Lawncrest, Pennsylvania

Lawncrest is a neighborhood in the "Near" (lower) Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The name is an amalgram of Lawndale, Crescentville, the two primary communities that make up the neighborhood.

The community can trace its roots back to the 19th century as a small German community known to some as Marburg. Parts of Crescentville were known as "Grubbtown" during the Civil War. The main artery of the community, Rising Sun Avenue, was originally a toll road known as the Kensington & Oxford Turnpike. A sole remaining marker of this toll road once stood in front of the Engine 64 Firehouse at Rising Sun and Benner, near the bus stop. Its base remained for many years after it was destroyed in the 1960s by an auto accident. It too has disappeared after the concrete sidewalks were replaced with new ones.

The area of Lawncrest extends from Godfrey Avenue to Longshore Avenue and despite popular belief, it is not a mysterious 3rd community sandwiched between Lawndale & Crescentville. Adjacent neighborhoods include: Burholme to the north, Oxford Circle/Castor Gardens to the east, and Olney to the south. To the West is Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County. The Newtown Branch/New York Short Line of the Reading Railroad (now SEPTA/CSX) separates Lawncrest from Montgomery County. Tookany/Tacony Creek also skirts through a portion of the Community.

The community has excellent public transportation. Two SEPTA Fox Chase Line Regional Rail stations serve the community: Lawndale Station at Robbins and Newtown Aves and Cheltenham Station at Martins Mill Road and Hasbrook Ave. These two small community stations see an average daily ridership of over 1000 people, mostly from the Lawncrest Community. Oddly enough, due to the way the county lines are drawn, Lawndale Station actually is located within Cheltenham Township/Montgomery County, while Cheltenham Station is actually within Lawndale/Philadelphia County.

Crescentville Station, closed in the 1970s, was located at the bottom of Godfrey Ave, behind Bond Bread and was nothing more than a dirt/gravel platform. A second Crescentville Station, which served the Frankford Branch of the Reading RR, was located directly behind the Bond Bread building on the south side of the railroad right of way. It was closed when passenger service ended on that branch in the 1930s.

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