was OF in the 1990s really working class?

Maybe PHILLYUPTOWN meant Overbrook Park, the neighborhood to Overbrook Farms' west. It too consists of 1950s Airlites of the kind you find in many Northeast neighborhoods or the part of East Mount Airy whose residents hate it when you refer to it as Cedarbrook.

[Jellybean50]

For #1 i'd choose Rittenhouse Square.

Then Fairmount, Society Hill, Chestnut Hill, Queen Village. Lots of beautiful areas though.

[kyle19125]

When I lived in what was a virtually treeless Port Richmond neighborhood (the native locals found trees "dirty" and prefer concrete backyards I was told) I would often head south to the pocket parks in Society Hill which felt like a trip to a whole other city and vibe. My favorite was a semi-private little brick-walled oasis on the 400 block of Locust called The Magnolia Garden. A rarely visited oasis with an oval walkway, grassy center and bubbling fountain surrounded by stately magnolia trees. I recommend a visit!

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Th...wk9p?entry=ttu