From a Native American fishing village to East Falls, Philadelphia:
Pre 1600’s – 1775 (ish) Lenni Lenape tribes settle villages along the “Ganshewahanna” (meaning “noisy river”)
1660 — Oldest house in Philadelphia, “Boelsen Cottage” built on West River Drive
1668 — Grist Mill erected at mouth of Wissahickon, on grounds of Philadelphia Canoe Club
1677 -1680 — Garret Garrettson (a Swede) buys land from the Lenni Lenape to build a one-room log cabin at Vaux and Ainslie
1682 — Richard Townsend builds first mill on the Wissahickon
1685 — Second-oldest house in Philadelphia, the Rittenhouse homestead, is built along the Wissahickon
1686 — Provincial Council of Pennsylvania orders construction of the “King’s Highway” following
the existing Native American trail from Philadelphia to Trenton NJ, part of which is now Lincoln Drive
1686 – 1689 — Robinson Mills built at Ridge Ave and the Wissahickon
1689 — William Penn Charter School founded
1690 — Ridge Road and “Rocks Burrow” established as prime farming & milling locations
1695 — One-room house of Kelpius the Mystic built for the “Ridge Hermits” of Hermit Lane
1730’s — Heyday of stagecoach travel on Ridge Road, “The Great Road from Philadelphia to Reading”
1731 — The Falls Tavern opens at the foot of Indian Queen Lane and Ridge Ave
1732 — First fishery in East Fall built “Fort St. David”
1777 — Battle of Germantown
Continental Army camps land where hill of Queen Lane Reservoir now stands
Lafayette sets up headquarters in McMichael Park
1802 — Ravenhill estate built for pharmaceutical tycoon William Weightman
1811 — Ridge Road paved
1819 — William Smith donates land for Carfax Building on Indian Queen for education and religious services
1834 — Philadelphia rowing clubs begin to hold regattas
The first train passes through East Falls on its way to Manayunk
1835 — Laurel Hill Cemetery is chartered
1842 — The Philadelphia & Reading Railway opens, providing transport of hard coal from Schuylkill County’s anthracite fields to the city’s harbors
1846 — Nations first iron railroad bridge opens on the Philadelphia & Reading near Manayunk
1848 — Powers, Weightman & Harrison Chemical Company opens its doors on Ridge Avenue
1850 — Female Medical College is formed by group of male Quaker reformers to educate women as doctors
1851 — Cornerstone laid for Falls of Schuylkill Baptist Church
The “Old Yellow Schoolhouse” aka Forest School is erected
1852 — Pittsburgh & Philadelphia are linked by rail & inclined planes (travel time: 3 ½ days)
1853 — Cornerstone laid for St. Bridget Church
1855 — Dobson Mills is built on Scotts Lane
1857 — German stone mason Henry Becker opens Becker Brewery in Dutch Hollow
(area between Henry and Ridge, along & around Indian Queen Lane)
1868 — The Mason’s building on Ridge completed. Known then as an International Order of Odd Fellows Lodge (Falls of Schuylkill Lodge, Number 467 )
1870 — Jacob Hohenadel takes over Becker’s Brewery, renames it Falls Park Brewery
1872 — Dobson Mills destroyed by Fairmount Park Commission
East Falls Methodist Episcopal Church completed
1875 — Ridge Avenue Farmers’ Market built (a brick & brownstone one-story since demolished)
1878 — Arnholt & Goldbeck families establish Philadelphia Brewing Company in Dutch Hollow
James Dobson builds “Bella Vista” mansion designed by famed Philly architect Samuel Sloan
(on present-day grounds of Abbortsford Homes)
“Gale of ’78” slams East Coast, causing $2 million of damage in Philadelphia alone (a huge sum in 1878)
1884 — Philadelphia Textile School aka Philadelphia University founded in Spring Garden
1894 — Hohenadel Brewery (aka Falls Brewery) opens at Conrad and Indian Queen Lane
1895 — Falls Bridge completed, linking East Falls to West Fairmount Park
1902 — The 15-foot Lenni-Lenape statue is hauled by workhorses to its current site in the Wissahickon
(erroneously believed to be Chief Tedyuscung, but actually just a random warrior in an
historically inaccurate Western Plains war bonnet)
1913 — Falls of Schuylkill Branch library opens
Dedication of Lincoln Highway aka Route 1
1914 — Daniel Carstairs commissions “White Corners” residence at Henry & Schoolhouse
1919 — William Weightman’s daugher, Anne (at one time the world’s richest woman), deeds
Ravenhill to the Religious of the Assumption, who open a private Catholic girls’ school
1920 — Big band heartthrob Harry Prime is born above what is now Epicure Cafe in East Falls
1923 — Old Academy Players established in East Falls
1929 — Grace Kelly is born to Jack & Margaret Kelly
McMichael Park established, named for former mayor of Philadelphia
1930 — Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania relocates to East Falls (from Center City)
1932 — Inn Yard Park dedicated by Fairmount Park Commission
1933 — East Falls train station opens on Cresson Street
1936 –– Thomas Mifflin School built & named for PA’s first governor and East Falls resident
1941 — John Hohenadel and John B. Kelly fund expansions to Old Academy building (for Grace Kelly’s stage debut)
1941 — “Bella Vista” torn down (the only remnant of this estate is Chestnut Hill Coffee in the estate’s former gatehouse on the grounds of the old medical school)
1942 — Philadelphia Textile School aka Philadelphia University relocates from center city to its present home in East Falls
1947 — John B Kelly Jr (Grace’s brother) wins Sullivan Award for “outstanding amateur athlete in the United States”
1953 — Hohenadel Brewery closes for business
1956 — Grace Kelly weds Prince Rainier of Monaco
John B. Kelly Jr takes bronze medal for single scull rowing in the Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia
1982 — Grace Kelly suffers a stroke while driving in Monaco, and dies at the wheel
1997 — Ruins of Hohenadel Brewery demolished
2005 — Women’s Medical Hospital closes
2011 — Playground opens at Inn Yard Park