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| Spruce Hill | |
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| Neighborhood of Philadelphia | |
Dickens Statue in Clark Park in Spruce Hill
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| Country |  United States |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| County | Philadelphia County |
| City | Philadelphia |
| Area code(s) | Area code 215 |
Spruce Hill is a neighborhood in the University City section of West Philadelphia. It is between 40th and 46th streets, and it stretches from Market Street south to Woodland Avenue. With a population of over 16,000, it is a racially and ethnically diverse part of the city where much historic architecture is preserved.
It was built as a streetcar suburb for Center City between 1850 and 1910. Among its most prominent developers was financier Clarence Howard Clark Sr. (1833 – 1906), who built dozens of rowhouses, donated land for the Walnut Street West Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, settled a tax assessment by founding the 9.1-acre Clark Park, and established his mansion on the grassy block that today holds the Penn Alexander public elementary school.
A statue of Charles Dickens, cast in 1890 by Francis Edwin Elwell, stands in Clark Park; it is one of just two known statues of the author.
Walnut Street West Branch
