Talk:Cedarbrook, Philadelphia

North Philadelphia versus Northwest Philadelphia

Question

Um.................do you live in philadelphia? You have it all wrong!!!!! Cedarbrook is not in north Philly...its in the West Oak LAne/Mt. Airy section! [unsigned, undated]

Answer

Cedarbrook is most often classified as being part of North Philadelphia, although it is also sometimes said to be in Northwest Philadelphia, owing to its rather northwestern location on Philadelphia's letter-y-like outline. Mount Airy is unequivocally considered a part of Northwest Philadelphia. West Oak Lane is generally considered a part of North Philadelphia, although the Northwest argument can be applied to it. — Lumbercutter 01:59, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Neighborhood definition difference

I have lived in 19150 area most of my life. When did it become known as the Cedarbrook area? It has always been referred to as Mt Airy by 19150 residents. There is a street named Cedarbrook in the area and the Cedarbrook Mall in nearby Montgomery County. Xena0420 8:38, 05 Sep 2010 Xena0420 (talk) 12:39, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

It comes down to "whose definitions?". The Finkel source says the vicinity of Wadsworth between Stenton and Cheltenham (first attested in 1970s). The Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC) in "The Political and Community Service Boundaries of Philadelphia", page 104 (pdf page 110), "Philadelphia Neighborhoods" defines Cedarbrook, Ivy Hill, and East Mt Airy as mutually exclusive zones (and no doubt a city agency needs to have clear definitions to do its work, even if it has to declare them) but resident usage probably doesn't. I bet the name originally came from somebody's 19th century estate in the area, just like "Fern Rock" did. But the problem is that not everyone would use the names the same way. Maybe many people in the area call it Mt Airy. Who's to say they're wrong, given that there are no "official" definitions of Phila neighborhoods? But some consensuses are stronger than others. For example, once you are north of the Cresheim creek, you have crossed from Mt Airy to Chestnut Hill. There is strong resident consensus on that. But what about the corner of Gowen and Mansfield? If you call that Mt Airy, would many residents say you're wrong? Probably not. PhilaRegion1062 (talk) 23:59, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

The City Planning Commission does refer to this neighborhood as "Cedarbrook" - the name comes from the golf course that occupied all of its territory prior to the end of World War II. (According to the website of the present-day Cedarbrook Country Club in Blue Bell, the parcel in question on the Philadelphia side of Cheltenham Avenue was known as the Stenton Country Club when it opened in 1909 on leased farmland. The club could not renew its lease 10 years later and purchased land across Cheltenham Avenue from the site, where the Cedarbrook Plaza shopping center and several apartment towers now sit. The golf club acquired its current Blue Bell location in 1961; the buildings now on its former Cheltenham site were built a few years after that.)

I cannot seem to find any record of how this land was used between 1919 and 1945 but had heard it remained a golf course. Whether or not that is the case, I do know from several forays into the neighborhood both on shopping trips and in the course of research for this Next City article I wrote on it that, save for a small Gothic Revival church that looks older than 1945, none of the homes or institutional buildings in the neighborhood predate that year: its local public grade school was built in 1948, the oldest church other than the Gothic Revival one I've seen was built in 1946, a former synagogue across from it dates to 1951, a nearby middle school opened in 1955 and its local Free Library branch dates to 1958. The rowhomes and duplexes also closely resemble in style similar houses built in parts of Near and Far Northeast Philadelphia in the immediate post-World War II years as well, and someone spoke with identified A.P. Orleans, also active in the Northeast, as the principal builder in this area.

The name Orleans gave his development, according to this person, was "The Estates at Mount Airy." Which would mean that the Jews and white Protestants who first moved into this neighborhood were told they were buying in Mt. Airy, and the African-Americans who succeded them bought their homes laboring under the same impression. If you read the article, you will learn that the residents of this neighborhood object mightily to its being referred to as "Cedarbrook," and a welcome sign on Wadsworth Avenue, its main commercial strip, just inside the city line at Cheltenham Avenue also reads "Welcome to Mount Airy." (The sign, along with a similar sign on Ogontz Avenue where it enters West Oak Lane welcoming people to that neighborhood, was erected by the local community development corporation and the elected officials representing this area.)

I think this article should be expanded to note this conflict over terminology, given the depth of feeling residents voice on the matter. Marketstel (talk) 23:30, 3 June 2018 (UTC)