Cresheim Creek facts for kids
Cresheim Creek is a small creek in southeastern Pennsylvania. It starts in Wyndmoor, a town in Springfield Township. This area is near a park and a USDA research center, right on the border between Montgomery County and Northwest Philadelphia.
The creek flows about 2.7 miles (4.3 km) southwest. It passes through parts of Northwest Philadelphia and forms the boundary between the neighborhoods of Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill. Finally, it empties into the Wissahickon Creek at a spot called Devil's Pool, which is not far from the Valley Green Inn.
The Cresheim Valley is the area around the creek, especially below Germantown Avenue. This part of the valley is a section of Fairmount Park, a large park in Philadelphia. An old railroad path in the valley is now used for PECO powerlines. These lines use the path because it's already flat and open.
In 2013, the City of Philadelphia expanded Fairmount Park. They added more land along the creek valley, almost reaching the Philadelphia-Montgomery border. This project, called the Wissahickon East Project, aims to clean up the creek and remove plants that don't belong there. The goal is to restore the 6 acres (2.4 ha) of newly added land.
Cresheim Valley Drive runs next to the creek for a while. It goes from Stenton Avenue until it bends away to become Emlen Street, past the Chestnut Hill West Line train tracks. There's a stone structure called a pergola at the corner of Germantown Avenue and Cresheim Valley Drive. It has plaques honoring the early German settlers of the valley and Samuel Newman Baxter, who was in charge of trees for Fairmount Park from 1915 to 1945.
You can find a dirt parking area off Cresheim Valley Drive, southwest of the Chestnut Hill West railroad bridge. This is where walking paths begin. These paths follow the creek downstream for some distance until it meets the Wissahickon Creek.
History of Cresheim Creek
Early Settlers and the Creek
The land around Cresheim Creek was first home to the Lenape people. In the 1600s, settlers from Germany came to the area. They named the creek after their home village, which was called Krisheim (now part of Monsheim, Germany). These settlers arrived in the 1680s.
In 1700, they built Cresheim Cottage. This was the first permanent building in the area. It is still standing today at the corner of Germantown Avenue and Gowen Avenue. The original cottage is the smaller part of the building you see now; the larger part was added around 1748.
The Old Cresheim Railroad Line
From 1893 to 1978, a train line ran next to Cresheim Creek. This line was about 6.5 miles (10.5 km) long. It was part of the Connecting Railway and was sometimes called the Cresheim Branch or the Fort Washington Branch. It started near the Allen Lane train station and followed the creek's bank.
The train line went through different towns like Hillcrest and Laverock. It then followed the path where Route 309 is now, all the way to Fort Hill. There, it connected with another train line. The Pennsylvania Railroad company used electricity to power this line from 1924 to 1952.
The section of the train line near Wyndmoor was used for moving goods until 1978. After that, the line was closed, and the tracks were removed. Today, many people who enjoy the outdoors want to turn this old train path into a rail trail. A rail trail is a path for walking, running, and biking, built on an old railway line.
