A History of Early Glenside

Explore the story of the birth and growth of Glenside, one of Philadelphia’s oldest and most preeminent suburbs.

In 1857, the rutted Germantown & Willow Grove Turnpike passed through farmland as it crossed paths with the bustling North Penn Railroad. The community of Glenside would one day be the result of that crossing. A visitor getting off the train would see green vistas of rolling fields, tasseled corn, and lounging cows. Discovering the area in the mid-nineteenth century, wealthy industrialists constructed lavish country estates to escape the health perils of the city in the summer, and by the end of the century, enterprising developers had begun dividing the land into plots for respectable country homes for Philadelphia’s burgeoning middle class.

Historian Thomas J. Wieckowski tells the entertaining story of how one of Philadelphia’s first and most esteemed suburban communities grew from such humble beginnings.

Dr. Tom Wieckowski is vice-president of the Old York Road Historical Society and chair of the Cheltenham Township Historical Commission. He graduated from Villanova University and holds a master’s and PhD from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. After thirty years as a dean and professor at the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University, he retired and now pursues his lifelong interest in history. He is the author of five books, the most recent being Hitherto Invincible (published by Palmetto Press), the saga of the influential Barker family over three generations in nineteenth-century New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Chelten Hills.