Living in Lansdowne: A Neighborhood Guide
One of the region’s first middle-class suburbs takes pride in its past.
Lansdowne Theater / Photography by Matt Stanley
Living history
The Lenape were the first inhabitants of what’s now Lansdowne; Europeans began to join them when William Penn opened up his colony to settlement after 1682. What became Lansdowne was a farming village until the arrival of the Philadelphia and West Chester Railroad in the 1850s made it easier for middle-class city dwellers to escape the growing metropolis and settle here instead. One reminder of the borough’s rural roots remains: the Dickenson Farmstead (12 Owen Avenue). Built in 1732, today it’s surrounded by homes constructed between the 1880s and the 1920s. Its neighborhood, Lansdowne Park, is one of two National Register historic districts in the town of some 11,000 residents.
Deep roots
The community’s oldest resident, so to speak, is the giant sycamore at Wycombe and Lacrosse avenues. The tree has called this place home since around 1640 and has been Lansdowne’s official symbol since the Bicentennial.
Shopping and dining under the trees
Scrappy Cat Shop
As might befit a ’burb whose symbol is a sycamore, the main street, Lansdowne Avenue, has a healthy canopy of leaves for shade. Beneath them are such local spots as Scrappy Cat, “a curiosity shop” at 16 North Lansdowne Avenue, and Kia’s Cakes (16 South Lansdowne Avenue), a cozy cafe specializing in pastries and baked goods. And downtown offers plenty of dining options, including international fusion restaurant Sophusion (24 North Lansdowne Avenue).
Treats from Kia’s Cakes in Lansdowne
Curtain call
You’ll also find the Lansdowne Theater (31 North Lansdowne Avenue), a movie palace designed in 1927 by architect William Harold Lee, who had a hand in many iconic Philly-area theaters. An electrical fire in 1987 shuttered the movie house, but dogged efforts by local residents to restore it are finally paying off: The theater is expected to reopen as a concert venue later this year.
Victorian splendor for reasonable prices
Lansdowne’s convenient location — SEPTA Regional Rail gets you to Center City in 15 minutes — has made it a popular draw. Compass agent Sunny Pierce describes it as “a community of people looking to live a simple yet good existence in a town where they can feel safe.” And whether your choice is one of the Queen Annes and Victorians in the Lansdowne Park Historic District, one of the mid-20th-century colonials in Gladstone Manor, a modest rowhouse, or a downtown condo, you can find it here at an affordable price. “It’s one of the very few places that you can get a three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath home with a shared driveway and a small garage for under $300K,” says Pierce. Prices top out around $600,000, and Pierce adds that the local market isn’t prone to wild swings.
Published as “Living in Lansdowne” in the May 2024 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
