Morrell Park | |
|---|---|
  Morrell Park | |
| Coordinates: 40°04′01″N74°59′20″W / 40.067°N 74.989°W | |
| Country |  United States |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| County | Philadelphia County |
| City | Philadelphia |
| Area code(s) | 215, 267 and 445 |
Morrell Park is a neighborhood located in the Northeast section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located on the eastern side of the Far Northeast, northwest of Byberry Creek and east of Northeast Philadelphia Airport.
Morrell Park is primarily a residential district, with only a handful of small industries, all of which are located within one and one-half miles of the Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The residences themselves consist mostly of rowhouses, but Morrell Park is distinctive in that most of its row homes have garages in front, facing and with access to the street, something quite different from the traditional Philadelphia rowhouse design. (An exception is one side of one block of Wessex Lane and Churchill Lane, where houses have garages in the back with access to a shared driveway. The duplexes along Frankford Avenue are also set up in this manner.) Later rowhouses followed this form of having garages in the front, but this was first seen in Morrell Park in the very late 1950s. Most homes have kitchens that face the front, living rooms that face the rear of the property, three or four bedrooms, and about 1,200 sq ft (110 m2) of living space. The street pattern of the development is also quite distinctive, as a view of an aerial photo will confirm, consisting of a few through streets that curve through many looping side streets with only one cul-de-sac, Pitt Place. The streets curve to conform to the natural topography of the area, for years avoiding development right along the stream valley of Byberry Creek, which flows through and about the development before its confluence with Poquessing Creek.
The land area of Morrell Park was originally the 300-acre (1.2 km2) summer home estate of Edward and Louise Morrell. Colonel Edward de Veaux Morrell (1863-1917), a lawyer, was a US congressman from 1900 to 1907. Born in Newport, Rhode Island, he was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1885. He was a colonel and afterward a brigadier general in the National Guard. He was a member of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry and owned extensive land in Torresdale. His wife Louise was the daughter of Francis Anthony Drexel and Francis's second wife Emma Bouvier, related [first cousin twice removed] to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Louise's uncle was Anthony J. Drexel, founder of Drexel University, and her two older half-sisters were Elizabeth Drexel and Saint Katharine Drexel. The Morrells built their summer home , one of the five homes they maintained, near what is now Morrell and Frankford Avenues, not too far from Francis Drexel's summer home , which was itself near what is now the emergency room of Aria Health's Torresdale Campus.
The Morrells entertained extensively, maintained a horse track, established the first telephone line north of Frankford, built the electric-light plant in the area, and conducted an amusement park called Torresdale Park, located by Poquessing Creek behind the trolley barn at Frankford Avenue and Knights Road. The park ran from 1880 to 1906. After Torresdale Park closed, it donated many of its rides to Willow Grove Park, once located at the site of the present-day Willow Grove Park Mall.
The Morrells had no children. Edward Morrell served on Philadelphia's board of education from 1912 to 1916, and died in Colorado Springs, CO (where he had gone for health reasons) in September 1917; he is interred in a family crypt at Eden Hall in Torresdale. Louise died twenty-six years after her husband, in 1943, and the area was planned for development by the Korman Corporation in the late 1950s.
Morrell Park was settled in earnest during the 1960s by families moving from other areas of Philadelphia. Children attended the Aloysius Fitzpatrick Elementary School at Knights Rd & Chalfont Dr until the John Hancock Elementary School opened at West Crown & Morrell Ave in the autumn of 1968. Children also attended Christ the King School on Chesterfield Road, which opened in 1965. The population of its postal ZIP code, 19114, which covers more territory than Morrell Park alone once did, was approximated at 31,000 inhabitants in 1990.
Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Northeast and the Great Northeast, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of between 300,000 and 450,000, depending on how the area is defined. Beginning in the 1980s, many of the Northeast's middle class children graduated from college and settled in suburbs, especially nearby Bucks County. The Northeast is known as being home to a large working class Irish American population, but it is also home to Polish, German, Jewish, Italian, African American, Portuguese, Brazilian, Russian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Ukrainian, Indian, Chinese, and Vietnamese neighborhoods.
Frankford is a neighborhood in the Northeast section of Philadelphia situated about six miles (10 km) northeast of Center City. Although its borders are vaguely defined, the neighborhood is bounded roughly by the original course of Frankford Creek on the south to Castor Avenue on the northwest and southwest, to Cheltenham Avenue on the north, and to Aramingo Avenue and I-95 on the east. [source: GoogleMaps] Adjacent neighborhoods are Bridesburg, Juniata, Northwood, Summerdale, and Wissinoming.
Mayfair is a working class neighborhood in lower Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, centered on the intersection of Cottman and Frankford Avenues. It is bordered by Tacony and Wissinoming to the south and east, Holmesburg to the east, Pennypack Park to the north, and Oxford Circle and Rhawnhurst to the west. Mayfair is historically home to a large Irish American population, but more recently has seen accelerated growth of Asian American population
Torresdale, also formerly known as Torrisdale, is a neighborhood in the Far Northeast section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Torresdale is located along the Delaware River between Holmesburg and Bensalem Township in neighboring Bucks County.
Poquessing Creek is a 10.3-mile-long (16.6 km) creek, a right tributary of the Delaware River, that forms the boundary between Philadelphia and Bensalem Township, which borders it to the northeast along the Delaware. It has defined this boundary between Bucks and Philadelphia counties since 1682.
Juniata is a working class, predominantly Hispanic and Caucasian neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, which is a section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Juniata is located south of the Juniata Golf Club in Tacony Creek Park. It is bordered to the east by Frankford, to the west by Feltonville, and to the south by Harrowgate and Port Richmond. The neighborhood is bordered by G Street to the west, Juniata Park to the north, Tacony Creek to the east, and by SEPTA rail tracks to the south. Juniata shares the ZIP code of 19124 with the nearby neighborhood of Frankford.
Francis Anthony Drexel was a Philadelphia banker and philanthropist. The eldest son of Philadelphia financier Francis Martin Drexel, after the death of his father, he became senior partner in the firm Drexel & Co.
Crestmont Farms is an affluent small residential neighborhood in the Northeast section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located along the Bucks County line, at Poquessing Creek, east of Knights Road. The housing consists of single homes.
Andalusia is a historic neighborhood and unincorporated community in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania, United States. It borders Philadelphia along the Poquessing Creek. It shares the Bensalem Township ZIP Code, 19020, with surrounding CDP's including Cornwells Heights. The area is the southernmost part of the township and of the county. Its boundaries are: Woodhaven Road to the northeast, the Delaware River to the east and south, and Poquessing Creek to the north and west. Interstate 95 - Delaware Expressway runs through its southeastern section near the Delaware River. The neighborhood takes its name from Andalusia, the estate of Philadelphia financier Nicholas Biddle (1786–1844), now preserved as a National Historic Landmark.
Liberty Bell Park was an American race track in Northeast Philadelphia that held harness racing and Thoroughbred horse racing from 1963 until 1986.
Lower Dublin Township, also known as Dublin Township, is a defunct township that was located in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States. The township ceased to exist and was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia following the passage of the Act of Consolidation, 1854.
The Frankford Avenue Bridge, also known as the Pennypack Creek Bridge, the Pennypack Bridge, the Holmesburg Bridge, and the King's Highway Bridge, erected in 1697 in the Holmesburg section of Northeast Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, is the oldest surviving roadway bridge in the United States. The three-span, 73-foot-long (22 m) twin stone arch bridge carries Frankford Avenue, just north of Solly Avenue, over Pennypack Creek in Pennypack Park.
Wissinoming is a neighborhood in the Near Northeast section of Philadelphia, United States. It was the site of locomotive builder Matthias Baldwin's estate "Wissinoming", which was located near Tacony and Van Kirk Streets. The current Wissinoming is bordered by Mayfair on the west and Tacony on the north, Bridesburg on the south, I-95 and the Delaware River on the east, and Frankford on the southwest. Wissinoming has two ZIP codes: 19124 and 19135. Physical boundaries are: Levick Street on the north, Bridge Street on the south, I-95 and the Delaware River on the east, and Frankford Avenue on the west.
Pennsylvania Route 63 (PA 63) is a 37.4-mile-long (60.2 km) state highway located in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area. The western terminus of the route is at PA 29 in Green Lane, Montgomery County. The eastern terminus is at Interstate 95 (I-95) in Bensalem Township, Bucks County. PA 63 runs northwest to southeast for most of its length. The route heads through a mix of suburban and rural areas of northern Montgomery County as a two-lane road, passing through Harleysville, before coming to an interchange with I-476 in Kulpsville. From this point, PA 63 continues through predominantly suburban areas of eastern Montgomery County as a two- to four-lane road, passing through Lansdale, Maple Glen, Willow Grove, and Huntingdon Valley. Upon entering Northeast Philadelphia, the route follows Red Lion Road and U.S. Route 1 (US 1) before heading southeast on a freeway called Woodhaven Road to I-95.
Edward de Veaux Morrell was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Parkwood is a neighborhood located in the Far Northeast section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The neighborhood's boundaries include the Byberry East Industrial Park to the north and northwest, Poquessing Creek to the east, Knights Road to the southeast and Woodhaven Road to the southwest. The neighborhood was developed by Hyman Korman in the 1960-1962 as a planned residential community. The predominant housing type is the brick row house. The Parkwood Shopping Center is a local shopping destination, while the Philadelphia Mills mall is a regional shopping destination on Knights Road to the east of Parkwood's residential area.
U.S. Route 1 (US 1) is a major north–south U.S. Route, extending from Key West, Florida, in the south to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border in the north. In the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, US 1 runs for 81 miles (130 km) from the Maryland state line near Nottingham northeast to the New Jersey state line at the Delaware River in Morrisville, through the southeastern portion of the state. The route runs southwest to northeast and serves as a major arterial road through the city of Philadelphia and for many of the suburbs in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. South of Philadelphia, the road mostly follows the alignment of the Baltimore Pike. Within Philadelphia, it mostly follows Roosevelt Boulevard. North of Philadelphia, US 1 parallels the route of the Lincoln Highway. Several portions of US 1 in Pennsylvania are freeways, including from near the Maryland state line to Kennett Square, the bypass of Media, the concurrency with Interstate 76 and the Roosevelt Expressway in Philadelphia, and between Bensalem Township and the New Jersey state line.
U.S. Route 13 (US 13) is a United States Numbered Highway running from Fayetteville, North Carolina, north to Morrisville, Pennsylvania. The route runs for 49.359 miles (79.436 km) through the Delaware Valley in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The route enters the state from Delaware in Marcus Hook, Delaware County. It continues northeast through Delaware County, passing through the city of Chester before heading through suburban areas along Chester Pike to Darby. US 13 enters the city of Philadelphia on Baltimore Avenue and runs through West Philadelphia to University City, where it turns north along several city streets before heading east across the Schuylkill River along Girard Avenue. The route turns north and heads to North Philadelphia, where it runs northeast along Hunting Park Avenue. US 13 becomes concurrent with US 1 on Roosevelt Boulevard, continuing into Northeast Philadelphia. US 13 splits southeast on a one-way pair of streets before heading northeast out of the city on Frankford Avenue. The route continues into Bucks County as Bristol Pike, heading northeast to Bristol, where it turns into a divided highway. US 13 becomes a freeway in Tullytown and continues north to its terminus at US 1 in Falls Township, near Morrisville. US 13 roughly parallels Interstate 95 (I-95) through its course in Pennsylvania.
SEPTA Route 66 is a trackless trolley route in Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It connects the Market–Frankford Line at the Frankford Transportation Center to Wissinoming, Mayfair, Holmesburg, and Torresdale along Frankford Avenue, which is US 13 and includes the historic, colonial Frankford Avenue Bridge.
