End of the Line Traditional Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Hillcrest Park in Erdenheim has an interesting history that includes competing trolley car lines from Philadelphia and Bethlehem and a large, turn-of-the-century amusement park. As you read the interpretive sign near the sensory garden try to imagine life here more than 100 years ago.
Springfield Township (Montgomery County, Pennsylvania) traces its founding back to William Penn's designation as a Manor named for his first wife circa 1681. The Penn family held all the land for the first 50 or so years. Located just outside the city limits of Philadelphia, it is today a quiet suburb that belies its interesting history.
Erdenheim (German for “earthly home”) is just one of the four towns of Springfield. Oreland, Flourtown and Wyndmoor are the others. A major feature of Erdenheim is Hillcrest Park, including Cisco Pond, on Montgomery Avenue. This sylvan glade does not give a hint of its earlier features; a large amusement park with boat rides, a roller coaster and shooting gallery. Built by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company around 1897, the park attracted thousands of visitors on the weekends when the trolleys would otherwise be near empty. The No. 23 bus that runs along Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill today was once a trolley route that extended all the way down the hill to Chestnut Hill Park, AKA White City Park. In addition, another trolley car line serviced the opposite direction on Bethlehem Pike (then known as the Chestnut Hill and Springhouse Turnpike Road) and also terminated in the same area. So, for these two separate trolley car lines Erdenheim, and more specifically, the amusement park, was the End of the Line.
Laid out in 1904, Terminal Avenue in Erdenheim was named for these trolley car stations, one of which was located on the grounds of the present day Rittenhouse Lumber Company. It is here at the foot of Terminal Ave, just a short walk from the park towards the Pike, that you will find this cache.
You must be THIS TALL to ride this ride ;-)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
gerr