Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1872.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Ridley Park’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ridley Park is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #814 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Ridley Park’s overall grade.
Pennsylvania towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Pennsylvania town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Ridley Park’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (25% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.2 points). Two sources give 1870.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Ridley Park’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The Lenape inhabited the Delaware River region several centuries before the arrival of European explorers and traders. The Okehocking Tribe of the Lenni Lenape Nation established small permanent villages along the river and its main tributaries. Land adjacent to Stoney Creek in Ridley Township has been identified as a Native American town site. Historians also believe that additional villages may have existed at other locations along Stoney Creek and Crum Creek in Ridley Park.
Passages that mention Ridley Park, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania1884 · page 747Read the page →
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t About the time that the Ridley Park Association I commenced work on the improvements of what is now known as Ridley Park, the congregation of the ! Ridley Park Baptist Church, located on the Lazaretto ; road near Moore's Station, found that their church was becoming too small, and that a new building had become necessary. The newly-projected town of Ridley Park was chosen as the most central location, and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania1884 · page 735Read the page →
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Ridley Park is on that part of the tract lying north of the Queen's Highway. Directly east of the Torton land were one hundred and fifty-four acres, surveyed to Henrick Johnson and Bartoll Eskells, October, 1675, which tract stretched along Darby Creek to the mouth of Amosland Run, and thence at right angles westward to Ridley Park, which was most liberal measure, under the claim of " one hundred and fifty-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A history of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and its people1914 · page 994Read the page →
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During the nine years he has been in charge of the parish he has been instrumental in having a church erected in Ridley Park costing twenty-five thousand dollars, now fully paid and now a separate parish. The church at Norwood has also been greatly improved. In Eddystone the old church has been torn down, although erected but nineteen years earlier. In its place a beautiful stone church costing forty thousand dollars was completed in 1910. These and other evidences of material prosperity stand as evidences of Father Ryan's earnest, well directed efforts, while spiritually the increase has been very large.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Ridley Park, 1870 to 1961
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
In 1870, according to Wikidata. Ridley Park’s post office opened in 1872, and the census of 1880 counted 439 people here.
How does Ridley Park rank for history?
Ridley Park is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #814 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Ridley Park?
24% of Ridley Park’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1955.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (17), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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