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Andorra is a neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia, which is a section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Andorra is a part of Roxborough, being within the borders of the original Roxborough Township and having the same zip code (19128). However, at some point during the 19th or 20th century, Andorra developed a cultural identity as a neighborhood within Roxborough. Finkel[1] says that the neighborhood (which occupies one of the higher elevations in Philadelphia, on bluffs overlooking the Schuylkill River) was named "Andorra" after a fancied resemblance to the small country of the same name which sits astride the Pyrenees between France and Spain.
Andorra borders Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Although within Philadelphia city limits, Andorra looks more like suburban Montgomery County than it does Philadelphia city neighborhoods. Andorra was developed much later than most of the city and has stereotypically suburban characteristics, such as a strip mall, many single-family or double-family dwellings set back from the street, and apartment buildings on large lots with ample off-street parking. The most well known apartment complexes are Summit Park and Henry on the Park.
On Cathedral Parkway in Andorra, a small portion of what was to have been a large, Gothic-style cathedral for the Episcopal diocese of Philadelphia may still be seen. A lack of funds during the 1930's, however, prevented the cathedral's completion. The only built portion of the cathedral—its apse or rounded back section—now serves as St. Mary's Episcopal church. The rest of the cathedral's property houses a non-sectarian retirement home, known as Cathedral Village, where many of Philadelphia's retired social, academic, and intellectual elite reside.
- ^ Finkel 1995, p. 156.
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