Elkins Park, Pennsylvania

Elkins Park, Pennsylvania Ogontz Shoemakertown
Unincorporated community Neighborhood of Cheltenham Township
Clockwise from top, Wall House, Cheltenham Twinning Fingerpost, Cheltenham EMS Building, Cheltenham Township Municipal Building, Township Police Headquarters sign on Old York Road, Beth Shalom Synagogue
Nickname:  EP
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania Location of Elkins Park in Pennsylvania Elkins Park, Pennsylvania Elkins Park, Pennsylvania (the United States)
Coordinates: 40°04′37″N 75°07′37″W
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
County	Montgomery
Townships	Abington , Cheltenham
Commissioners	Harvey Portner (West) Morton J. Simon, Jr. (Central) Kathy A. Hampton (West)
Elevation	157 ft (48 m)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern Standard Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (Eastern Daylight Time)
ZIP Code	19027
Area code(s)	215 and 267

Elkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the suburbs of Philadelphia, which it borders along Cheltenham Avenue roughly 6 miles (9.7 km) from downtown. An affluent community, it is the home of Lynnewood Hall, a 110-room, derelict Gilded Age mansion.

Points of interest

Lynnewood Hall, a 110-room, derelict Gilded Age mansion

• Beth Sholom Synagogue, the only synagogue designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
• Elkins Estate, former family summer home of Pennsylvania Railroad Company magnate William L. Elkins.
• High School Park, an 11-acre park with four distinct ecosystems, was the original grounds of Cheltenham High School and became a township park in 1996 after the building burned down
• Lynnewood Hall, a 110-room, derelict Gilded Age mansion
• St. Paul's Episcopal Church, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982
• Richard Wall House, a house listed on State and National Registers of Historic Places, had the distinction of being the oldest Pennsylvania house in continuous residence until rehabilitation work began

Government

Elkins Park is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the suburbs of Philadelphia. It is represented by Madeleine Dean in Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district.

Schools

The portion in Cheltenham Township is zoned to Cheltenham Township School District.

• Myers Elementary School
• Elkins Park Middle School

The portion in Abington Township is zoned to Abington School District.

• McKinley Elementary School

• Lynnwood Elementary School (now closed and converted into an administrative building); served as an elementary school from February 1951 through 1977

Private:

• Perelman Jewish Day School
• Robert Saligman Middle School (closed in 2012)
• St. James Catholic School (shut down)

Tertiary:

• Gratz College
• Salus University
• The former campus of the Tyler School of Art, the art school of Temple University
• Settlement Music School

Transportation

Public transportation

Elkins Park is served by SEPTA Regional Rail trains on the Warminster Line, West Trenton Line and Lansdale/Doylestown Line at the Elkins Park station. The Jenkintown and Melrose Park stations are also found near the neighborhood of Elkins Park, and are served by the same regional rail lines. SEPTA bus routes 28, 55, 70 and 77 also provide service to Elkins Park.

Road

Toward the western end of Elkins Park is Pennsylvania Route 611 (Old York Road). In Elkins Park, Pennsylvania Route 73 runs along Township Line Road, mostly marking the border between Cheltenham and Abington townships.

Prominent current or former residents

• Jay Ansill, composer and folk musician
• Michael S. Brown, Nobel prize winner in medicine or physiology
• Bill Cosby, actor, comedian and recently convicted felon lives in Elkins Park
• Douglas Feith, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, grew up in Elkins Park
• Marvin Harrison, NFL wide-receiver for the Indianapolis Colts
• Lil Dicky, rapper and comedian
• William Lukens Elkins, oil and transport magnate
• William McIntire Elkins, rare book collector
• Mark Levin, radio talk show host
• Edgar Lee Masters, poet; spent his final years in Elkins Park
• Mary Ellen Mark, photojournalist
• Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
• Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli soldier and son of Benjamin Netanyahu
• Ralph J. Roberts, co-founder of Comcast; father of current Comcast chief executive officer, Brian L. Roberts
• Jeffrey Solow, classical cellist and academic
• Peter A. B. Widener, head of a wealthy and historically prominent family
• Harry Elkins Widener, grandson of Peter A. B. Widener and namesake of Widener Library at Harvard University; born in Elkins Park and died on the RMS Titanic
• Eleanor Elkins Widener, founder of Widener Library to honor her son
• Bernard Wolfman, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School

In popular culture

In the AMC period drama television series Mad Men, the character Betty Draper was raised in the "tiny Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania". During the show's second season, Betty's father has a series of strokes, and is taken to "Elkins Park Hospital" in the script. This would have actually been the former Rolling Hill Hospital, which opened in 1953, and is now known as Mossrehab and Einstein at Elkins Park, part of the Einstein Healthcare Network.

References

• George, John (November 10, 2003). "Einstein Rehabs Hospital". Philadelphia Business Journal. Retrieved December 31, 2015.

External links

• Abington Township Website
• Cheltenham Township Website
• School District of Abington Township Website
• School District of Cheltenham Township Website
• Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Official Website