Issue 2
Wawa's old cow pasture and Pennsylvania's first railway
Wawa Preserve, Thomas Leiper's 1810 railway, Delco's best hoagie thread, and the open-space question on today's ballot.
Hot picks
This weekend's best bets around here.
Saturday is the busy one. I'd start at the Havertown library in my best bell bottoms and then go see how people farmed in the 1600s at Ridley Creek. The Gilbert and Sullivan crowd in Wallingford keeps going through Sunday afternoon.
Havertown · Sat Nov 7 · check-in 7:30am, 5K 8am, 1 mile 8:05am · $40 5K, $30 mile (through Nov 6); $45 and $35 on race day
Dewey Decimal Dash at the Haverford Township Free Library
The library's 5K turns 10 this year, so they want everybody dressed as their favorite decade. Everything starts in front of the library on Mill Road (the address is 1601 Darby Rd). The 5K runs out Karakung Drive to Manoa Road and back, and the 1-mile run/walk goes to Earlington Road and back. There are prizes for best costume and best group costume, and every dollar goes to the library. A pack of runners on Earlington Road on a Saturday morning, in neon windbreakers this time. Havertown's loudest running club finally has company. Register · Library listing
Newtown Square (Ridley Creek State Park) · Sat Nov 7 · 11am-4pm, last admission 3pm · $12 adults, $8 ages 4-12
17th Century Day at the Colonial Pennsylvania Farmstead
The farmstead at 3900 N. Sandy Flash Dr is giving a whole day to the 1600s, when Europe and America were both being turned upside down by politics and religion. Their page pitches it as a look at the early colonial skills that set the stage for independence later. Kids under 4 and members get in free. Last issue I told you Penn landed in Chester in 1682, so think of this as the sequel where everybody has to grow their own food. Last admission is 3pm, which means I can't stroll in at 3:45 like I normally would. Colonial Pennsylvania Farmstead
Wallingford · Sat Nov 7 at 2pm and 7:30pm, Sun Nov 8 at 2pm · $10-$25
The Grand Duke at Strath Haven Middle School
Rose Valley Chorus & Orchestra is putting on Gilbert and Sullivan's last show together, a comedy that rarely gets staged. A troupe of actors plots against a stingy duke, and their fights get settled by a "statutory duel," where whoever draws the lowest card is legally dead. Shows are at Strath Haven Middle School, 200 S. Providence Rd. Tickets are general admission and good for any performance, online at rvco.org or with cash or check at the door. I've settled worse arguments with worse methods. RVCO · DCAC listing
Field guide
One useful guide to living around here.
Wawa Preserve · Valley Road, Media (Middletown Twp), off Baltimore Pike
How to walk Wawa Preserve, the old Wawa Dairy cow pasture
Every Delco person has a Wawa opinion. Fewer know you can take a walk on the land where it started. Wawa Preserve, just off Baltimore Pike in Middletown, was grazing land for Wawa Dairy's Guernsey cows, and now it's 75 free acres of meadow and creek woods run by Natural Lands with Middletown Township.
Park in the little gravel lot on Valley Road, about two-tenths of a mile northwest of the Pike. It holds around 12 cars and there are no restrooms, so plan for both. The Rocky Run Trail follows the creek through the woods and out into meadows of goldenrod and little bluestem. Natural Lands' map shows 1.2 miles of it on the preserve. If you want flat and easy, cross Valley Road for the grassy out-and-back. Dogs are welcome on a leash, with no exceptions.
The full guide has the trail map strategy, the walk over to Tyler Arboretum, and why a goose ended up on every Wawa cup.
The scrap
The best stuff you missed in the area's social media world.
Delco settled where to get a hoagie (sort of), somebody found a very vague film crew sign in Folcroft, and one TikToker has big plans for the Wawa menu.
Delco · our "best hoagie" thread (Delco Buzz page, Media) · Nextdoor
"Where's the best hoagie in Delco?"
Ro-Lynn in Brookhaven got named the most, and Becky G. says "It's hard to get a bad hoagie." Nextdoor via Delco Buzz neighbors
Folcroft · a utility pole by the post office · r/Delco
"Filming in Folcroft?"
Somebody's filming in Folcroft, and the crew parking sign gives away exactly one word: RANDOM. Reddit via u/honey-12
Delco · a hallway selfie video · TikTok
"Bruh, imagine if Wawa had baked potatoes..."
He wants a stuffed baked potato bar at Wawa, and honestly I want to know who to call.
TikTok via @thedelcofilipino
What's building
What's going up, getting paused, or getting fought over.
The open-space question is on today's ballot, Darby Township votes on a local wage tax tomorrow, and Newtown wrote data center rules before anyone has even asked to build one.
Darby Township (Glenolden) · Wed Nov 4 · 7pm
Darby Township takes up a 1% earned income tax
Darby Township's commissioners scheduled a vote for Wednesday, Nov 4, at 7pm at 21 N. Bartram Ave in Glenolden, on Ordinance 766. It would put a 1% tax on earned income for residents and for nonresidents who work in the township, plus net profits from unincorporated businesses, starting Jan 1, 2027. The township's notice says it's for general revenue, and the full ordinance is linked right from the notice. The vote is tomorrow night, so if you live or work in the township and want to weigh in, that's the meeting. That makes two Delco municipalities in two issues taking up a local earned income tax, after Chester Heights last time.
Township notice
Countywide · Tue Nov 3 · Election Day
The $120 million open-space question is on today's ballot
Today Delco voters get a yes-or-no question titled "County Water Quality, Natural Areas, and Wildlife Habitat Protection." It asks whether the county can borrow up to $120 million for land conservation. A yes lets County Council issue those bonds over the next 10 years, and it doesn't have to borrow all of it. A no means the county doesn't get this voter-approved borrowing authority. Polls are open until 8pm, and the county posts unofficial results on its election results page shortly after polls close. County election results · Official notice
Newtown Square (Newtown Twp) · passed in late October
Newtown writes data center rules before anyone asks
Newtown Township's supervisors passed an ordinance that defines data centers and sets requirements for them in the township's light industrial district, according to the Delco Times. The board's chair said no data center has been proposed there. Several residents told the board it doesn't go far enough on groundwater, noise and light, and asked for more review before a vote. The township's solicitor said the rules can be changed later as state guidance catches up, and any real proposal would still have to go through a conditional use hearing. If you live near the western edge of the township, this is the one to keep an eye on.
Delco Times
Makers
Local makers nights and market tables worth hitting.
Two very different tables this week. Lansdowne has a free sketch night built around a food still life on Friday, and Aston fills a concert room with crates of records on Saturday.
Lansdowne · Fri Nov 6 · 5:30-7:30pm · free
Black Hippie Art Sketch Club: Food as Inspiration
Black Hippie Art runs this sketch meetup for BIPOC artists at Utility Works, 32 E. Baltimore Ave. Friday's theme is food, with a feast-style still life set up to draw from. Supplies are provided and it's free, so you only need to bring yourself. Seasoned illustrators and people picking a pencil back up for the first time in years are both welcome, and it's meant to be relaxed. Two hours of drawing a feast without eating any of it might be the most disciplined thing anyone in Delco does this week. Utility Works · DCAC listing
Aston · Sat Nov 7 · 11am-3pm · $5, kids 12 and under free
Delco Record Show at The Mill at Rockdale
Moonrocket Vinyl is bringing a room of record dealers back to The Mill at Rockdale, 3100 Mount Rd (Unit F3), set up inside the concert room. The flyer promises thousands of records, commons and rarities in every genre, with LPs, 45s and a few cassettes and CDs. Expect bargain bins next to high-end collectibles. Five bucks to get in, which leaves more for the crate I swore I wasn't buying.
DCAC listing
Deep cut
One local history leftover worth knowing.
Wallingford (Nether Providence) · PHMC "Leiper Railway" marker at Bullens Lane and Glen Road, and the Thomas Leiper House, 521 Avondale Rd
The ox-cart railway on Crum Creek - Thomas Leiper's 1810 track
If you went to Strath Haven, or lost a game to them, you've been carrying Thomas Leiper's name around without knowing it. Strath Haven was what he called his estate in Nether Providence, and the yellow stucco house is still standing on Avondale Road.
Leiper made his money in tobacco and owned stone quarries on Crum Creek, but he couldn't get heavy granite to a boat, and the state turned down his canal. So in 1809 he tested a short wooden track in Philadelphia, where one horse pulled about 10,000 pounds uphill while a crowd watched. Then he built the real one at home. The state marker on Bullens Lane says the line, finished in 1810, ran three quarters of a mile from the quarries to the landing on Ridley Creek. It also calls it "the first railway in Pennsylvania."
The "first in America" part gets argued about, and the full story walks through it, along with the ox, the canal that finally replaced the rails, and how the house survived the Blue Route. The Leiper House is open for tours on weekend afternoons through December.
Season
What's in the air right now. Farm stands, orchards, peak harvest.
Media's Sunday market has three regular Sundays left before winter hours, and a Swarthmore parish is pinching pierogies by the dozen.
Media · Sun Nov 8 · 10am-1pm · Edgmont St between Front and State
Media Farmers Market's last regular Sundays
Media's producer-only market runs every Sunday through Nov 22, then switches to winter hours, 10 to noon on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sundays from December through March. It sets up on Edgmont Street between Barrall Community Park and Media Elementary, rain or shine. Nov 8 is a second Sunday, which on the vendor schedule brings Good Churn Creamery and Fishtown Pickle Project. Wolf Peach Garden from Drexel Hill is there every week until Thanksgiving. The market says vendor schedules change without much notice, so don't build dinner around one stand. I'm going for pickles and I'll come home with six things. Media Farmers Market
Swarthmore · pickup Wed Nov 4 and Sat Nov 7, 10am-2pm · $12 a dozen potato and cheese, $13 sauerkraut
Pierogies by the dozen at Holy Myrrh-Bearers
Holy Myrrh-Bearers Church at 900 Fairview Rd sells homemade pierogies a couple of times a month through the holidays. This round picks up Wednesday and Saturday, 10 to 2. Potato and cheese is $12 a dozen, and sauerkraut is $13 when they have it. Order through the pierogie hotline at 610-544-1216, and anything over five dozen has to be ordered ahead. The next sales are Nov 18, Dec 2 and Dec 16, and big holiday orders need two weeks' notice. If you're feeding a Delco Christmas Eve, call now. Delco Times church events
That's the week
See you around Delco.
Drop your email. I'll show up Tuesday morning.