Ryers is a neighborhood in
Northeast Philadelphia
Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Northeast and the Great Northeast, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of between 300,000 and 450,000, depending ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States. It is bounded by Cottman Avenue (
PA 73) on the southwest and Fillmore Street on the northwest. Both of these highways separate Philadelphia from
Cheltenham and
Rockledge,
Montgomery County.
The
Fox Chase 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 entirel ...
separates Ryers from
Burholme and
Fox Chase borders it via Hartel St. on the northeast.
History
The name Ryers was derived from the Ryerss Estate, which is located in
Burholme Park along Central Avenue. The estate was owned by Joseph Waln Ryerss, who left it to his son Robert, a lawyer. Eight months before he died at the age of sixty-five, Robert Ryerss shocked Philadelphia society by marrying his housekeeper of many years, Mary Ann Reed. His will stipulated that upon Mary Ann’s death, the estate was to be turned over to the city of Philadelphia to be used as a park, library and museum "free to the public." Before she died, however, Mary Ann Ryerss remarried and then turned the property over to the city of Philadelphia in 1905. The Ryerss Museum and Library was opened to the public in 1910 under the administration of the
Fairmount Park Commission.
Who later left it to the
Free Library of Philadelphia
The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves Philadelphia. It is the 13th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the City of Philadelphia gover ...
.
References
{{Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Neighborhoods in Philadelphia
Northeast Philadelphia