A History of Early Glenside

In 1857, the rutted Germantown & Willow Grove Turnpike passed through farmland as it crossed paths with the bustling North Penn Railroad. The community of Glenside would one day be the result of that crossing. A visitor getting off the train would see green vistas of rolling fields, tasseled corn, and lounging cows. Discovering the area in the mid-nineteenth century, wealthy industrialists constructed lavish country estates to escape the health perils of the city in the summer, and by the end of the century, enterprising developers had begun dividing the land into plots for respectable country homes for Philadelphia’s burgeoning middle class.

Historian Thomas J. Wieckowski tells the entertaining story of how one of Philadelphia’s first and most esteemed suburban communities grew from such humble beginnings.