Main Line of Philadelphia Main Line, Philadelphia Main Line | |
|---|---|
Collection ofsuburban communities | |
 Map of the historic Philadelphia Main Line,c. 1895 | |
.svg) Location ofPennsylvania in the United States | |
| Coordinates:40°01′08″N75°18′47″W / 40.019°N 75.313°W /40.019; -75.313 | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Pennsylvania |
| County | PrimarilyMontgomery andChester counties; certain northern parts ofDelaware County |
| Named after | ThePennsylvania Railroad's Main Line |
| Demonym | Main Liner |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| Area codes | 215, 267, 445,610, and 484 |
ThePhiladelphia Main Line, known simply as theMain Line, is an informally delineated historical andsocial region of suburbanPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania. Lying along the formerPennsylvania Railroad's once prestigiousMain Line, it runs northwest fromCenter City Philadelphia parallel toPhiladelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, also known asU.S. Route 30.
The railroad first connected the Main Line towns in the 19th century. They became home to sprawlingcountry estates belonging to Philadelphia's wealthiest families, and over the decades became a bastion of "old money". The Main Line includes some of the wealthiest communities in the country, includingGladwyne,[2]Villanova,Radnor,Haverford, andMerion.[3][4] Today, the railroad isAmtrak'sKeystone Corridor, along whichSEPTA'sPaoli/Thorndale Line operates.
The Main Line region was long part ofLenapehoking, the homeland of theLenapeNative Americans. Europeansarrived in the 1600s, afterWilliam Penn sold a tract of land, called theWelsh Tract, to a group ofWelshQuakers inLondon in 1681. This accounts for the many Welsh place names in the area.[5] However, what might be termed the "Celtification" of many Main Line place and street names occurred long after colonial times. So, for instance, as a marketing device to attract wealthy new residents, the area once awkwardly named Athensville became the more culturally glamorousArdmore (Ardmore is a place name found in Ireland and Scotland) in 1873.
ThePennsylvania Railroad built its main line during the early 19th century as part of theMain Line of Public Works that spanned Pennsylvania. Later in the century, the railroad, which owned much of the land surrounding the tracks, encouraged the development of this picturesque environment by buildingway stations along the portion of its track closest to Philadelphia. The benefits of what was touted as "healthy yet cultivated country living" attracted Philadelphia's socialelite, many of whom had one house in the city and another larger "country home" on the Main Line.
In the 20th century, many wealthy Philadelphia families moved to the Main Line suburbs. Part of the national trend of suburbanization, this drove rapid investment, prosperity, and growth that turned the area into greater Philadelphia's most affluent and fashionable region. Estates with sweeping lawns and towering maples, thedébutante balls and theMerion Cricket Club, which drew crowds of 25,000 spectators to its matches in the early 1900s, were the setting for the 1940Grant/Hepburn/Stewart motion pictureThe Philadelphia Story.[6]
The railroad placed stops about two minutes apart, starting with Overbrook. The surrounding communities became known by the railroad station names which started atBroad Street Station in Center City Philadelphia and went on to 32nd Street Station, replaced by30th Street Station in 1933, the52nd Street Station (decommissioned), and then the Main Line stations:Overbrook,Merion,Narberth,Wynnewood,Ardmore,Haverford,Bryn Mawr,Rosemont,Villanova,Radnor,St. Davids,Wayne,Strafford,Devon,Berwyn,Daylesford,Paoli, andMalvern. At least five of these station buildings, along with the first Bryn Mawr Hotel, were designed byWilson Brothers & Company.
A branch line of the Main Line (currently known as SEPTA'sCynwyd Line) extended to the communities now known asBala andCynwyd (via Wynnefield Station in Philadelphia), then proceeded to theWest Laurel Hill Cemetery, where there was once a station, and crossed back into Philadelphia over theSchuylkill River via the famousManayunk Bridge. Broad Street Station was replaced withSuburban Station in 1930, and 30th Street Station replaced 32nd Street three years later. Suburban service now extends west of the Main Line to the communities of Exton, Whitford, Downingtown, and Thorndale.[7]
The railroad line then continued on toChicago, with major stations atLancaster,Harrisburg andPittsburgh. The railroad, since taken over byAmtrak, is still in service, although its route is slightly different from the original. It also serves thePaoli/Thorndale Line of theSEPTA Regional Rail system.[7]
It was not only extremely wealthy people on the Main Line in the period 1880–1920. Wealthy households required large numbers of servants in order to maintain their lifestyle. Often these servants were Black migrants from the South and recent immigrants from Europe. For example, in the 1900 census,[8] Tredyffrin Township was 13.5% Black; another 15% had been born in Europe. The two largest countries of origin were Italy and Ireland. The corresponding figures for Lower Merion Township[9] were 6% Black and 15% born in Europe; almost 11% were from Ireland.
Another dimension of this story is illustrated by the community of Mount Pleasant, in Tredyffrin Township just north of Wayne. This is a community that became predominantly Black in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[10]
As of the1920 census,[11] most of the Black residents in the Mount Pleasant region, or their parents, had come from theSouth. Many of the men in this neighborhood, along Henry Avenue and Mount Pleasant Avenue, were employed by the railroad, as quarry workers, or as chauffeurs and gardeners by private families. The occupations often given for women were cooks and laundresses. This remains a predominantly Black community to the present day.
Today, the Main Line is another name for the western suburbs of Philadelphia alongLancaster Avenue (U.S. Route 30) and the former main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad and extending from the city limits to, traditionally, Bryn Mawr and ultimatelyPaoli,[12] an area of about 200 square miles (520 km2). The upper- and upper middle-class enclave has historically been one of the bastions of "old money" in the Northeast, along with places like Long Island'sNorth Shore (AKA: "Gold Coast");Westchester County, New York;Middlesex County, Massachusetts; andFairfield County, Connecticut.
Neighborhoods along the Main Line include nineteenth and early twentieth-centuryrailroad suburbs and post-war subdivisions, as well as a few surviving buildings from before the suburban development era. The area today is known primarily for several educational institutions as well as robust suburban life.[13]
The original Main Line towns are widely considered to follow the acronym "Old Maids Never Wed And Have Babies."[14] FromPhiladelphia, they are:
These seven towns are characterized as one of the primary bastions of old money in Southeastern Pennsylvania. They are comparably more dense than other suburbs and have lively, walkable downtowns. All of these communities were established along Lancaster Avenue prior to the railroad's construction.
As early as 1887,Bala andCynwyd were also included in atlases of the Pennsylvania Railroad[15] in Lower Merion Township and Montgomery County. By 1908, one of the first atlases[16] to refer specifically to the "Main Line" as a socio-cultural entity includes:
The following towns are often grouped with the core Main Line:
Beyond these nine communities, many others have grown in the 20th century, either in between the core towns or nearby them, including:
These communities are primarily residential and consist of larger lot sizes than in the nine core towns. All of them, except Gladwyne, are on the railroad and have their own station stop.
There is no collective data for the Main Line, so all data is byZIP Code. The median family income on the Main Line is $192,630. In comparison, the median family income for the state of Pennsylvania is $87,500. The following ZIP codes are those within the previously mentioned municipalities that make up the Main Line. All data are from the 2022 American Communities Survey.
| ZIP code | Name/Aliases | Population | Median family income | Median home price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19003 | Ardmore | 14,146 | $168,897 | $416,600 |
| 19004 | Bala Cynwyd | 9,942 | $167,679 | $597,100 |
| 19010 | Bryn Mawr,Rosemont,Garrett Hill | 21,629 | $183,462 | $712,000 |
| 19035 | Gladwyne | 3,956 | $250,001 | $1,266,700 |
| 19041 | Haverford | 6,535 | $238,309 | $911,400 |
| 19066 | Merion | 5,409 | $250,001 | $825,100 |
| 19072 | Narberth,Penn Valley | 10,782 | $230,536 | $743,900 |
| 19085 | Villanova,Radnor | 10,333 | $250,001 | $946,700 |
| 19087 | Wayne,St. Davids,Strafford,Chesterbrook | 33,717 | $195,816 | $674,800 |
| 19096 | Wynnewood,Penn Wynne | 15,107 | $239,179 | $673,300 |
| 19301 | Paoli | 7,617 | $202,469 | $503,800 |
| 19312 | Berwyn | 11,745 | $229,688 | $773,400 |
| 19333 | Devon | 7,953 | $213,430 | $687,300 |
| 19355 | Malvern | 28,188 | $185,625 | $627,800 |
The Main Line is served by numerous modes of transportation among which are three commuter rail lines operated bySEPTA. Connecting the region directly with Center City Philadelphia are thePaoli/Thorndale Line which shares the formerPennsylvania Railroad four trackKeystone Corridor grade with Amtrak, and theManayunk/Norristown Line which operates over the formerReading Railroad Norristown grade. The light railNorristown High Speed Line runs over thePhiladelphia and Western Railroad line between69th Street Transportation Center inUpper Darby andNorristown Transportation Center inNorristown.[17] Amtrak's intercityKeystone Service (New York City to Harrisburg) andPennsylvanian (New York City to Pittsburgh) also serve the region with stops at the jointly operated Amtrak/SEPTA stations atArdmore andPaoli.
The main thoroughfare through the Main Line isU.S. Route 30 which follows Lancaster Avenue (formerly thePhiladelphia and Lancaster Turnpike) running east to west and serves as the backbone of the region by connecting a large majority of its towns and municipalities. Other highways serving the area are the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) which connects it to Philadelphia, and the Blue Route (I-476) which runs north to south connecting the region with the Northeast Extension and thePennsylvania Turnpike to the north, and toPhiladelphia International Airport andI-95 to the south. Along the northern edge of the Main Line,US 202 runs from I-76 in a southwesterly direction, crossing US 30 inFrazer.
SEPTA also commissionssuburban buses onRoutes 105 and106 to run from the 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby toRosemont (Route 105) andPaoli (Route 106).[18][19] These buses run almost entirely along Lancaster Avenue.
SEPTA also offers light rail service through theNorristown High Speed Line.[20] The Norristown High Speed Line runs along the Main Line from Upper Darby toIthan Avenue Station andVillanova Station before making a northward turn at the junction of Lancaster Avenue and the Blue Route towardNorristown.
Private clubs played an important role in the development of the Main Line, offering social gathering places and facilities for cricket, golf, tennis, squash, and horseback riding to wealthy or socially connected families. Among them are:
Other recent social clubs have become an important part of the Main Line Community such as:
The school districts that serve the Main Line areLower Merion School District inMontgomery County,Radnor Township School District andSchool District of Haverford Township inDelaware County, and theTredyffrin/Easttown andGreat Valley school districts inChester County. The region has numerous private schools offering both religious and secular curriculums in addition to many public schools.
Public high schools
Private schools
Parochial schools
Notes
Further reading
