Roxborough is a
neighborhood
A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...
in
Northwest Philadelphia
Northwest Philadelphia is a section of the city of Philadelphia. The official boundary is Stenton Avenue to the north, the Schuylkill River to the southwest, Northwestern Avenue to the northwest, Roosevelt Boulevard to the south, and Wister Str ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, United States. It is bordered to the southwest, along the
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...
, by the neighborhood of
Manayunk, along the northeast by the
Wissahickon Creek
Wissahickon Creek is a tributary of the Schuylkill River in Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, Pennsylvania.
Wissahickon Creek rises in Montgomery County, runs approximately passing through and dividing Northwest Philadelphia before emp ...
section of
Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, w ...
, and to the southeast by the neighborhood of
East Falls
East Falls (also The Falls, formerly the Falls of Schuylkill) is a neighborhood in Lower Northwest, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies on the east bank of the "Falls of the Schuylkill," cataracts submerged in 1822 by the Schu ...
. Beyond Roxborough to the northwest is
Montgomery County. Roxborough's ZIP Code is 19128. Most of Roxborough is in Philadelphia's 21st Ward.
History
The
Native American trail called the Manatawny, now Ridge Avenue, was central to the well-organized development of farms and plantations within the area then known as Manatawna. The Court of Upland in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
appointed local
Swedish settler Peter Rambo to be the maintainer of the Manatawny road. In 1690, the road was renamed Ridge Road (it follows the crest of the ridge between the
Wissahickon valley and the
Schuylkill valley), and the area was renamed Roxburgh, likely named for Roxburghshire, Scotland, the ancestral home of Andrew Robeson, one of the earliest settlers of the area. By 1707, the name had been changed to Roxborough. Roxborough is first mentioned as a township in QS Road Docket II: 31 in 1706. In 1840,
Manayunk was erected as a borough within the township, and on March 31, 1847, Manayunk was declared separate from the township.
Most of modern-day Roxborough was once part of Roxborough Township, which was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia following the passage of the
Act of Consolidation, 1854
The Act of Consolidation, more formally known as the act of February 2, 1854 (P.L. 21, No. 16), is legislation of the Pennsylvania General Assembly that created the consolidated City and County of Philadelphia, expanding the city's territory t ...
. At this time, Roxborough was the home of the area's wealthiest, the owners of the
Manayunk mills. These textile mills produced revenue that was spent building schools, parks, and a large Victorian manor built for the area's elderly women, The Roxborough Home for Women.
Since the 1950s, most of Philadelphia's major television and FM radio stations have located their transmission towers in Roxborough because of its hilly terrain and high elevation. The tallest of these towers, the American Tower, stands approximately 1,250 feet (381m) tall. Public television station
"MiND", once called "WYBE", was also formerly located in Upper Roxborough, close to neighboring
Andorra
Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...
.
The
Upper Roxborough Historic District
Upper Roxborough Historic District is a national Historic district (United States), historic district located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery ...
and
William Levering School are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.
Geography
Roxborough is well-connected to
Center City Philadelphia
Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the ci ...
with multiple bus routes and bike lanes reaching the river and downtown area of Philadelphia. SEPTA's
Manayunk/Norristown Regional Rail line stops in the
Wissahickon section of Roxborough, continues through Manayunk, and stops again at the
Ivy Ridge station in Roxborough.
Philadelphia University
Thomas Jefferson University is a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. The university is ...
and
St. Joseph's University are nearby.
Henry Avenue runs parallel to Ridge Avenue from the border of
East Falls
East Falls (also The Falls, formerly the Falls of Schuylkill) is a neighborhood in Lower Northwest, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies on the east bank of the "Falls of the Schuylkill," cataracts submerged in 1822 by the Schu ...
and
North Philadelphia
North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as ...
to Andorra, where it merges into Ridge Avenue. Constructed in the 1930s, it was extended in 1959 from Roxborough Avenue to Andorra, and includes several concrete arch bridges. One of these bridges, the
Wissahickon Memorial Bridge, which crosses over the Wissahickon Creek and Lincoln Drive, includes a pair of box tunnels under the roadway designed to carry a
never built extension of the
Broad Street Subway into Roxborough.
Because of the
Wissahickon Creek
Wissahickon Creek is a tributary of the Schuylkill River in Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, Pennsylvania.
Wissahickon Creek rises in Montgomery County, runs approximately passing through and dividing Northwest Philadelphia before emp ...
and the park that protects much of its
watershed, Roxborough and Manayunk are physically separated from the rest of the city. Much of lower Roxborough, consisting of "row homes" and homes dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries, has a historic, urban character.
Roxborough abuts the
Wissahickon Valley Park
Wissahickon Valley Park is a large urban park that is located in Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It protects of woodland surrounding the Wissahickon Creek between the Montgomery County border and the Schuylkill River. For ...
portion of the
Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, w ...
system. The park's numerous trails are used by cyclists, runners, walkers, dog owners, and mountain bikers.
The northwest section of Roxborough is often considered a separate neighborhood called Upper Roxborough. Much of the development in this area occurred after 1950, and has a suburban character: larger front lawns, garages, and shopping centers.
Etymology
Andrew Robeson and Roxburgh, Scotland
The area of Roxborough was likely named for
Roxburghshire
Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh () is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the northwest, and Berwickshire to the north. T ...
,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, the original home of Andrew Robeson, one of the first settlers of the area.
In 1676, Andrew Robeson, his wife Elizabeth, and his nephew Andrew Jr. came to America from Scotland, where Andrew Sr. became Surveyor General for 300,000 acres of land in southern New Jersey, where he presided as Judge in
Gloucester County. In 1690, Andrew Sr. moved to Philadelphia and purchased an estate located in the area that is known today as Roxborough, roughly where the on and off ramps for City Line Avenue and Lincoln Drive are.
Andrew Jr. became Chief of Justice in Pennsylvania from 1693 until 1699. He was responsible for making Roxborough a township in 1690.
The Robeson family is known to have originally come from
Kelso,
Roxburghshire
Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh () is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the northwest, and Berwickshire to the north. T ...
, Scotland. Roxburgh (pronounced Rocs-burr-ah) was a small region in the southeast of Scotland until it was changed to the region of "The Borders" in 1975; the town of Kelso still remains as a historic Scottish village.
Rocksburrow
In 1706, a German philosopher named
Johannes Kelpius, who lived in the woods not far from the Robesons, wrote about "foxes burrowing in rocks" in the area. A correlation between the phonetic spelling "Rocksburrow" that many resident Germans applied to the Township, and Kelpius's "where foxes burrow" letter of 1706, convinced many that the township's origins related to foxes.
Kelpius popularized his spelling of the township, but not long afterward the spelling was changed to its current form.
The Township could have retained the names "Manatawna" or "Leverington", as they were popular names the area was referred to as in the 1690s and early 1700s, but thanks to the popular writings of Johannes Kelpius, the name remained as Roxborough. Other spellings have also been noted in early writings as Roxbury and Roxboro.
Education
Primary and secondary schools
The
School District of Philadelphia
The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) is the school district that includes all school district-operated State schools, public schools in Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is the largest school district in Pennsylvania and the eighth-lar ...
operates public schools. Its zoned schools include
Shawmont Elementary,
Cook Wissahickon, and
Roxborough High School.
The
Walter Biddle Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences and
Lankenau Environmental Magnet High School are in upper Roxborough.
William Levering School, founded in 1748, closed its doors in June 2012. The
Academy for the Middle Years (AMY) Northwest Middle School, a special admissions middle school (6–8), now occupies the building. AMY used to be located in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, in a rented church building.
The area has been one of the main feeder regions for
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
and
J.W. Hallahan High Schools.
Public libraries
The
Free Library of Philadelphia
The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the 16th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the ...
operates the Roxborough Branch at 6245 Ridge Avenue at Hermitage Street. The "Roxborough - Manayunk - Wissahickon - East Falls - Andorra Historical Society" also has an archive room in the Roxborough Branch. It is maintained by one of the Historical Societies' top members and one of the area's community leaders, Sylvia Myers.
Parks and recreation
*
Wissahickon Valley Park
Wissahickon Valley Park is a large urban park that is located in Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It protects of woodland surrounding the Wissahickon Creek between the Montgomery County border and the Schuylkill River. For ...
* Courtesy Stable, located in Wissahickon Valley Park
* Gorgas Park
* Kendrick Recreation Center
* Roxborough Pocket Park
*
* Walnut Lane Golf Course
* Upper Roxborough Reservoir Preserve
* Al Pearlman Sports Complex
* Kelly Park
* Roxborough
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
*Houston Playground (Philadelphia Parks & Recreation)
Transportation

One of the main and oldest thoroughfares through Roxborough is
Ridge Avenue. Previously a Native American trail called the Manatawny, by the 18th century the trail was known as "Ridge Road," and by the 1730s, Ridge Road was popularized as “The Great Road from Philadelphia to Reading.”
Passenger stagecoaches frequently traveled on the road, and many inns were built along it.
Ridge Road even played a part during the American Revolution as various sections of the road were travelled by soldiers in 1777 during the lead-up to the Battle of Germantown.
The other main thoroughfare through Roxborough is Henry Avenue, which was laid out in the late 1950s as a four-lane road running the length of the neighborhood and parallel to Ridge Avenue.
One SEPTA Regional Rail line connects the neighborhood to Center City: the
Manayunk/Norristown Line stops at the
Ivy Ridge station,
Manayunk station, and
Wissahickon station. SEPTA closed the historic
Shawmont station in 1996.
The neighborhood is also served by SEPTA bus routes 1, 9, 27, 32, 35, and 65.
Points of interest
*
Dalessandro's Steaks, a notable
cheesesteak
A cheesesteak (also known as a Philadelphia cheesesteak, Philly cheesesteak, cheesesteak sandwich, cheese steak, or steak and cheese) is a sandwich made from thinly sliced pieces of beefsteak and melted cheese in a long hoagie roll. A popula ...
eatery
*
Church of St. Alban, Roxborough Episcopal church
*
Leverington Cemetery, established in 1745
*Valley Green Inn, the last remaining roadhouse in Philadelphia
References
Further reading
* Binzen, Peter.
Whitetown, U.S.A.'. New York, NY: Random House, 1970.
*Del Collo, Deborah.
Roxborough'. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub, 2011.
*Jones, Horatio Gates.
The Levering Family: or, a genealogical account of Wigard Levering and Gerhard Levering, two of the pioneer settlers of Roxborough Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, and their descendants; and an appendix containing brief sketches of Roxborough and Manayunk'. Philadelphia, PA: King & Baird, 1858
Ebook versionfreely available].
*Manton, John Charles.
Bygones: A Guide to Historic Roxborough-Manayunk'. Philadelphia: J. C. Manton, Historical Research, 1990.
*Miles, Joseph S., and William H. Cooper.
A Historical Sketch of Roxborough, Manayunk, Wissahickon'. Philadelphia, PA: G. Fein & Co., 1940.
*Minardi, Joseph.
Historic Architecture in Philadelphia: East Falls, Manayunk, and Roxborough'. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2013.
()
*
ttp://www.ushistory.org/philadelphia/incorporated.html Incorporated District, Boroughs, and Townships in the County of Philadelphia, 1854 By Rudolph J. Walther- excerpted from the book at the ushistory.org website
History of Roxboroughfrom the Roxborough-Manayunk-Wissahickon Historical Society
External links
RoxboroughPA WebsiteRoxborough Development Corp*
{{Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Neighborhoods in Philadelphia