Rydal is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Abington Township is a Township (Pennsylvania), township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is adjacent to Philadelphia's northern fringe. The population was 58,502 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it ...

, United States. Rydal is predominantly residential, except for one large shopping area. The Abington campus of

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

is located in Rydal. The Rydal train station was a stop on the

Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and freight transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states from 1924 until its acquisition by Conrail in 1976. Commonly called the Reading Railr ...

line, beginning in the late 19th century, and now is part of the

SEPTA Regional Rail The SEPTA Regional Rail system is a commuter rail network owned by SEPTA and serving the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The system has 13 branches and more than 150 active stations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, its suburbs and satellite town ...

system on the

West Trenton Line The West Trenton Line is a SEPTA Regional Rail service connecting Center City Philadelphia to the West Trenton section of Ewing Township, New Jersey. Route The West Trenton Line connects Center City Philadelphia with the West Trenton ...

. Old York Road Historical Society (OYRHS) maintains an archive of the history of the area. It reported that the Rydal Train Station was originally called "Benezet." However, the station and the area were renamed after Rydal and Keswick in the United Kingdom.

Notable people

Bradley Cooper Bradley Charles Cooper (born January 5, 1975) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and three Grammy Awards. In addition, he has been nominated for twelve Acade ...

– Actor and

Germantown Academy Germantown Academy, informally known as GA and originally known as the Union School, is the oldest nonsectarian day school in the United States. The school was founded on December 6, 1759, by a group of prominent Germantown citizens in the ...

alumnus; grew up in Rydal *

George Hesselbacher George Edward Hesselbacher (January 18, 1895 – February 18, 1980) was a Major League Baseball pitcher who pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics. He was born on January 18, 1895, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was 6'2" tall and weighed 175 ...

– Former Major League baseball player; died in Rydal *

Philip Edgcumbe Hughes Philip Edgcumbe Hughes (1915–1990) was an Anglican clergyman and New Testament scholar whose life spanned four continents: Australia, where he was born; South Africa, where he spent his formative years; England, where he was ordained; and the ...

– Anglican theologian; lived in Rydal in his later years *

Larry Kane Larry Kane (born October 21, 1942) is an American journalist, news anchor and author known for his over 6 decade career. Kane spent 36 years as a news anchor in Philadelphia, and is the only person to have anchored at all three Philadelphia own ...

– Noted journalist and television anchor; lives in Rydal *

Katalin Karikó Katalin "Kati" Karikó (, ; born 17 January 1955) is a Hungarian-American biochemist who specializes in ribonucleic acid (RNA)-mediated mechanisms, particularly in vitro-Transcription (biology), transcribed messenger RNA (mRNA) for protein repla ...

– Hungarian, Nobel Laureate biochemist and

BioNTech BioNTech SE ( ; or short for Biopharmaceutical New Technologies) is a German multinational biotechnology company headquartered in Mainz that develops immunotherapies and vaccines, particularly for cancer and infectious diseases. The compan ...

senior vice president; lives in Rydal *

Allyson Schwartz Allyson Schwartz (née Young; born October 3, 1948) is an American Democratic Party politician who represented parts of Montgomery County and Northeast Philadelphia in the United States House of Representatives from 2005 to 2015 and Northeast an ...

– Former U.S. Representative and gubernatorial candidate; lives in Rydal *

Josh Shapiro Joshua David Shapiro (born June 20, 1973) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the 48th governor of Pennsylvania since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the attorney general of Pen ...

– Pennsylvania Governor and former

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

; lives in Rydal

Government

Rydal is represented in local government by Abington Ward 1 Commissioner Dr. Thomas Hecker, Ward 3 Commissioner Drew Rothman, and Ward 7 Commissioner Stuart Winegrad. Rydal is in the Fourth Congressional District and is represented by Rep.

Madeleine Dean Madeleine Dean Cunnane (born June 6, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district since 2019. The district includes almost all of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Mont ...

. Rydal falls within the 4th Senatorial District in the Pennsylvania Senate and is Represented by

Art Haywood Arthur L. Haywood III (born ) is an American lawyer and politician currently serving as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate from the 4th district since 2015. A Democrat, he is also the current president of the advocacy group Americans for ...

. Rydal falls within the 153rd Legislative District in the PA House of Representatives and is represented by Ben Sanchez.
Rydal-Meadowbrook Civic Association
serves this neighborhood by hosting candidate forums at the township, county, state and federal levels. {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania