Philadelphia’s Great Northeast is practically a city unto itself. I can remember in the 1980s when this part of Philadelphia wanted to break away, when it wanted to become its own city. This part of Philadelphia receives no love. It receives no press from local publications and operates in relative anonymity. Based upon where I live, where I work, and where I venture, this neighborhood is either out of the way or easily bypassed via I-95. However, whenever I make the effort to venture here, I am rewarding. Aside from the mayhem of driving Roosevelt Boulevard, which is Mario Kart come to life, I enjoy leisurely exploring the neighborhoods.
The Great Northeast’s defining feature are the rows after rows of row homes. This section of Philadelphia grew rapidly post World War II and the same buildings were built over and over. I find the block and block consistency fascinating.
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For a break from the row home monotony, there’s a fish hatchery at Pleasant Hill Park. There are times living in Philadelphia that you take it for granted the city has two rivers as its borders. The city does not do a great job of promoting its waterfront (it doesn’t help that two expressways are built beside the waterways) but the boat activity in the Great Northeast shows that at least some Philadelphians have embraced the aquatic life. Just north of Pleasant Hill Park is Maggie’s Waterfront Café, which while a great neighborhood bar, doesn’t have a waterfront patio.
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The Great Northeast has a few historical mansions that serve as attractions/destinations when trying to explore this neighborhood between meals. Glen Foerd is located on the Delaware and home to a former tanner who experimented with all sorts of chemicals. It’s interesting to know that Port Richmond has been an enclave for Polish immigrants since the 1800s. The owner of Glen Foerd operated tanning facilities in the area and relied on cheap Polish immigrants to apply the tanning chemicals.
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The Ryerss Museum and Library in Burholme Park is another Philadelphia Mansion in the Great Northeast that is part historical mansion tour, part Asian art collection museum, and a part that is a branch of the Philadelphia public library. The park is located in Fox Chase which has always been a nice section of Philadelphia. I can remember being a kid and hearing adults talk about the Fox Chase Cancer Center and the quality of those facilities and thinking “wow, Fox Chase sounds amazing.” It sounded like a world away from the remote and quiet suburbs. In some sense, it is a world away.
You can’t travel in this direction and not stop at Hop Angle Public House for a beer and Rieker’s Prime Meats from some liverwurst.
You can’t travel in this direction and not stop at Hop Angle Public House for a beer and Rieker’s Prime Meats from some liverwurst.
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I’m not sure how long the Great Northeast has been a landing spot for immigrants but these days the area is home to a wide range of nationalities, each bringing their own flavor, literally and figuratively, to the neighborhood. The Bustleton area has an enclave of Eastern Europeans from either former Soviet Bloc countries or Russia specifically. Gone are the days of Acme markets being the grocery store of choice. Today it’s Bell’s Market which stocks all the goods from the Eastern European homeland. More sturgeon than you would ever want. More flavors of caviar than you could ever imagine. An entire aisle of nothing but pickles—which I thought only existed in my dreams.
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