Just glancing, I've seen two posts on this forum saying some place was "not technically Fairmount". I've been living in Fairmount for 10 years--four different telephone exchanges though. I've been told that Fairmount is west of 22nd St. Then west of 20th. Apparently now it's crept to west of 18th. I've been told it's south of Brown. I've even heard Fairmount is only north of Fairmount. Never Brewerytown of Francisville, let alone north of Girard, even if they do get a supermarket. And where is "Spring Garden"? I live at 17th & Green. Not technically Fairmount?

Maybe we need to start a new section of the board for "Not technically Fairmount"? :?

Let's not even start on "Art Museum Area"...I really do think that's only for newbies and realtors.

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"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." --Jorge Borges

CFn, Lisle (rhymes with weasel)

I can tell you that the Fairmount Civic Association, when it was incorporated in the 70s (under a different name) set its boundaries as running Girard to Corinthian to Fairmount to 22nd to Spring Garden to Pennsylvania to 29th back up to Girard (if you can picture that). These boundaries actually incorporate the westernmost patch of what we generally think of as the Spring Garden neighborhood (west of 22nd) as well as going up above Poplar to Girard.

Psychologically I'd say Poplar and Corinthian are perceived boundaries to the North and East. Realtors trying to sell property in Francisville are likely to call it "Fairmount" for marketing purposes, but I would say that 18th St. north of Fairmount Ave. is NOT part of the Fairmount neighborhood proper. The media are worse - I've seen local news reports where something happened at 8th and Fairmount Ave. and they called it "Fairmount", just because of the street name, apparently.

We live on 24th above Parrish, and we've also heard that for a long time anything above Brown was considered off-limits. Given the state of the neighborhood today, that seems laughable, but once upon a time maybe the core of the neighborhood really was centered around Aspen St. west of the prison. Things are moving outward now.

Since I've lived in the neighborhood, I've always been told that the boundaries for Fairmount are: Poplar on the north, Corinthian on the east, Fairmount Ave. on the South, and Pennsylvania/the Park on the west. I've heard some people counter with Girard on the north as well, and some do hold to Brown on the north. I bought a house north of Parrish and when I told my then neighbors near 17th and Green (Spring Garden) I got some weird responses.

The "north of Fairmount" really stymies me because I've heard people say endlessly that Green St is Fairmount. Ditto Wallace and Mount Vernon. This "Spring Garden" neighborhood seems a much newer construct. And where does it begin and end? The rivers? Callowhill to Fairmount?

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"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." --Jorge Borges

CFn, Lisle (rhymes with weasel)

Well, how I understand it: Spring Garden's boundaries are 22nd to the west, Fairmount to the north, Broad to the east, and Callowhill to the south. But I'm stupid, so I might be wrong.

They're all slightly different names, because they're dealing with slightly different places.

You've got a modern definition of "Fairmount" from the local civic association.

You've got the old 1970's era "Fairmount" housing restoration area.

You've got the old Fairmount Post office service area

You've got the "Fairmount from the City Planning Commission list of neighborhoods.

You've got the Realtors references

You've got the political ward boundary

You've got the historical boundaries of the "Fairmount Estate"

You've got the physical boundary, that "Fairmount" was the top of the hill,
and before that area was graded flat in the late 1860's(?) Fairmout Avenue ran along the south side of a ridge, with one the hill known as "Fairmout" and the other hill known as "Cherry Hill".

Far left "No #10 is where the art museum is now,
the horizontal road is roughly where Fairmount Avenue is now, although the city street grid removed all the old roads.
The diagonal road is Ridge Avenue.



Eastern State Pennitentiary was built at the top of a hill and initially was known as "Cherry Hill Prison" - I can't say for certain, but I'd like to believe that some of the the cherry trees lining the north side of the prison are descendants of the cherry orchard shown in that general area in 1777...

Hal