Border Lines

Another in a series on the look and texture of Philadelphia neighborhoods.

by Kass Mencher

Spring Garden

Where:



Kim’s Market at 20th and Wallace.

Fairmount and Spring Garden streets form the northern and southern boundaries, respectively; Broad Street is the eastern border, and the point where Fairmount and Spring Garden merge is generally accepted as the neighborhood’s westernmost edge.

Who lives there:

A true Philadelphia-eclectic mix, ranging from the well-off and well-connected to young professionals and students to Puerto Rican families who have been residents for generations.



	Margaret Hemphill, 3, stopping near Brandywine and 23rd Streets returning from her sister’s little league game with her mother.

What it looks like:

Big stone hulks (a.k.a. mansions), nattily restored brownstones and rowhouses — and, of course, the "garden" that runs down the middle of the neighborhood’s eponymous street (or is it the street’s eponymous neighborhood?)

Why it’s a good place to live:

"I like the diversity, the idea that the affluent and the low-income can live on the same street. Look at Green Street."

—Manny Delgado, 31, a lifelong Spring Garden resident

"I used to think the neighborhood was weird before I lived here, but it’s nice. It’s a nice combination of the urban and suburban. Now I love it."

—Bill Wierzbowski, a resident of the neighborhood for one year (and a longtime employee of Judy’s restaurant at 3rd & Bainbridge)



Matthew Delgado, 1, is Manny Delgado’s nephew and a third-generation resident of the neighborhood. His grandparents came from Puerto Rico in the ’40s and ’50s to work in industries along Broad Street.			Dan Freeman (jumping from dumpster to mattress) with his brother and cousins in the parking lot on 19th and Mt. Vernon Streets behind the Enon Baptist Church.