Sunday, February 20, 2011

Ridley's Migdetville

I still keep getting asked about Ridley's "Midgetville" across from Taylor Hospital on Princeton Ave. The rumour has always been that the houses, the few that are left were built for midgets because the doorways are so low. The story is far from the truth. The area  along  Stoney Creek and Princeton Ave were built about 1910 by Norman P. Sloan. Sloan, a wealthy cotton broker from England developed the area to look like medieval England in Tudor style thats why the low doorways.If you look at the few house that are still standing they have that English "Tudor" look. Sloan lived on  Chester Pike  and rented the houses till about 1930 when he sold them. There was a swan pond on Chester Pike at the entrance in the early days. Many of the houses were torn down in 1970 when Parkewood Towers were built. Parkewood Towers was the original entrance to the development. I just added a map of the area to the Ridley Township page on my website if you want to see what it originally looked like.

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