Northeast Philly Buzz

A weekly look around the Northeast.

Issue 1 - The Boulevard pretzel guys and a free mansion in Burholme Park

Hey, neighbor. Welcome to the first Northeast Philly Buzz. Every Tuesday I'll send you one email about life up here, from Frankford and Tacony out to Somerton, Bustleton and Torresdale. This first one runs from Mischief Night through Sunday, Nov 8, so grab a coffee and keep it handy.

What's in this one

1

Hot picks · The Franklin Mills flea packs up for the year on Sunday, and Friday night you can pick between a carnival masquerade at Glen Foerd and a ghost walk down Torresdale Ave.

2

Field guide · An easy late-fall creek walk in Pennypack Park, starting from the Pennypack Environmental Center.

3

The scrap · A salute to the Boulevard pretzel guys, WIP finds out where Herb really is, and Frankford & Cottman celebrates a coaching change.

4

What's building · The Tacony waterfront is the Northeast's only pick on the state's draft Opportunity Zone map, and a salvage yard goes to the zoning board.

5

Makers · Free art classes on Torresdale Ave all week, starting with a family painting night.

6

Deep cut · The Ryerss mansion in Burholme Park, which a housekeeper handed to the city "free to the people forever."

7

Season · Fox Chase Farm's market, a stone soup campfire in Pennypack, and mudlarking on the Poquessing.

Hot picks

This weekend's best bets around here.

Friday is Mischief Night, so you get a $250 carnival ball at Glen Foerd or a free-to-show-up ghost walk in Tacony. Sunday is your last shot at the Franklin Mills flea until spring.

Aerial view of rows of vendor tents filling the Franklin Mills flea market lot

Photo courtesy Phila Flea Markets (via PhillyVoice)

Parkwood · Sun Nov 1 · 8am-4pm · free

The Franklin Mills Flea Market's last Sunday of the season

Phila Flea Markets' outdoor market fills the lot at 90 Franklin Mills Blvd one more time before it shuts down for the year. PhillyVoice counts more than 200 vendors and says admission and parking are free. Expect vintage clothes, records, antiques, furniture and whatever else somebody pulled out of a basement that week. Early birds are welcome, and the clocks fall back that morning, so you've got a free hour to beat them. Yes, the mall has been Philadelphia Mills since 2014. Nobody up here has called it that once. Phila Flea Markets

Three fire performers on the lawn in front of Glen Foerd's mansion at a past Masquerade Ball

Photo by Kyle Cassidy / Glen Foerd

Torresdale · Fri Oct 30 · 6:30-11pm · $250 · 21+

Glen Foerd's Masquerade Ball, "A Carnival of Curiosities"

Glen Foerd, the riverfront estate at 5001 Grant Ave, throws its big fundraiser on Mischief Night. Fire dancers, contortionists, jugglers and tarot readers roam the mansion and grounds while you work through dinner, an open bar and live music. The after-party runs till midnight down in the Rathskeller, and general admission is $250 with valet included. Mischief Night in the Northeast used to mean eggs and shaving cream. This is the version with valet. Glen Foerd

Torresdale Ave storefronts at dusk, hatch illustration

Illustration by Buzz Artist

Tacony · Fri Oct 30 · 6-7pm

Fall for Tacony: a ghost tour of the neighborhood

Tacony Together's Amarynth Ruch leads an hour on foot around Tacony, telling what the organizer calls all the spooky facts about the neighborhood. The group meets at Marie Huff Hairdressing, 6934 Torresdale Ave, and heads out from there. No price or sign-up is posted, so call Tacony Together at 267-276-2586 before you go. If the stories are half as good as what you hear in a Torresdale Ave salon chair, it's worth the hour. Tacony Together

Field guide

One useful guide to living around here.

Pennypack Creek in late fall with a heron in the shallows, hatch

Pennypack Park, from the Pennypack Environmental Center, 8600A Verree Rd, Bustleton/Fox Chase (19115)

Pennypack Park in late fall - an easy creek walk from the Pennypack Environmental Center

Early November is when I finally get back down to Pennypack. The leaves are mostly on the ground, so you can see the creek from the trail, and on a weekday afternoon it's mostly you and the dog walkers. Visit Philadelphia puts the park at nine miles of Pennypack Creek, from the Montgomery County line down to the Delaware.

The easy way in is the Pennypack Environmental Center on Verree Road, with a free lot and trails right off it. Walk down to the creek, pick a direction and turn around after about 45 minutes. Keep the creek on one side going out and the other side coming back and you can't really get lost.

The full guide covers the old mill village you're walking past, what to look for in November, and how early you need to start now that the sun sets right around 5.

Read the field guide

The scrap

The best stuff you missed in the area's social media world.

Somebody finally gave the Boulevard pretzel guys their flowers, and WIP caught Herb in the Northeast calling from a whole other country. Plus a coaching change that got the Frankford & Cottman treatment, and a lower Northeast native who wants the record corrected.

A creator talking to camera in her car, with her caption about the Boulevard pretzel guys from the 90s

The Boulevard · TikTok

"There's seriously a special place in heaven for every Philly pretzel guy from the 90s who worked on the Boulevard"

Every red light on the Boulevard used to come with a pretzel guy, and I still miss the service. TikTok

via @betsy_kenney

A caller in a red London phone box, hatch illustration

Illustration by Buzz Artist

The Northeast (allegedly) · X

"He's not in the Northeast. He's in London."

On WIP, "in the Northeast" is a whole identity, so getting outed as calling from London is a crime. X

via @j_nothdurft

Engraving-style aerial view of a celebrating crowd at a wide avenue crossing, hatch illustration

Illustration by Buzz Artist

Mayfair (Frankford & Cottman) · Bluesky

"Celebrations at Frankford & Cottman"

Two Phillies coaches are out, and somebody already dusted off the Frankford & Cottman footage for it. Bluesky

via @davethesplatter.bsky.social

Christine Nangle's Bluesky post with an Inquirer clipping that lists her alongside Phillies and Eagles greats

Clipping: The Philadelphia Inquirer

The lower Northeast · Bluesky

"I do always specify 'the lower northeast' which matters to me and no one else"

The Inquirer put her in a list with Harper, Utley, Schmidt and Kelce, and she still had a correction. Bluesky

via @nanglish.bsky.social

What's building

What's going up, getting paused, or getting fought over.

The Tacony waterfront is having a week. It's the only Northeast tract on the state's draft Opportunity Zone map, and the zoning board is scheduled to hear a salvage-yard request on New State Road on Wednesday.

The Tacony-Palmyra Bridge seen from Lardner's Point on the Tacony waterfront

Photo: Mr. Matté / CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Tacony · state deadline Wed Oct 28 · draft map

The Tacony waterfront is the Northeast's only pick on PA's draft Opportunity Zone map

Opportunity Zones give investors a federal tax break for putting money into certain low-income census tracts, and Pennsylvania is picking its next round now. The Northeast Times says the state's draft map has exactly one Northeast tract, and it takes in part of the Tacony waterfront, where a marina project has been pitched. The state has until Wednesday, Oct 28 to send in its nominations, and the new zones are expected to start in January 2027. It's a draft, and the state says it's still weighing more tracts, so nothing's locked. One tract for the whole Northeast, though, means Tacony is carrying the team. Northeast Times · PA DCED

A generic riverside industrial lot, hatch illustration

Illustration by Buzz Artist

Tacony · Wed Oct 28 · 2pm · ZBA decision hearing

A junk and salvage yard proposed for 6745-95 New State Rd goes to the zoning board

The Zoning Board of Adjustment is scheduled to hear a request on Wednesday, Oct 28 at 2pm to use the big riverside property at 6745-95 New State Rd as a junk and salvage yard. The city denied the permit, so the applicant needs a special exception from the board. ZBA votes are real decisions, though hearings get continued all the time, so check the board's page that morning. Same week the state is looking at this riverfront for tax-break investment, somebody wants to park scrap on it. Zoning Board

Makers

Local makers nights and market tables worth hitting.

Tacony LAB on Torresdale Ave doesn't charge a dime for its classes, and this week it's got a family painting night, then embroidery, drawing and a sew-your-own tote.

Tacony LAB's Painting With A Treat title card with a paintbrush

Image: Tacony LAB

Tacony · Wed Oct 28 · 5-7pm · free · families with kids 8-16

Painting With A Treat at Tacony LAB

Tacony LAB, the community arts center at 6918 Torresdale Ave, runs a family painting night with artist Bob Dix as part of Fall for Tacony. You and your kid, ages 8 to 16, make a fall painting together in one two-hour session. It's free, and you sign up on Eventbrite or in person at the LAB. Two hours of your kid making art somewhere that isn't your kitchen table is a bargain at any price, and this one's zero. Eventbrite

An embroidered pumpkin in a wooden hoop

Image: Tacony LAB

Tacony · Mon Nov 2 - Wed Nov 4 · free

Tacony LAB's free November classes: embroidery, drawing club and a beginner tote

Tacony LAB's November lineup starts Monday. Beginning Embroidery with Michelle Gibbs is a two-part class, Mondays Nov 2 and 9 from 6 to 8, for ages 13 and up. Drawing Club with Bob Dix runs Tuesday, Nov 3 from 4 to 8 and is open to all ages, with an adult along for kids under 13. Beginning Sewing with Maryann Evans is Wednesday, Nov 4 from 6 to 8:30, and you leave with a tote bag you made. None of it costs anything. The one catch is the LAB's no-show rule, because skip the first class without calling and you lose your seat. Tacony LAB

Deep cut

One local history leftover worth knowing.

The Ryerss mansion and its cupola on the hill in Burholme Park, hatch

Ryerss Museum & Library · 7370 Central Ave, Burholme Park, Fox Chase (19111)

The Ryerss mansion - how a housekeeper gave Burholme Park a museum "free to the people forever"

Eight months before he died, a well-off Philadelphian named Robert Ryerss married his longtime housekeeper, Mary Ann Reed, and Philadelphia society lost its mind. His will said that once she was gone, the family mansion in what's now Burholme Park would go to the city, "free to the people forever."

Mary Ann didn't wait. She handed it over in 1905, the museum opened in 1910, and then she went around the world collecting things to fill it. The back galleries were added in 1923 because her haul didn't fit.

The full story has the family pet cemetery that's still out front, the stuffed alligator Hidden City found in the dining room, and the hours, which are Friday through Sunday, free.

Read the deep cut

Season

What's in the air right now. Farm stands, orchards, peak harvest.

Fox Chase Farm's market is open every weekday afternoon, and next Friday Pennypack is cooking soup over a campfire. The Saturday after, Glen Foerd takes people into the Poquessing at low tide to dig for old stuff.

Fox Chase Farm's stone bank barn

Photo: Hshuvaeva / CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Fox Chase · Mon-Fri 1-3pm, Sat 10am-1pm

Fox Chase Farm's farm market

The School District runs Fox Chase Farm at 8500 Pine Rd as a working teaching farm, and its market sells a rotating mix of fresh produce and local goods. What's in the bins changes week to week and goes while supplies last, so don't come in with a shopping list. The farm itself is open to the public Monday through Saturday from 1 to 5, weather permitting, with goats and chickens to visit. My move is a weekday at 1, buy whatever looks good, then go bother the goats. Fox Chase Farm

A cauldron of soup over a campfire, hatch illustration

Illustration by Buzz Artist

Bustleton · Fri Nov 6 · 5:30-7pm · $5 cash or a vegetable

Stone Soup Campfire at the Pennypack Environmental Center

The Pennypack Environmental Center on Verree Road cooks a pot of soup in a cauldron over the campfire and tells the Stone Soup story while it simmers. Everybody brings $5 cash or one vegetable, marshmallows are included, and you register ahead through PEC's form. It's outdoors in almost any weather and works best for adults and families with older kids and teens. PEC says nobody sells tickets to this, so anyone who tries is a scammer. I'm bringing an onion and pretending it's a big contribution. PEC listing

A hand holding a small ceramic animal figure found in the creekbed

Photo: Glen Foerd

Torresdale · Sat Nov 7 · noon-1pm

Mudlarking with Cory Kram at Glen Foerd

Cool weather's back, so Glen Foerd is taking people into the Poquessing creekbed at low tide to see what turns up. Former artist-in-residence Cory Kram leads the hunt from the estate at 5001 Grant Ave. Sign-up details are on Glen Foerd's events page. It's a treasure hunt where the map is a tide chart and the dress code is boots you don't love. Glen Foerd

See you on the Boulevard.

Northeast Philly Buzz · written from around here · Tuesday mornings

You received this because you subscribed to Northeast Philly Buzz. Unsubscribe.
101 Cheryl Dr, Downingtown, PA 19335