East Falls, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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Philadelphia Portal

East Falls at Ridge Avenue and Midvale Avenue

The East Falls section of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

East Falls is a neighborhood in the Northwest section of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. East Falls is located
adjacent to Roxborough, Manayunk, and Germantown. The neighborhood runs along a stretch of Ridge Avenue that is only a few miles long, along the banks of the Schuylkill River, and then extends northeast to Wissahickon Avenue. It is a neighborhood that is constantly under development and redevelopment, with new housing, retail space and recreation centers in production. It features three streets in proximity with the word "Queen" in them (Queen Lane, New Queen Street, and Indian Queen Lane), two train stations, a number of bars and restaurants, a small Korean grocer, illustrious mansions as well as some recently renovated affordable housing.

1 Early History
2 Demographics
3 Government
4 Education
5 Places of Worship
6 External links

Recently, East Falls has been undergoing a regeneration in the hopes of elevating it to the status of Manayunk and other shopping districts in the Philadelphia area. Many restaurants and coffee shops have been built, but most have had limited financial success. One substantial addition, The Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education Center, has recently been completed. It will offer instruction to Philadelphia youth in its new 9.2 acre, sixteen court facility and operate in cooperation with the City of Philadelphia, School District of Philadelphia, and others. It was built in partnership with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania along with private funding.

East Falls is best known as the childhood home of Grace Kelly, actress and Princess of Monaco. In addition, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, writer and divorce mediator Sam Margulies, Jewish studies scholar Chaim Potok, and Pennsylvania Governor and former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell have homes in East Falls. Ravenhill Academy, a Catholic girls school run by the Mothers of the Assumption from the Philippines, was attended by Grace Kelly and the former President of the Philippines Corazon Aquino. It was closed in 1977 and now is part of the Philadelphia University campus. It is a common misconception that Frank Sinatra exchanged nuptials with his second wife, Ava Gardner, in another campus building, a house on the corner of School House Lane and Henry Avenue.

East Falls is also known for its central location, an easy commute to Center City, and with easy access to several major roadways or public transportation.

[edit] Early History

Before the arrival of European settlers, the Lenni Lenape Indians considered the lower Schuylkill River their home. The Wissahickon Creek runs into the Schuylkill here and today is included as a part of Fairmount Park, providing walking and bike paths along its banks. Wissahickon is a merging of two Lenape words: "Wisaucksickan" meaning "yellow-colored creek", and "Wisamickan" meaning "catfish creek". In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries "catfish and waffles" was a favorite food at the many inns and taverns that ran through the valley, and a catfish still serves as the weathervane atop the Free Library of Philadelphia Falls of Schuylkill Branch. East Falls was named in the nineteenth century for the river rapids that were present before the completion of the Fairmount Dam. It had earlier been known as Falls of the Schuylkill or Falls Village.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, the racial makeup of East Falls is 72.06% White, 19.98% African American, 4.79% Asian, and 0.86% from other races. 2.58% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

In 2005, the median home sale price in the 19129 zip code, which contains East Falls, was $184,000. This was an increase of 8% over the median sale price for 2004.

[edit] Government

4th Council District (includes Roxborough, Manayunk, Andorra and part of West Philadelphia)

38th ward (becomes 21st Ward west at School House Lane)

U.S. Representative District 2 (most of Philadelphia west of Broad Street)

State Senator District 7 (similar to 4th Council District)

State Representative Districts 194, 197, and 198

[edit] Education

The William Penn Charter School, a private day school founded by William Penn in 1689 has called its forty four acre East Falls campus home since 1925.

Philadelphia University is a private university with a 100 acre campus in East Falls, predominantly along School House Lane and Henry Avenue. Founded in 1884, it was previously known as The Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science (1961-1999). Currently with 3,100 part and full-time students, the university offers more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Drexel University College of Medicine has had its main campus in East Falls since 2003. It is the consolidation of two medical schools, each with two hundred years of history, Hahnemann Medical College and Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, formerly located on the site of the present day Medical Campus of Philadelphia.

The Mifflin School, a K-8 grade school run by the School District of Philadelphia, is currently undergoing an $8 million dollar refurbishment project, and is also part of the Bright Futures project.

St. Bridget’s Catholic Elementary School, run by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has been in East Falls since 1853.

[edit] Places of Worship

Baptist: Falls of Schuylkill Baptist Church

Catholic: St. Bridget's Roman Catholic Church

Episcopal: Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd

Lutheran: Redeemer Lutheran Church

Methodist: Falls United Methodist Church

Presbyterian: East Falls First Presbyterian Church

[edit] External links

Neighborhoods of the Northwest Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
	Andorra - Chestnut Hill - East Falls - Germantown - Manayunk - Morton - Mount Airy - Roxborough - Upper Roxborough - Wissahickon - Wister
Philadelphia neighbohoods Center City - North Philadelphia - Northwest Philadelphia - The Northeast - South Philadelphia - Southwest Philadelphia - West Philadelphia