Schuylkill River Park Community Garden

The site that is now the Garden and Schuylkill River Park was previously a B&O Railroad Station, which ran passenger service to New York City among other places, and the Kelly Brickyards.

They continued in this way happily for several years until the City of Philadelphia acquired the land and in 1984/1985 attempted to adsorb the site into the nascent Schuylkill River Park, writing the Garden out of these plans.

[1] Behind the effort to remove the Garden was the city's Managing Director at the time, Leo Brooks, who lived directly across the street and did not like looking out at a bare patch during the winter months.

Through the extraordinary advocacy efforts of the Center City Residents' Association, led at the time by Bob Davidson and other neighbors, and particularly the strong support of Ernesta Ballard, then a commissioner of Fairmount Park and later president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the city was persuaded to keep the Garden as part of the Park but only with substantial renovations such that it would prove a beautiful site in summer and in winter.

Starting in 2009 Gardeners began donating hundreds of pounds of produce annually to those in need through the City Harvest Program and working with groups from several local school to provide horticultural opportunities.