This area of Philadelphia was first settled in 1683 as William Penn’s first neighborhood.In the late 19th century, this area was considered a resort. Oak Lane Magazine is a guide to the new Oak Lane section of Philadelphia.
East Oak Lane is a neighborhood in the upper Northern section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Many of the houses in the neighborhood are large single homes or twins built at a later period than much of central North Philadelphia. There is also Philadelphia rowhouses.
This area of Philadelphia was first settled in 1683 as William Penn’s first neighborhood[1].In the late 19th century, this area was considered a resort. East Oak Lane is defined by the borders of Cheltenham Avenue at the north (the border between Philadelphia and Cheltenham Township), Broad Street on the west, Godfrey Avenue at the south, and North 5th Street on the east side.
A walk through the section between 65th Ave. and 69th Ave. East of Broad Street will reveal a multitude of architectural styles, especially along Oak Lane itself. At 12th and Oak Lane is Ellwood School, present building built 1957 (in the shape of an “L”, but the original schoolhouse was a hexagon). Farther east, the almost fantastic diversity of the homes is what makes this area so unique. Across the railroad, a row of shops, most built later, gives the impression of a small town “Main Street”.
Today, East Oak Lane is known for being racially and ethnically diverse.
Linguist and political theorist Noam Chomsky grew up in East Oak Lane in the 1930s and 40s at 6417 Fairhill Street, at the time “the only Jewish family in a mostly Irish and German Catholic neighborhood.”
West Oak Lane is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of Philadelphia. It is located between East Mount Airy, East Germantown, Cheltenham, Montgomery County, East Oak Lane, and Fern Rock.
West Oak Lane is one of Philadelphia’s middle class African American communities. The area known as Ogontz is widely held to be a section of West Oak Lane.
The neighborhood has distinct architecture that separates it from surrounding neighborhoods. Along with larger and sometimes detached houses, West Oak Lane also has many tree-lined streets and small yards. In 2005, the 19126 and 19138 zip codes, which contain West Oak Lane, had a median home sale price of $113,200. This was a 34% increase over the median price in 2004.
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