Huntingdon Valley is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

, as well as a suburban mailing address located in Lower Moreland Township, Upper Moreland Township and Abington Township all in Montgomery County, and in small sections of Upper Southampton Township and Lower Southampton Township in

Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the Englis ...

, United States, bordering the Fox Chase section of

Philadelphia County Philadelphia County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the most populous county in Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, Philadelphia County had a population of 1,603,797. The county is the second smallest county in Pennsyl ...

History

The village of Huntingdon Valley is located along Huntingdon Pike (

Pennsylvania Route 232 Pennsylvania Route 232 (PA 232) is a state highway located in southeastern Pennsylvania. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 1 (US 1)/ US 13 at the Oxford Circle in Philadelphia. The northern terminus is ...

). The

Lady Washington Inn Lady Washington Inn is a historic inn and tavern building located at Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It was built in three sections in 1761, about 1788–1785, and about 1850–1875. It is a 2 1 ...

was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1982. The inn is believed to have held

first lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

Martha Washington Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 — May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural ...

while

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

was at

Valley Forge Valley Forge functioned as the third of eight winter encampments for the Continental Army's main body, commanded by General George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. In September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphia to escape the ...

. The region saw early settlements and mills along the

Pennypack Creek Pennypack Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 creek in southeastern Pennsylvania in the United States. It runs southeast through lower Bucks Count ...

. The

Fetter's Mill Village Historic District Fetter's Mill Village Historic District is a national historic district located in Bryn Athyn and Lower Moreland Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It encompasses five contributing buildings and three contributing structures. They ar ...

is located in the valley through which the

flows. The area surrounding the original village was very rural up until the latter half of the 20th century.

Living standards

Originally referred to as Goosetown, Huntingdon Valley boasts some of the highest standards of living in the

Greater Philadelphia The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation and 68th largest city in the world as of 2020. The toponym Delaware Vall ...

area with 90% of the Township being single-dwelling homes and having one of the highest per capita incomes in

Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Montgomery County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the third-most populous county in Pennsylvania and the 73rd-most populous county in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the county was 856,55 ...

. Huntingdon Valley (ZIP 19006), Pennsylvania, sales tax rate is 6.00%. Income tax is 4.07%. The income per capita is $45,125, which includes all adults and children. The median household income is $94,961.

Lorimer Park

Located within Huntingdon Valley is

Lorimer Park Lorimer Park is a public park in Abington Township, Pennsylvania. The park, a bequest from George Horace Lorimer (long-time editor-in-chief of ''The Saturday Evening Post''), is connected to Pennypack Park in Philadelphia County, and the Pennypa ...

, of woods and meadows connected to

Pennypack Park Pennypack Park is a municipal park, part of the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation system located in Northeast Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Established in 1905 by ordinance of the City of Philadelphia, it includes about of woodlan ...

of the Fox Chase section of

. The park borders

Fox Chase Farm Fox Chase Farm is one of two working farms in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences, W.B. Saul High School's Farm in Roxborough is the other). Formerly owned by the Wistar family, the farm is located on ...

, one of the two remaining active farms in

School districts

Students in Huntingdon Valley attend one of several school districts, including

Lower Moreland Township School District The Lower Moreland Township School District is a public school district in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The school district serves the Township of Lower Moreland, a Philadelphia suburb of about 11,000 people. There are three schools: Pine ...

, comprising Pine Road Elementary School, Murray Avenue School (formerly Lower Moreland Middle School), and Lower Moreland High School;

Upper Moreland School District Upper Moreland School District is located in Upper Moreland Township, Montgomery County in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Township has a general population of 25,000 residents who are served by the post offices of Wil ...

; and

Abington School District Abington School District is a medium-sized, suburban, public school district that serves the borough of Rockledge and Abington Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The district operates one high school, one middle school, and seven ele ...

, comprising seven elementary schools, Abington Junior High School, and Abington Senior High School. Also, residents who live in Bucks County attend Centennial School District. The movie

Can't Hardly Wait ''Can't Hardly Wait'' is a 1998 American teen romantic comedy film written and directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. It stars an ensemble cast including Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Seth Green, and Jenni ...

was written and directed by Lower Moreland Alumnus

Harry Elfont Harry Elfont (born April 5, 1968) is an American screenwriter and film director. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in nearby Lower Moreland Township, he met his creative partner Deborah Kaplan while they were both enrolled at the Ti ...

and is based on his experience at Lower Moreland High School.

Passenger trains

Huntingdon Valley had regularly scheduled passenger train service until January 14, 1983 via

SEPTA The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...

Fox Chase-Newtown Rapid Transit Line The Fox Chase Line SEPTA Regional Rail service connecting Center City Philadelphia with Fox Chase. It uses the Fox Chase Branch, which branches off from the SEPTA Main Line at Newtown Junction north of the Wayne Junction station. It runs entire ...

; service ended due to failing diesel train equipment resulting in low ridership. Although rail service was initially replaced with a Fox Chase-Newtown

shuttle bus A shuttle bus is a bus that travels a shorter route in comparison to most bus routes. Typically, shuttle buses travel in both directions between two points. Shuttle buses are designed to transport large groups of people who are all travellin ...

, patronage remained light. The traveling public never saw a bus service as a suitable replacement for a rail service, and the Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus service ended in 1999. With no rail or bus service, residents had to use either the Fox Chase train station or the Bethayres train station when traveling to

Center City Philadelphia Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the city borders to be coterminous wi ...

. In the ensuing years, there was interest in resuming the long-dormant passenger service. In September 2009, the Southampton-based Pennsylvania Transit Expansion Coalition (PA-TEC) began discussions with township officials along the railway, as well as SEPTA officials, about the realistic possibility of resuming even minimal passenger service to relieve traffic congestion in the region. All plans for resuming the train service were dropped in 2014 when Montgomery County officials decided to extend the

Pennypack Trail The Pennypack Trail is a rail trail located in eastern Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The trail runs from Rockledge, Pennsylvania, Rockledge north to the County Line Road border with Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Bucks County ...

over the derelict rail bed.

Valley Swim Club

In July 2009, a nationally publicized incident occurred at the Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley. A group of mostly

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

children from a day care center were removed from the club due to the children's race. On July 15, 2009, the day care center successfully filed a federal

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

lawsuit against the club. In September 2009, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission found

probable cause In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which police authorities have reason to obtain a warrant for the arrest of a suspected criminal or the issuing of a search warrant. There is no universally accepted definition o ...

that racism was involved. The swim club filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on November 15, 2009, and has since gone out of business. United States Chief Bankruptcy Judge Steven Raslavich has jurisdiction over the case and the assets of the club are being administered by United States Trustee Terry P. Dershaw. Financial documents were filed on December 1, 2009. The Valley Swim Club was sold at auction for $1.46 million on Thursday, 13 May 2010.

Forest Hills Cemetery

Forest Hills Cemetery in Huntingdon Valley is the resting place of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

figure

Jack Agnew Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

, loosely the inspiration of the

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

and

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

, ''

The Dirty Dozen ''The Dirty Dozen'' is a 1967 American war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin with an ensemble supporting cast including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy ...

''.

Notable people

* I. Michael Leitman – Surgeon and Dean for Graduate Medical Education at Mount Sinai Health. * Joseph Thurman Pearson Jr. (1876-1951), painter and PAFA instructor * John Pitcairn Jr. (1841-1916), founder of

Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company PPG Industries, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 company and global supplier of paints, coatings, and specialty materials. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 70 countries around the globe. By re ...

and builder of

Bryn Athyn Cathedral Bryn Athyn Cathedral is the episcopal seat of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, a denomination of Swedenborgianism. The main building is of the Early Gothic style, while the adjoining structures are of a transitional period reflective ...

Lawrence Saint Lawrence Bradford Saint (January 30, 1885 – June 22, 1961) was an American stained glass artist. His work is most notably featured in the Washington National Cathedral where he served as the head of the stained glass department. Early life L ...

(1885-1961), stained glass artist *

Alice Kent Stoddard Alice Kent Stoddard (1883–1976) was an American painter of portraits, landscapes, and seascapes. Many of her works, particularly portraits, are in public collections, including University of Pennsylvania's portrait collection, Woodmere Art Muse ...

(1883-1976), portrait and landscape painter *

Nancy Spungen Nancy Laura Spungen (; February 27, 1958 – October 12, 1978) was the American girlfriend of English musician Sid Vicious, and a figure of the 1970s punk rock scene. Raised Jewish in Philadelphia, Spungen was an emotionally disturbed child who ...

(1958-1978), girlfriend of musician

Sid Vicious John Simon Ritchie (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. Despite dying in 1979 at age 21, he remains an icon of the ...

who famously died under mysterious circumstances in the

Hotel Chelsea The Hotel Chelsea (also the Chelsea Hotel or the Chelsea) is a hotel in Manhattan, New York City, built between 1883 and 1885. The 250-unit hotel is located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the neighborhood of Ch ...

in 1978

Notes

External links

Lower Moreland Township

Lower Moreland Township School District
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania