Overbrook Park, Philadelphia

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox settlement | name = Overbrook Park | official_name = | settlement_type = [[List of Philadelphia neighborhoods|Neighborhood of Philadelphia]]   | image_skyline = Rose Playground in Overbrook Park.jpg | imagesize = | image_caption = Rose Playground in Overbrook Park | image_flag = | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = United States | subdivision_type1 = State | subdivision_type2 = County | subdivision_type3 = City | subdivision_name1 = [[Pennsylvania]] | subdivision_name2 = [[Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]] | subdivision_name3 = [[Philadelphia]]  | mapsize = 300px | map_caption = | pushpin_map = Philadelphia | pushpin_label_position = | pushpin_map_caption = | pushpin_mapsize = | coordinates = {{Coord|39.977|-75.265|format=dms|display=title}}  | postal_code_type = | postal_code = | area_codes = [[Area codes 215, 267, and 445|215, 267, and 445]] | background_color =   }} '''Overbrook Park''' is a [[neighborhood]] in the [[West Philadelphia]] section of [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], United States. It was founded in the 1940s on the site of a former farm known as Supio's farm, offering new housing for returning [[G.I. (military)|GI]]s and their families. Overbrook Park is a largely [[middle-class]] [[African-American]] and historically [[Jewish]] neighborhood.

==Boundaries== Overbrook Park is bounded by [[Overbrook, Philadelphia|Overbrook]] to the east, [[Penn Wynne]] to the north, [[Upper Darby]] to the south and west, and [[Havertown]] to the west. The main artery is Haverford Avenue which goes into Penn Wynne across City Avenue where it becomes Haverford Road. Haverford Avenue and 75th Street connect it to Lansdowne Avenue on the Overbrook side, which continues south through Upper Darby where it becomes State Road. Haverford Avenue, 76th Street, and 77th Street connect it to City Avenue on the Penn Wynne side.

The neighborhood spans for approximately four city blocks west to east along City Avenue, and approximately ten smaller blocks north to south on either side of 76th Street. Overbrook Park has a public school named after [[Robert Eneas Lamberton]], a former Republican mayor of Philadelphia. It was once a K–12 school and the only one of its kind in Philadelphia. Today it is a K-8 school. Lamberton School is located at 75th Street and Woodbine Avenue.

==History== Overbrook Park used to have a large Jewish population.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LS_Ux3CEI5QC| title=Principles of linguistic change: Social factors, Volume 2| series=Language in society| author= William Labov| publisher=Wiley-Blackwell| date= 2001| isbn= 0-631-17916-X}}</ref> There was an [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] and a [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]] [[synagogue]]. Most of the Jewish people have moved across [[City Avenue]] ([[U.S. Route 1 in Pennsylvania|U.S. 1]]) into neighboring [[Penn Wynne, Pennsylvania|Penn Wynne]] in [[Lower Merion Township]]. The Jewish community of both sides of the border are considered to be one unit and are connected by an [[eruv]], a wire attached to the telephone and electric poles which allows religious Jews to carry things on [[Shabbat]].<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.pjvoice.com/v15/15608keruv.html| title=Building "Keruv". The Main Line Eruv| newspaper=The Philadelphia Jewish Voice| date= September 2006}}</ref>

The Orthodox Congregation Beth Hamedrosh was founded in the late 1950s as a branch of Beth Hamedrosh HaGadol in West Philadelphia. The congregation moved to Penn Wynne in May 2007, after having purchased the site in 2000.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.pjvoice.com/v25/25600community.aspx| title=Torah Scrolls Brought to New Home of Beth Hamedrosh| newspaper=The Philadelphia Jewish Voice| date= July 2007}}</ref> The Building that housed Beth Hamedrosh is now Temple Kefarym, a [[Black Hebrew]] congregation which is now boarded up following a fire.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2UvlpOPBes8C&q=overbrook+park&pg=PA47| title=Historic Synagogues of Philadelphia & the Delaware Valley| author=Julian H. Preisler| publisher=The History Press| date=2008| isbn=978-1-59629-572-8| pages=47, 48, 102| access-date=2017-10-31| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022115918/http://books.google.ch/books?id=2UvlpOPBes8C&dq=overbrook+park&pg=PA47&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=overbrook%20park&f=false| archive-date=2012-10-22| url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Conservative Congregation Beth T'fillah, originally called Overbrook Park Congregation founded in 1948,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://law.justia.com/cases/pennsylvania/superior-court/1952/171-pa-super-581-0.html|title=Phila. v. Overbrook Park Congregation|work=Justia Law|access-date=2017-06-27|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2UvlpOPBes8C&q=overbrook+park&pg=PA52| title=Historic Synagogues of Philadelphia & the Delaware Valley| author=Julian H. Preisler| publisher=The History Press| date=2008| isbn=978-1-59629-572-8| page=52| access-date=2017-10-31| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022125817/http://books.google.ch/books?id=2UvlpOPBes8C&dq=overbrook+park&pg=PA52&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=overbrook%20park&f=false| archive-date=2012-10-22| url-status=dead}}</ref> closed down in the fall of 2006 and merged with Temple Adath Israel in [[Merion, Pennsylvania|Merion]], Lower Merion Township due to a lack of sufficient membership.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.pjvoice.com/v4/434merger.html|newspaper=The Philadelphia Jewish Voice | title=CJC Seeks CJC for a Serious Long-term Relationship| date=October 2005}}</ref> The building that housed Beth T'fillah is now Overbrook Park Church of Christ.

In 1990, Overbrook Park had some 7,200 residents, mostly of Jewish, Italian and Irish origins. During the mid-1990s, the neighborhood started to become majority African American. By 2000, the neighborhood's population had become nearly 60% African American.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://184.82.180.140/index.php| title=Overbrookpark| publisher=Jewocity.com| access-date=2011-08-30| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331113026/http://184.82.180.140/index.php| archive-date=2012-03-31| url-status=dead}}</ref> Today it is approximately 81% African American <ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/n/overbrook-philadelphia-pa/residents/|title=Overbrook Demographics}}</ref>

Despite the demographic change, there are still several [[kosher]] establishments in Overbrook Park. In 2017, [[Chabad]] of Penn Wynne and Congregation Beth Hamedrosh, formerly of Overbrook Park, were awarded a grant by The Kohelet Foundation to assist with promoting Overbrook Park as an affordable neighborhood for young Jewish families.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://jewishexponent.com/2017/03/15/kohelet-foundation-awards-grant-wynnewood-area-shuls-publicity-content/|title=Kohelet Foundation Awards Grant to Wynnewood-Area Shuls for Publicity Content|last=Kurland|first=Rachel|date=2017-03-15|website=Jewish Exponent|access-date=2017-05-12}}</ref> Starting with [[Rosh Hashana]] in September 2020, Chabad of Penn Wynne is now located in Overbrook Park in the same shopping center that is home to New York Bagels. It was previously located at the Kaiserman JCC across City Line Avenue but had to relocate due to the coronavirus pandemic. After 13 years with no synagogue, Overbrook Park again has a synagogue.

Overbrook Park is the birthplace of actor [[Seth Green]].<ref>{{IMDb name|1293|Seth Green}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{cite book| author=Allen Meyers| title=The Jewish Community of West Philadelphia| publisher=Arcadia| date=2001| isbn=0-7385-0854-3| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=caX_Kb2V0YIC}} * {{cite web| url=http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Philadelphia_Research_Initiative/Philadelphia-Population-Ethnic-Changes.pdf/| title=A City Transformed. The Racial and Ethnic Changes in Philadelphia Over the Last 20 Years| date=June 1, 2011| publisher=The Philadelphia Research Initiative| access-date=August 30, 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120904133602/http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Philadelphia_Research_Initiative/Philadelphia-Population-Ethnic-Changes.pdf| archive-date=September 4, 2012| url-status=dead}}

Facebook page :https://www.facebook.com/OverbrookParkCivicAssociation

[[Category:Jews and Judaism in Philadelphia]] [[Category:Irish-American neighborhoods]] [[Category:Overbrook, Philadelphia]]