Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Totally Explained

Everything about Chestnut Hill Philadelphia Pennsylvania totally explained

Chestnut Hill is an affluent neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Geography

Boundaries

Chestnut Hill is bounded as follows:

on the northwest by Northwestern Avenue (a county line and city limit, beyond which lies a panhandle of Springfield Township, Montgomery County that juts into Whitemarsh Township);
on the west by the Wissahickon Gorge (part of Fairmount Park) (beyond which lie Upper Roxborough and Andorra);
on the northeast by Stenton Avenue (a county line and city limit, beyond which lie Erdenheim and Wyndmoor, Springfield Township); and
on the southeast by the Cresheim Valley (part of Fairmount Park) (beyond which lies Mount Airy).

ZIP code

The USPS doesn't officially correlate neighborhood names to Philadelphia ZIP codes (all are called simply "Philadelphia" or "Phila"). However, the 19118 ZIP code is almost entirely coterminous with the cultural-consensus boundaries of Chestnut Hill.

History

The village of Chestnut Hill was part of the German Township laid out by Francis Daniel Pastorius and came to include the settlements originally known as Sommerhausen and Crefeld, as well as part of Cresheim. It served as a gateway between Philadelphia and the nearby farmlands. During the U.S. Revolutionary War era (late 18th century), the area was one of many summer vacation spots due to its higher elevation (400-500 feet above sea level) and cooler temperatures than the historic Center City. (Chestnut Hill is still known as one of the more affluent sections of Philadelphia.)
   Chestnut Hill (along with many other towns and farmlands of Philadelphia County) became part of the City of Philadelphia in 1854 as part of the Act of Consolidation, when the County and the City became completely coterminous. In the same year, the Chestnut Hill Railroad opened, making an easy commute to and from Center City.
   During the American Civil War, Chestnut Hill was home to Mower U.S. Army General Hospital, constructed to serve Union army soldiers.
   From the mid-19th century through the mid-20th, the neighborhood served as the functional equivalent of both a "railroad suburb" and a "streetcar suburb" of Center City; although it was part of Philadelphia, and not a suburb, it was a leafy outlying part functioning much like a commuter town. (It still serves this function, although the streetcars are gone.) The neighborhood contains a wide variety of 19th- and early-20th-century residential buildings by many of the most prominent Philadelphia architects.

Architecture and housing stock

Housing in Chestnut Hill is very expensive for this region. In 2005, it had a median home sale price of $397,500—the highest of any Philadelphia neighborhood outside of Center City. This price was a decline of 2% from its 2004 median price.
Among the historic and notable properties located in this neighborhood are:

Esherick House, designed by Louis Kahn.

Vanna Venturi House, designed by Robert Venturi.

The former site of Boxly, the estate of Frederick Winslow Taylor, where Taylor often received the business-management pilgrims who came to meet the "Father of Scientific Management".

Public transportation

Public transportation in southeastern Pennsylvania, which includes Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, is provided by SEPTA, the region's mass transit authority.

Regional rail (a.k.a. commuter rail)

Two SEPTA regional rail lines serve Chestnut Hill: the R7 and R8.

Buses

Several SEPTA bus lines

serve Chestnut Hill: 23, 77, 94, 134, and L.

Trolleys (a.k.a. trams or streetcars)

Trams in the southeastern Pennsylvania region are usually known as trolleys. The trolley network of this region was very extensive prior to World War II, but has shrunken since that era. Chestnut Hill was formerly served by trolleys. Trolley service to Chestnut Hill began in 1894, and trolley tracks still run down the Belgian-block-paved main street of the neighborhood, Germantown Avenue. SEPTA "temporarily suspended" regular trolley service in 1992. Trolleys still ran on special occasions until late 2005 or early 2006, but since then some necessary street and sewer construction further south in Mount Airy have spelled the end for the rails, Belgian block pavement, and overhead wires. Despite the nostalgia value of trolley service, the current prospects for restoring it to Chestnut Hill are dim, because it would cost more to provide than its revenues would pay for. This is due to various factors:

today's high costs for properly maintaining and repairing the infrastructure

redundancy with bus routes

ridership projections that can't match those of the golden era of trolleys (hence insufficient fare revenue projections).

Education

Colleges and universities

Chestnut Hill College

Primary and secondary schools

Public education

Residents are zoned to schools in the School District of Philadelphia. Students in grades kindergarten through 8 are zoned to John Story Jenks School, while students in grades 9 through 12 are zoned to Germantown High School.

Private education

Chestnut Hill is home to many private schools, including Chestnut Hill Academy, Springside School, The Crefeld School, Norwood-Fontbonne Academy, and Our Mother of Consolation.

Parks and arboretums

Pastorius Park

Wissahickon Valley portion of the Fairmount Park system

Morris Arboretum

Other notable civic institutions

Woodmere Art Museum

Philadelphia Cricket Club

On the National Register of Historic Places

Anglecot (designed by Wilson Eyre)

Chestnut Hill Historic District

Druim Moir Historic District (includes romanesque revival mansion built in 1883)

Graver's Lane Station (designed by Frank Furness)

John Story Jenks School

Thomas Mill Bridge (across the Wissahickon Creek, the only traditional covered bridge in Philadelphia)

Wissahickon Creek

Wissahickon Inn (now Chestnut Hill Academy)

Notable residents (past and present)

R. Tucker Abbott, malacologist and author

Willie Anderson, golfer, winner of four U.S. Opens

James Bond (ornithologist) and namesake of the fictional secret agent

Melissa Fitzgerald, actress

William J. Green, III, former mayor of Philadelphia

Henry H. Houston, railroad businessman and developer

W. Thacher Longstreth, former City Councilman At-Large

David Morse, actor

Frank Rizzo, former mayor of Philadelphia

Witold Rybczynski, architect and urban policy scholar

Hugh Scott, U.S. Congressman and Senator

Denise Scott Brown, architect

Frederick Winslow Taylor, engineer, management theorist, and consultant

Robert Venturi, architect

Alexander Lawton Mackall, journalist, editor, and gastronomic expertFurther Information

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