There is a little neighborhood along the Schuykill if you turn right at the Shawmont Station instead of going left to the tow path. I think the street is called River Road. A totally wild place, if you ask me. Trailers next to huge houses, little houses hiding behind trellises and vines, as many boats as homes. Does anyone know anything about this neighborhood, what it's called, who lives there, if those houses ever go on the market? I bounce back and forth between thinking it would be a cool place to live (a sucker for the strange and wonderful) and a total nightmare (how often does that place flood?).

Every time it rains hard. That's why people's homes are raised on River Road. Its not bad on Nixon St. near Shawmont Station.

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"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people".

Back in the early 1960s, the city targeted that land for acquisition as parkland. City planners envisioned a large extension of Fairmount Park connecting the Wissahickon to the Schuylkill -- and including most of the land that is now the Schuylkill Nature Center. There were almost no houses on River Road then, and it was possible for hikers to walk along the riverbank and rest under the trees.

But the city never acquired the land -- or else, perhaps, sold off what they already owned -- the lots were subdivided, and clothesline fences and no-trespassing signs went up. Years ago, I tried asking some of the residents of River Road by what process they had received the right to fence off public access to the river, but the people I spoke to were very unfriendly. I mean, really nasty. So now, remembering how pretty River Road used to be, I often avoid riding my bike there and opt for the straight, boring bicycle trail instead.

According to both environmental and social criteria, rows of private houses (or trailers and other junk) don't belong along the river. Maybe someday a big flood will carry their houses away, and the riverbanks will revert once again to green meadows -- as nature intended.

Nanyika

I have gone for many walks down there and share the OP's delight. I have never found the neighbors to be unfriendly. However, they are oddly hillbillyish, which can either be a good or a bad character trait, depending upon your point of view. For at least the past year there have been no floods, although any new construction going in down there needs to be raised up. The properties generally go from the river to the train tracks, with a private road in between, which means that the homeowners have riparian rights, a very rare thing in Philadelphia. At the end of the road, past the bollards, is the Miquon Station on the R6.

Behind which grows a very tall stand of bamboo. I never knew bamboo could thrive in our climate until I saw it at Miquon, where I've noticed that it retains its green leaves even through the winter months.

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Jayfar
--
“I am indeed well aware of the history of Conventional (sic) Hall, both globally and locally, and can assure you that we are carefully exploring avenues for its future.” -- Penn President Amy Gutmann 5 days before demolition began.

My friends who grew up in the Roxborough/Manayunk area tell me that when they were kids (in the 50's), River Road was considered the wrong side of the tracks. I've heard people make reference to "river people" and it wasn't not meant as a compliment. Now there are some pretty fancy places down there so I guess times have changed. it is a fascinating little area, I agree.

I've been down River Road once or twice. And man I'll tell ya - this city really runs the gamut from glitzy downtown splendor to rolling Chestnut Hill estates to burnt out ghettos to...bayou country by the Schuylkill. I always wondered if there were trailer areas nearby and I found out. I remember thinking that people who'd want to live in that stretch probably aren't fond of the type of people who don't live there already. Still, it wasn't without its charm - I seem to remember chopper parts sunken into the ground like memorials.

Anyone who says all of Philadelphia is rundown red brick houses has clearly not dared to venture very far.

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My Man! Pots N' Pans!

I was biking down there today and I noticed the work being done at the old pumping station. Is that being torn down?

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I love that street. Certainly the land that time forgot. I ride my bike through every once in a while. No one seems to mind. I don't get in their way, and they don't chase me away. Just don't drive your car down the street. That would be a little more disrespectful I think. I could never live there though. I don't know how those people do it year after year.

I dont know if it is but its still there as of two weeks ago.

But alot of the land around shawmont station used to belong to my great grandfather, who who ran coal heating business from back there. If you go right after the cobble stone road. rather than left towards the station, and cross a small bridge you can see his old coal bins next to the tracks. Anyway, sometime the city took away most of his land claiming eminent domain then never developed it.