Wynnewood, Pennsylvania

Wynnewood
Settlement
Wynnewood train station
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
County	Montgomery, Delaware
Township	Lower Merion, Haverford
Elevation	295 ft (89.9 m)
Coordinates	40°00′10″N 75°16′15″W
Timezone	EST (UTC-5)
- summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
Area code	610
Location of Wynnewood in Pennsylvania
Location of Pennsylvania in the United States

Wynnewood, Pennsylvania is a suburban community located outside of Philadelphia in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania and Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, United States. Wynnewood was named in 1691 for Dr. Thomas Wynne, William Penn's physician and the first Speaker of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Wynnewood is one of the many neighborhoods on the Pennsylvania Main Line, and encompasses suburban residential neighborhoods as well as institutions such as Lankenau Hospital, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Palmer Theological Seminary, and Friends' Central School. Library Video Company, a major educational video distributor, is also based there.

Demographics

Wynnewood is neither an incorporated area nor a census-designated place; all data is for its ZIP code 19096. As of the census of 2000, there were 13,299 people and 3,490 households residing in the community. The population density was 3,882 people per square mile. The racial makeup of the community was 92.9% White, 3.2% Asian, 2.5% African American, 0.40% from other races, and 1.0% from two or more races. 1.2% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The median income for a household in the community was $86,861, and the median income for a family was $111,683. The per capita income for the community was $51,543. About 0.9% of families and 2.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.7% of those under age 18 and 10.1% of those age 65 or over.

Residents of Wynnewood cooperate with those of adjacent Ardmore in many ways, one of which is the ArdWood Civic Association. South Ardmore Park is partly in Wynnewood, and partly in Ardmore. This park is the site of a free or low-cost summer camp, sporting activities, walking paths, and a verdant setting.

Shopping

Wynnewood itself is mostly residential, with its shopping in various clusters. The largest shopping center in Wynnewood is the Wynnewood Shopping Center (housing a Old Navy, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Genuardi's, along with several eateries and smaller stores). Other shopping venues in the suburb include Wynnewood Square and The Whole Foods Shopping Center (named for a market there), both on East Lancaster Avenue. As Wynnewood is primarily a residential community, its residents visit other districts of the Main Line, such as Ardmore or Narberth, for shopping.

Along with its tree-shaded streets and mature old stone homes, Wynnewood has also been known historically for its car dealerships, which line Lancaster Avenue from South Wynnewood to Argyle Road. Gracious, old-fashioned restaurants, Stouffer's and the Viking Inn, both on Lancaster Avenue, have disappeared and not been replaced, although less expensive fare is widely available. The town's only movie theater, the Eric Wynnewood, became Vinny T's in 2000 and will become a Buca di Beppo in late 2010. Yeats Pub thrives near the corner of Church and Route 30.

Transportation

Opposite the Wynnewood Shopping Center is the Wynnewood Train Station. These railroad tracks run through the Main Line, the collective western suburbs of Philadelphia where the railroad westward was originally established. Towns on the lower Main Line adjacent to Wynnewood include Overbrook, Merion, Wynnewood, Narberth, Ardmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr. The SEPTA Route 105 bus runs along the length of Lancaster Avenue on the Main Line, and the SEPTA Route 44 bus supplements the trains for service between nearby Narberth and Center City Philadelphia. South Wynnewood is served by the SEPTA Route 100 Trolley that connects the southern Main Line suburbs with Norristown to the north and west and SEPTA's 69th Street/Market-Frankford (Blue Line) rapid transit train service into Center City and beyond into Frankford north of Center City along the Delaware River.

Wynnewood is served by Route 1, City Avenue, traveling north and south, and is also easily accessible to Routes 76, the Schuylkill Expressway east and west, and 476, the Philadelphia bypass nicknamed the "Blue Route", traveling south and north between Chester and Interstate 95 in the south and Plymouth Meeting, Germantown, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike traveling east and west.

Hospitals

Wynnewood is also home to one the principal three teaching hospitals that serve Philadelphia's Main Line. Along with the eponymous Bryn Mawr and Paoli Memorial hospitals, Lankenau Hospital, on Lancaster Avenue (Route 30) in Wynnewood near the Overbrook border, has traditionally been affiliated with either Jefferson or Hahnemann (now Drexel) colleges of medicine and is always (with Bryn Mawr and Paoli) on the list of the nation's top community hospitals. Saunders House, a rehabilitation facility, can be found on Lankenau's premises, as is a large and busy medical office building that is home to many of the private practices of the hospital's attending physicians.

Schools and Colleges

Wynnewood's public school children attend the Merion, Penn Wynne or Penn Valley elementary schools, part of Lower Merion School District headquartered in nearby Ardmore, Pennsylvania; Bala Cynwyd Middle School; and have a choice between Lower Merion High School (Ardmore) and Harriton High School (Rosemont); Lower Merion HS moved into new building in the fall of 2010. Other schools, private and parochial, abound in this old and affluent residential district, including all-boys Haverford School, all-girls Baldwin and Agnes Irwin schools, coeducational Friends Central School--actually within the Wynnewood postal district—and private, Catholic Waldron Mercy and Merion Mercy academies in nearby Merion, Pennsylvania. Saint Margaret's Elementary School in nearby Narberth also serves Wynnewood's Catholic elementary school community. There are other private schools such as Episcopal Academy (Merion), as well as Akiba / Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy (previously of Bala Cynwyd, now located in Radnor, Pennsylvania) and the Solomon Schechter School (Wynnewood), which are both Jewish-affiliated schools. Finally, there is a French International School which has two locations—the lower school near the Bala Cynwyd Library and the upper school on City Avenue, still in Bala Cynwyd.

Saint Joseph's University is close by with parts of its campus in Merion, Bala Cynwyd and West Philadelphia, Villanova University, straddling Lancaster Avenue, and Rosemont College, on Montgomery, are also nearby, as are Cabrini College and Eastern University, both in nearby Saint David's. Haverford College is a non-denominational college on Lancaster Ave in Haverford.

Local Media

The area is covered by the print and online publication, The Main Line Times, as well as online by the Ardmore-Merion-Wynnewood Patch, a Patch Media site.

Other Facts and Features

The well-regarded 1960 dramatic film, "David and Lisa," is said to have been filmed in part at and around the Wynnewood train station.

Also located in the community is Shortridge Memorial Park, a small park in a creek valley with stone bridges under which Indian Creek flows. Recently, the Indian Creek district has been ecologically revitalized and restored. Wynnewood residents are also active in the Wynnewood Civic Association and the Shortridge Association of Wynnewood.

Notable natives and residents

• Billionaire Walter H. Annenberg, media mogul, philanthropist, arts patron, and United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (United Kingdom) died at his home in Wynnewood in 2002; his wife Leonore Annenberg continued to maintain a residence in Wynnewood until her death in 2009.
• Dr. Fordham G. Anton, the first person to identify the Herpes Simplex II virus.
• Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers lived in Wynnewood while attending Lower Merion High School, located in nearby Ardmore, Pennsylvania.
• Minnesota Timberwolves shooting guard Wayne Ellington was born in Wynnewood.
• Musician Patti Labelle resides in Wynnewood, PA.
• Henry Scattergood lived in Wynnewood until his death in 2008.
• Musician Joan Jett was born here on September 22, 1958.
• Jamie Gross, film editor, was born and raised in Wynnewood.
• Alex Scott, founder of Alex's Lemonade Stand, a non-profit raising money for pediatric cancer research.
• Jeffrey Lurie owner of the Philadelphia Eagles professional football team. Purchased Inwood, the 13-acre (53,000 m²) Annenberg Estate.
• Aaron Beck professor emeritus, the University of Pennsylvania and father of Cognitive Therapy is a resident of Wynnewood.

External links

• http://www.gayot.com/restaurants/shopping-center-landmark-building-museum/wholefoodsshoppingcenter.html
• http://www.mainlinemedianews.com/main_line_times/