Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania
Drexel Hill is a neighborhood and census-designated place (CDP) located in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 29,181 at the 2020 census,[1] an increase over 28,043 in 2010, and accounting for over one-third of Upper Darby Township's population.
Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania
United States
Pennsylvania
Barbarann Keffer (D)
3.2 sq mi (8 km2)
3.2 sq mi (8 km2)
0.0 sq mi (0 km2)
246 ft (75 m)
28,043
8,800/sq mi (3,400/km2)
Geography[edit]
Drexel Hill is located in the western part of Upper Darby Township at 39°57′00″N 75°18′7″W / 39.95000°N 75.30194°W (39.949962, -75.301841).[2] The neighborhood is eight miles from Center City, Philadelphia and is bordered to the north by Haverford Township, to the east by the Kirklyn, Highland Park, Beverly Hills, and Bywood neighborhoods in Upper Darby Township, to the southeast by the borough of Lansdowne, to the south by the borough of Clifton Heights and the Westbrook Park neighborhood of Upper Darby Township, and to the southwest by Springfield Township.[3] Darby Creek forms the southwestern/southern border of the CDP. U.S. Route 1 (Township Line Road) runs through the northwestern corner of the CDP and forms most of its northern border with Haverford Township.
The CDP has a total area of 3.2 square miles (8.3 km2), all land.[4]
Transportation[edit]
SEPTA[edit]
SEPTA operates two trolley lines through Drexel Hill: Route 101- a few stops in Drexel Hill are Irvington Rd, Drexel Hill Junction, School Lane, Aronimink, Drexelbrook, Drexel Park, Garrettford, Huey Avenue, School Lane, Anderson Avenue, Drexeline, Drexel Manor, Marshall Road, and Creek Road, stations to Media and Route 102 Sharon Hill, both lines begin at the 69th Street Transportation Center. Several SEPTA bus routes also operate via Drexel Hill, including routes 107, 110, 111, and 115.
As an Upper Darby neighborhood, Drexel Hill is served by the Upper Darby Police Department, Crozer-Keystone Paramedics, based out of Delaware County Memorial Hospital, and the Upper Darby Township Fire Department, a combination paid and volunteer department personnel at five stations:
Companies 26, 36, 37, and 74 are staffed from 7 am Monday until 7 am Saturday by career personnel from IAFF Local 2493. They are supplemented by volunteers during the weekdays and fully staffed by volunteers on weekends.
Notable people[edit]
Television personality Dick Clark lived from 1954 to 1956 at the Drexelbrook Apartment complex while hosting Barr's Diamond Theater and a radio show on WFIL, before he was hired to host American Bandstand. Television personality Ed McMahon also lived at the Drexelbrook before teaming up with Johnny Carson on Do You Trust Your Wife?, then The Tonight Show.
Children's author Lloyd Alexander lived in Drexel Hill with his wife and several cats.
1970s folk/pop singer-songwriter Jim Croce grew up in the Bywood and Drexel Hill sections of Upper Darby. Croce graduated Upper Darby Sr. High in 1960, and attended Villanova University 1961–1965. He married Ingrid Jacobson of Wallingford. Her family is believed to have bought the house Dick Clark sold upon leaving for the west coast when Bandstand left WFIL in the early '60s. Croce was the first to be inducted on Upper Darby High School's "Wall of Fame" in April 1976.
Former United States Representative Pat Meehan of the Seventh Congressional District of Pennsylvania lives in Drexel Hill.
Alan Graham MacDiarmid ONZ (April 14, 1927 – February 7, 2007), one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000, died in 2007 after falling in his Drexel Hill home. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill.
Nancy Meyers, producer and director of movies including The Parent Trap (1998), What Women Want (2000), Something's Gotta Give (2003), The Holiday (2006), It's Complicated (2009) and The Intern (2015) was raised in a Jewish household in the Drexel Hill area.[27]
Drexel Hill resident Gregore J. Sambor was a former commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department best known for his role in the 1985 bombing of MOVE, in which six adults and five children died after he told firefighters to stand down and "let the fire burn".