Crescentville, Philadelphia
Crescentville | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 40°02′42″N 75°06′04″W / 40.045°N 75.101°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Pennsylvania |
County | Philadelphia |
City | Philadelphia |
Area code(s) | 215, 256 and 445 |
Crescentville is a neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, United States. It is located in the vicinity of Adams, Rising Sun, and Tabor Avenues.[1] The name Crescentville is thought to be derived from the Crescentville Rope Factory that once stood along the Tookany Creek watershed.
Crescentville is bounded by Tookany Creek to the south and west of Adams Avenue, up to the intersection of Comly and Rising Sun Avenues and to Whitaker Avenue to the east. Originally, the center of the "town" was located on the West side of Tookany/Tacony Creek, where Asylum Road (Adams Ave) crosses the creek. The ZIP Code is 19120 (Olney Postal Station). Its history dates back before the Civil War as an affluent area once home to many mansions and estates, as well as a few farms. Most notably, during the Civil War, the area was referred to as "Grubbtown".[1] Some of the lower portions of Crescentville are sub-categorized and considered the Whitaker Mills area in reference to the Whitaker Mills that stood along Tacony/Tookany Creek at Tabor Road.
Geography
Rising Sun Avenue
The main artery is Rising Sun Avenue, which was originally a toll road known as the Kensington & Oxford Turnpike. Rising Sun Avenue is home to many stores, shops and homes. Some former stores of note were the former Crest Diner, later Luv-Inn Diner (now K-Diner), the Dairy Queen (now a laundromat)[2] Pippo's Italian Restaurant and the CREST Theater.[3]
East of Rising Sun
The area east of Rising Sun, over to Tabor Road, is mostly
It was said that this area had boardwalks and picnic areas for the affluent residents, and even a small one-lane airport was to have been located nearer to present day Comly Street. Ben Franklin Public Elementary School was built at Rising Sun and
Row houses
The area was largely undeveloped until the 1920s, when northward expansion of the city limits took hold and "modern" row housing was built over former farmland. Various developers built blocks and blocks of row homes with little thought or attention to open space. This effect would later have consequences. The average price of a new row home back then was under $5,000 — an equivalent to around $76,000 in 2018 dollars.
West side of Rising Sun Avenue
The west side of Rising Sun Avenue is home to more single and twin homes, though a few blocks of classy stone rows are found. Within one of those blocks of Stone Rows was the home of cartoonist
Lower end
The lower end of Crescentville was home to many industries up until the late 1970s and early 1980s which employed many of the local residents. Included in this mix were Bond Bread, the Electric Battery Storage Company (later ESB, Inc.) makers of Exide battery products,[4] 3M, Goodman Mills and several smaller mills. In 1978, the ESB, Inc. factory was mostly demolished (a few of the original buildings are still standing) to make way for Rising Sun Plaza, a shopping center home to over two dozen stores.[5][4] When it opened, Clover and Acme Markets were the bookend stores that were the primary draw, but after the closing of Clover and later the Acme Market, the draw has turned to more of the discount stores. There are still a few stores located within that are original stores from when the Plaza opened.
Churches
Crescentville is also home to many small
Crescentville has two
Just north of Comly Street is the location of the former Wentz Farm reservoir. This reservoir was used by the
Economy
Today, the two largest employers in the area are the NAVY Depot and Cardone Industries. Cardone
The median home price ranges from $80–90,000 for an East Side Row (there are few if any singles or twins on the East Side), and $125,000 and up for a West Side Stone Front Row, up to $275,000 for a West Side Single.[citation needed]
National Register of Historic Places
The Thomas Creighton School and Benjamin Franklin School are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[13]
References
- ^ a b "Philadelphia Neighborhoods and Place Names, A-K". Philadelphia Information Locator Service. City of Philadelphia. May 20, 1998. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
- ^ Waring, Tom (August 31, 2018). "Lawncrest civic group debates auto shop lot". Northeast Times Newsweekly. Newspaper Media Group. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
...K Diner, Millie's Luv Inn and the Crest Diner.
- ^ "Crest Theatre in Philadelphia, PA". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved 2012-11-12.
- ^ a b "The History of Lead-Acid Battery Production in Crescentville, Philadelphia, PA". Medium. March 31, 2020. Archived from the original on April 19, 2020. Retrieved April 2, 2020. Alt URL
- ^ McDowell, George D. (December 17, 1978). "Demolition of former Exide battery plant". Temple Digital Collections. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
- ^ a b Susan Creevey (2012-07-13). "Crescentville United Methodist Church". Crescentvilleumc.com. Retrieved 2012-11-12.
- ^ a b "Welcome to Crescentville Baptist Church Online!". Cbaptist.com. Retrieved 2012-11-12.
- ^ "St. Ambrose Parish School to Close in June 2006". Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Archived from the original on October 8, 2011. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
- ^ [1] Archived November 6, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "History of Cardone". Archived from the original on December 27, 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
- ^ "Corporate address/phones". cardone.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
- ^ EPA charges Cardone $23K for nitrate compounds in 2009
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.