West Oak Lane is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of Philadelphia. It is located between East Mount Airy, East Germantown, Cheltenham, Montgomery County, East Oak Lane, and Fern Rock. Ogontz Avenue runs generally north, then northwest as the spine of the neighborhood and the main business strip. The neighborhood was developed primarily between the early 1920s and late 1930s, with the areas near to Cedarbrook constructed after World War II. At the northeast corner of Limekiln Pike and Washington Lane was the site of the Cedar Park Inn, a historic tavern built in the early 19th century, which was torn down sometime after 1931 as the neighborhood was being fully developed.[2]
Although it was predominately caucasian from its inception until the mid-1960s, West Oak Lane is now one of Philadelphia's middle class African American communities. The area known as Ogontz is widely held to be a section of West Oak Lane. West Oak Lane is commonly referred to by teens with the acronym W.O.L. and Uptown.
Officer Charles Cassidy was shot by Jonathan Lewis at a Dunkin' Donuts in West Oak Lane while on duty on October 31, 2007. His death caused an outpouring of grief and one of the biggest manhunts in Philadelphia history.
The West Oak Lane Jazz Festival has been occurring since 2003 in mid-June. [1]
The neighborhood has distinct architecture that separates it from surrounding neighborhoods. Along with larger and sometimes detached houses, West Oak Lane also has many tree-lined streets and small yards. In 2005, the 19126 and 19138 zip codes, which contain West Oak Lane, had a median home sale price of $113,200. This was a 34% increase over the median price in 2004.