Bryn Mawr
The Bryn Mawr community, best known for its many excellent private schools and
great colleges, straddles two counties and three townships. While more then half of
Bryn Mawr lies in the Lower Merion Township, it also serves residents of the Radnor
and Haverford townships. Nationally recognized as being the home of Bryn Mawr
College and locally known as a very convenient place to live, Bryn Mawr has a population
of over nine thousand residents.
The town of Bryn Mawr was born in 1704 when Rowland Ellis, a welsh tobacco plantation
owner, built a large manor house on the current geographic location of the town, calling
it Bryn Mawr, meaning high hill. Later named Humphreyville after the Thomas and
Humphrey families it belonged to, this small rural community began to grow. In about
1869, the Pennsylavnia Railroad established a new community, building a railway track,
improving existing streets, opening new roads, planting trees, subdividing properties,
and offering land for sale. Gradually, this new community, which once again adopted
the name of Bryn Mawr, was transformed from a hamlet to an active, thriving town.
By 1881, three hundred new dwellings joined the
original twenty-one houses of old Humphreyville.
The local population continued to grow,
increasing by approximately two thousand
residents every summer. As services grew in the
area, summer residences became permanent
homes. Towards the end of the nineteenth century,
the Bryn Mawr Citizens’ Association was created
to provide police protection. The Home News
and the News were responsible for keeping Bryn
Mawr residents informed. While the Bryn Mawr
Trust Company and the Bryn Mawr National Bank addressed the financial needs of the
growing town, the Bryn Mawr Water Company, the Bryn Mawr Hospital, the Bryn Mawr
Ice Company and the Bryn Mawr Fire Company took care of basic services.
As clubs, such as the Merion Cricket Club (1865), the Radnor Hunt Club (1887) and the
Bryn Mawr Polo Club (1898) began to form; Bryn Mawr became more and more attractive
to newcomers looking for good neighborhoods to settle in. Basic services led to lavish
retail. Grocery stores, ice cream parlors, bakeries, millinery shops, shoe stores and lively
stables provided residents with both necessities and luxuries. As beautiful and prestigious
estates began to develop, as well as prominent educational facilities such as the Bryn
Mawr Public School, the private Shipley and Baldwin School, and the nationally renowned
Bryn Mawr College, the town of Bryn Mawr came to be known as a luxurious, exclusive
community to live in.
Bryn Mawr College, first created by Dr. Joseph E.
Taylor in 1880, has now become an important
focus of the town, and currently owns eighty acres
of the first railroad property. In all, nine tenths of
Bryn Mawr’s acreage holds educational facilities,
which preserve and uses grand residences
designed for the wealthy by the leading architects
of the last century. Currently, the town continues
to grow as new school and college structures
as well as condominium and apartment
buildings join these pre-existing buildings.
As such, the Bryn Mawr community is changing
its physical makeup while retaining the charm
and heritage of its historical town. The square
between the railroad station and Lancaster Avenue
has been transformed from a park to a parking lot.
New shops have taken over properties that are
now adjacent to the railroad, offering a number
of shopping opportunities around the Bryn Mawr
area. In addition to a number of specialty shops,
the Bryn Mawr town center boasts of a variety of
restaurants, coffee bars, bookstores, retail and second-hand clothing shops, a movie
theater as well as The Point, a haven for singer-songwriters that draws audiences from
around the Philadelphia area. The town of Bryn Mawr has chains such as the Borders and
Barnes as Nobles bookstores, Acme grocery stores, CVS and Eckerd drug stores, as well
as Staples for school supplies. Other nationally known retail names such as Target, Best
Buy, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Lowes, Circuit City, Home Depot and Ikea can be found in the
nearby Norristown shopping complex. Furthermore, the largest mall of the east Coast, the
King of Prussia Mall, is a mere twenty minute drive away.
With many specialty services, Bryn Mawr is an extremely convenient and desirable
community to live in. The Bryn Mawr Hospital serves a wide area, and offers a special
sports medicine clinic in addition to its other services. For recreations, Bryn Mawr offers
the Bryn Mawr playground and the Bryn Mawr Community center, which offers special
athletic programs for residents of all ages. Bryn Mawr’s proximity to Philadelphia, which
is eleven miles away, allows residents a change of pace from the suburban lifestyle.
New York and Washington D.C are also relatively close by: New York is 105 miles away
while DC is 130 miles away. The nearby New Jersey shore and the Pocono Mountain
present the possibility for outdoor adventure.
