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Chestnut Hill is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Contents 1 Geography 1.1 Boundaries 1.2 ZIP code 2 History 3 Architecture and housing stock 4 Public transportation 4.1 Regional rail (a.k.a. commuter rail) 4.2 Buses 4.3 Trolleys (a.k.a. trams or streetcars) 5 Education 5.1 Colleges and universities 5.2 Primary and secondary schools 5.2.1 Public education 5.2.2 Private education 6 Parks and arboretums 7 Other notable civic institutions 8 On the National Register of Historic Places 9 Notable residents (past and present) 10 External links

Chestnut Hill is bounded as follows:

• on the northwest by Northwestern Avenue (a county line and city limit, beyond which lies a salient of Springfield Township, Montgomery County that juts into Whitemarsh Township);
• on the west by the Wissahickon Gorge (part of Fairmount Park) (beyond which lie Upper Roxborough and Andorra);
• on the northeast by Stenton Avenue (a county line and city limit, beyond which lie Erdenheim and Wyndmoor, Springfield Township); and
• on the southeast by the Cresheim Valley (part of Fairmount Park) (beyond which lies Mount Airy).

The 19118 ZIP code corresponds entirely or almost entirely with Chestnut Hill.

The village of Chestnut Hill was part of the German Township laid out by Francis Daniel Pastorius and came to include the settlements originally known as Sommerhausen and Crefeld, as well as part of Cresheim. It served as a gateway between Philadelphia and the nearby farmlands. During the U.S. Revolutionary War era (late 18th century), the area was one of many summer vacation spots due to its higher elevation (400-500 feet above sea level) and cooler temperatures than the historic Center City. (Chestnut Hill is still known as one of the more affluent sections of Philadelphia.)

Chestnut Hill (along with many other towns and farmlands of Philadelphia County) became part of the City of Philadelphia in 1854 as part of the Act of Consolidation, when the County and the City became completely coterminous. In the same year, the Chestnut Hill Railroad opened, making an easy commute to and from Center City.

During the American Civil War, Chestnut Hill was home to Mower U.S. Army General Hospital, constructed to serve Union army soldiers.

From the mid-19th century through the mid-20th, the neighborhood served as the functional equivalent of both a "railroad suburb" and a "streetcar suburb" of Center City; although it was part of Philadelphia, and not a suburb, it was a leafy outlying part functioning much like a commuter town. (It still serves this function, although the streetcars are gone.) The neighborhood contains a wide variety of 19th- and early-20th-century residential buildings by many of the most prominent Philadelphia architects.

Housing in Chestnut Hill is very expensive for this region. In 2005, it had a median home sale price of $397,500—the highest of any Philadelphia neighborhood outside of Center City. This price was a decline of 2% from its 2004 median price.

Among the historic and notable properties located in this neighborhood are:

• Esherick House, designed by Louis Kahn.
• Vanna Venturi House, designed by Robert Venturi.
• The former site of Boxly, the estate of Frederick Winslow Taylor, where Taylor often received the business-management pilgrims who came to meet the "Father of Scientific Management".

Public transportation in southeastern Pennsylvania, which includes Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, is provided by SEPTA, the region's mass transit authority.

Two SEPTA regional rail lines serve Chestnut Hill: the R7 and R8.

Several SEPTA bus lines serve Chestnut Hill: 23, 77, 94, 134, and L.

Trams in the southeastern Pennsylvania region are usually known as trolleys. The trolley network of this region was very extensive prior to World War II, but has shrunken since that era. Chestnut Hill was formerly served by trolleys. Trolley service to Chestnut Hill began in 1894, and trolley tracks still run down the Belgian-block-paved main street of the neighborhood, Germantown Avenue. SEPTA "temporarily suspended" regular trolley service in 1992. Trolleys still ran on special occasions until late 2005 or early 2006, when the tracks further south in Mount Airy were paved over with asphalt due to the extremely rough condition of the Avenue's stone pavement there. Various factors that make it unlikely that trolley service will ever be restored are:

• today's tremendous costs for properly maintaining and repairing the stone pavement
• redundancy with bus routes
• ridership projections that can't match those of the golden era of trolleys (hence insufficient fare revenue projections).

• Chestnut Hill College

Residents are zoned to schools in the School District of Philadelphia. Students in grades kindergarten through 8 are zoned to John Story Jenks School, while students in grades 9 through 12 are zoned to Germantown High School.

Chestnut Hill is home to many private schools, including Chestnut Hill Academy, Springside School, The Crefeld School, Norwood-Fontbonne Academy, and Our Mother of Consolation.

• Pastorius Park
• Wissahickon Valley portion of the Fairmount Park system
• Morris Arboretum

• Woodmere Art Museum
• Philadelphia Cricket Club

• Anglecot (designed by Wilson Eyre)
• Chestnut Hill Historic District
• Druim Moir Historic District (includes romanesque revival mansion built in 1883)
• Graver's Lane Station (designed by Frank Furness)
• John Story Jenks School
• Thomas Mill Bridge (across the Wissahickon Creek, the only traditional covered bridge in Philadelphia)
• Wissahickon Creek
• Wissahickon Inn (now Chestnut Hill Academy)

• R. Tucker Abbott, malacologist and author
• Willie Anderson, golfer, winner of four U.S. Opens
• James Bond (ornithologist) and namesake of the fictional secret agent
• Melissa Fitzgerald, actress
• William J. Green, III, former mayor of Philadelphia
• Henry H. Houston, railroad businessman and developer
• W. Thacher Longstreth, former City Councilman At-Large
• David Morse, actor
• Frank Rizzo, former mayor of Philadelphia
• Witold Rybczynski, architect and urban policy scholar
• Hugh Scott, U.S. Congressman and Senator
• Denise Scott Brown, architect
• Frederick Winslow Taylor, engineer, management theorist, and consultant
• Robert Venturi, architect
• Alexander Lawton Mackall, journalist, editor, and gastronomic expert

• Chestnut Hill College
• Chestnut Hill Business Association
• Chestnut Hill Historical Society
• The Chestnut Hill Local
• John Story Jenks School
• Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is at coordinates 40°04′12″N 75°12′07″W / 40.070, -75.202Coordinates: 40°04′12″N 75°12′07″W / 40.070, -75.202

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Andorra • Beggarstown • Chestnut Hill • East Falls • Germantown • Manayunk • Morton • Mount Airy • Roxborough • Upper Roxborough • Wissahickon • Wister
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