EXPLORE ROXBOROUGH

Most of modern day Roxborough was once part of Roxborough Township, which was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia following the passage of the Act of Consolidation, 1854. At this time Roxborough was the home of the areas wealthiest; the owners of the Manayunk mills. These mills didn’t just produce anything from textiles to plastic containers, they also produced exuberant fortunes for the mill owners, much of which was funneled back into the community. This money went into building build schools, parks, and even a large Victorian manor built for the area’s elderly women, The Roxborough Home for Women.

The commercial spine of the neighborhood is Ridge Avenue, which, as its name suggests, runs along the ridge between the Wissahickon Creek and the Schuylkill River. Most businesses are located on Ridge Avenue and most residents are within walking distance to it. Several coffee shops, like “Crossroads” a cafe built in an old shoe store, and restaurants, like local favorites Bob’s Diner and Roma’s Bakery, have opened recently, along with boutiques and yoga studios.

Roxborough is well-connected to Center City Philadelphia with multiple bus routes and bike lanes reaching the river and downtown area of Philadelphia. SEPTA’s Manayunk/Norristown Regional Rail line stops in the Wissahickon section of Roxborough, continues through Manayunk, and stops again at the Ivy Ridge station in Roxborough.

Philadelphia University and St. Joseph’s University are nearby. Its tree-lined streets and front lawns make it a “greener” part of Philadelphia, similar to a suburb.

Henry Avenue runs parallel to Ridge Avenue from the border of East Falls and North Philadelphia, to Andorra where it merges into Ridge Avenue. It was built in the 1930s, But Henry Avenue Was extended in 1959 from Roxborough Ave to Andorra, includes several concrete arch bridges One Which crosses over the Wissahickon Creek & Lincoln Drive where it crosses into East Falls. This bridge includes a pair of box tunnels under the roadway. The bridge was designed to carry a planned extension of the Broad Street Subway into Roxborough, but the extension was never built. The Broad street Subway was never to expand into Roxborough, it was to expand into the Northeast Above Ground in the middle of the Roosevelt blvd.

Because of the Wissahickon Creek and the park which protects much of its watershed, Roxborough and Manayunk are physically separated from the rest of the city. Much of lower Roxborough, consisting of “row homes” and homes dating from the 1800s to 1900s, has a historic, urban character. Many of these row homes were not built in Roxborough until the 1900s. Though there are many homes from the 1800s in neighboring Manayunk.

Roxborough’s main park is Fairmount Park. This part of Fairmount Park is known as Valley Green which stretches from Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy to Center City Philadelphia. The park’s numerous trails are used by cyclists, runners, walkers, dog owners and mountain bikers. Another important park is Gorgas Park, located on Ridge Avenue. The park is one of the many landmarks in Roxborough to have the namesake of the financially generous, affluent Gorgas Family. The Park has gone through significant renovations over the past two decades. Renovations which have turned the once dilapidated, unkempt, and overgrown Gorgas Park into the manicured neighborhood center it is today. One filled with frequent bazaars, flea markets, and evening concerts. Wissahickon Creek Enters the Schuykill at the 5000 Block of Ridge Avenue.

Upper Roxborough, with its development occurring after 1950, has a suburban character: larger front lawns, garages, and shopping centers. Local news sources have been known to incorrectly refer to Roxborough as a suburb of Philadelphia.

There is no official list of neighborhoods for the city. The north-west section of Roxborough is often considered a separate neighborhood called Upper Roxborough. Similarly, some maps of Philadelphia simply label most of the northwestern part of the city below Fairmount Park as “Roxborough/Manayunk”.

Since the 1950s, most of Philadelphia’s major television and FM radio stations have located their transmission towers in Roxborough because of its hilly terrain and high elevation. Public television station “MiND”, once called “WYBE”, is also located in upper Roxborough, close to neighboring Andorra.

The area was likely named for Roxburghshire, Scotland, the original home of Andrew Robeson, one of the early settlers of what is now Roxborough. It may have also been named by the hermit Johannes Kelpius, leader of a millennial monastic-type group that lived along the Wissahickon, though he refers to as area as “Rocks-burrow” in a letter dated May 25, 1706.

The Upper Roxborough Historic District and William Levering School are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Courtesy of Wikipedia