Overbrook Park is a neighborhood in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States. It was founded in the 1940s on the site of a former farm known as Supio's farm, offering new housing for returning GIs and their families. Overbrook Park is a largely middle-class African-American and historically Jewish-American neighborhood.
21-552: Overbrook Park is bounded by Overbrook to the east, Penn Wynne to the north, Upper Darby to the south and west, and Havertown to the west. The main artery is Haverford Avenue which goes into Penn Wynne across City Avenue where it becomes Haverford Road. Haverford Avenue and 75th Street connect it to Lansdowne Avenue on the Overbrook side, which continues south through Upper Darby where it becomes State Road. Haverford Avenue, 76th Street, and 77th Street connect it to City Avenue on
42-551: A culvert in Montgomery County close to the station and flows underground through the center of the neighborhood and beyond before emptying into the Schuylkill River . Indian Creek runs primarily above ground through Morris Park before emptying into Cobbs Creek . The land that would become Overbrook, along with the rest of Philadelphia, made up part of the vast Northeastern coastal forests inhabited by
63-408: A change which took place primarily in the 1990s. Overbrook, while overwhelmingly residential in character, does have several notable landmark buildings and institutions. Entertainer Will Smith , who attended Overbrook High School , named his production company, Overbrook Entertainment , after the neighborhood. Overbrook Farms, Philadelphia Too Many Requests If you report this error to
84-660: A grant by The Kohelet Foundation to assist with promoting Overbrook Park as an affordable neighborhood for young Jewish families. Starting with Rosh Hashana in September 2020, Chabad of Penn Wynne is now located in Overbrook Park in the same shopping center that is home to New York Bagels. It was previously located at the Kaiserman JCC across City Line Avenue but had to relocate due to the coronavirus pandemic. After 13 years with no synagogue, Overbrook Park again has
105-472: A number of twin (semi-detached) houses. These semi-detached homes have two or three floors and typically are over 2,000 square feet (190 m ) in size. Prime examples of typical Overbrook twin houses are along Wynnewood Road from Haverford Avenue to Malvern Avenue, North 64th Street between Lansdowne and Lebanon Avenues, or Nassau Road between North 61st and 63rd Streets. There are very few detached single-family homes in Overbrook. Single homes typically pre-date
126-452: A synagogue. Overbrook Park is the birthplace of actor Seth Green . Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/OverbrookParkCivicAssociation Overbrook, Philadelphia Overbrook is a historic neighborhood of Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . It is situated in the northwest of West Philadelphia . The area's housing ranges from large, old homes to rowhouses to three- and four-story apartment buildings. Overbrook lies in
147-549: A wire attached to the telephone and electric poles which allows religious Jews to carry things on Shabbat . The Orthodox Congregation Beth Hamedrosh was founded in the late 1950s as a branch of Beth Hamedrosh HaGadol in West Philadelphia. The congregation moved to Penn Wynne in May 2007, after having purchased the site in 2000. The Building that housed Beth Hamedrosh is now Temple Kefarym, a Black Hebrew congregation which
168-524: Is located at 75th Street and Woodbine Avenue. Overbrook Park used to have a large Jewish population. There was an Orthodox and a Conservative synagogue . Most of the Jewish people have moved across City Avenue ( U.S. 1 ) into neighboring Penn Wynne in Lower Merion Township . The Jewish community of both sides of the border are considered to be one unit and are connected by an eruv ,
189-523: Is now boarded up following a fire. The Conservative Congregation Beth T'fillah, originally called Overbrook Park Congregation founded in 1948, closed down in the fall of 2006 and merged with Temple Adath Israel in Merion , Lower Merion Township due to a lack of sufficient membership. The building that housed Beth T'fillah is now Overbrook Park Church of Christ. In 1990, Overbrook Park had some 7,200 residents, mostly of Jewish, Italian and Irish origins. During
210-542: Is the row house , present in a wide variety of styles. Built during the early twentieth century when trolley lines were allowing middle-class Philadelphians to move out from more crowded row house communities, Overbrook was a community of choice at that time. Outside of Overbrook Farms, most of the houses in the Overbrook area date from between 1915 and 1930, when the Great Depression halted new construction nationally and locally. In addition to rowhouses, there are
231-667: The Lenape people. European settlers moved inland from the Delaware River in the 17th century, including Welsh settlers who acquired land in the areas west of Philadelphia in the 1680s, establishing farms and mills. Several large farms owned by Welsh farmers in the Western Liberties would later become the neighborhood of Overbrook. The agricultural lands near Indian and Mill Creek in 1704 became part of Blockley Township and in 1795 were connected to Philadelphia via
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#1732790389156252-601: The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike , what is today Lancaster Avenue . The construction of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad , also known as the Main Line, further connected the area to the city. This line was later incorporated into the Pennsylvania Railroad and in 1860 Overbrook station was opened and named after Mill Creek, which the tracks ran over. The first residential development in
273-445: The Overbrook area was the construction of the planned suburb of Overbrook Farms from the 1890s through the 1920s. In 1892, the investment bank Drexel & Company, led by Anthony Joseph Drexel , began buying up agricultural land near Overbrook station. Working with the architects Herman Wendell and Walter Bassett Smith, they began the construction of what was billed as a "suburb deluxe" for middle to upper-class families hoping to leave
294-547: The Penn Wynne side. The neighborhood spans for approximately four city blocks west to east along City Avenue, and approximately ten smaller blocks north to south on either side of 76th Street. Overbrook Park has a public school named after Robert Eneas Lamberton , a former Republican mayor of Philadelphia. It was once a K–12 school and the only one of its kind in Philadelphia. Today it is a K-8 school. Lamberton School
315-603: The city limit at City Line Avenue to the north. Any definition places the neighborhood in close proximity to Overbrook High School , the Overbrook School for the Blind , the Overbrook SEPTA Station , and Overbrook Avenue. The neighborhood gets its name from Overbrook station, where the tracks run "over the brook" of Mill Creek , one of two creeks that run thorough the neighborhood. Mill Creek enters
336-681: The city. The neighborhood had its own water system, steam heat (from the Overbrook Steam Heat Company), and electricity (from the Overbrook Electric Company), and was well connected to the city with trains running every half hour. Overbrook Farms was designated a "historic district" in 2019 by the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Overbrook developed in various stages between 1900 and 1960. The dominant housing type
357-434: The construction of most of Overbrook's housing or came into existence on select lots after the construction of most of the rowhouses and twin houses. For example, one will see a few single-family homes on Wynnewood Road near Columbia Avenue. A large stone home remains this intersection. This home once sat on acres of land that the owner(s) sold off to developers who then constructed twin houses and rowhouses. The vast majority of
378-410: The mid-1990s, the neighborhood started to become majority African American. By 2000, the neighborhood's population had become nearly 60% African American. Today it is approximately 81% African American Despite the demographic change, there are still several kosher establishments in Overbrook Park. In 2017, Chabad of Penn Wynne and Congregation Beth Hamedrosh, formerly of Overbrook Park, were awarded
399-514: The northwest of West Philadelphia , surrounded by Wynnefield to the east, Carroll Park to the south, and Montgomery County to the north. The neighborhoods of Overbrook Farms , Morris Park and Overbrook Park are often considered to be part of Overbrook, but in many city documents they are considered separate from the neighborhood proper, which in a 2004 map from the Philadelphia City Planning Commission
420-607: The single-family, detached homes in the Overbrook area are in the Overbrook Farms neighborhood. Demographic information for ZIP Code 19151 covers Overbrook and Morris Park as well as parts of Carroll Park . This ZIP Code as a whole is sometimes referred to as Overbrook . Major trends identified in 2011 were an increase in the African American population and a drop in the White population from 1990 to 2010,
441-506: Was narrowly defined as bounded by North 63rd Street to the west, Lansdowne Avenue to the south, and SEPTA's regional rail tracks to the northeast. A map produced by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and The Philadelphia Inquirer places the boundaries of the neighborhood at the west branch of Indian Creek to the west, Lansdowne Avenue to the south, 54th Street to the east, and
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