Ridley Creek State Park
Ridley Creek State Park is a Pennsylvania state park in Edgmont, Middletown, and Upper Providence Townships, Delaware County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park, about north of the county seat of Media, offers many recreational activities, such as hiking, biking, fishing, and picnicking within preserved old-growth forest. Ridley Creek passes through the park. Highlights include a paved multi-use trail, a formal garden designed by the Olmsted Brothers, and Colonial Pennsylvania Farmstead, which recreates daily life on a pre-Revolutionary farm. The park is adjacent to the John J. Tyler Arboretum. Ridley Creek State Park is just over from downtown, Philadelphia between Pennsylvania Route 352 and Pennsylvania Route 252 on Gradyville Road.
History
Prior to European settlement, the Ridley Creek State Park area was home to the Lenni Lenape. The area was originally settled by English Quakers and remained agrarian into the twentieth century. The oldest property is the 1683 Worrel House. In 1718 a water mill, then known as Providence Mill, began to grind corn. In the late 18th century a plaster mill was established next to the grist mill. A rolling and slitting mill replaced the plaster mill by 1812, and became known as Bishop's Mills. Workers cottages, a dam, and several outbuildings complete the mill complex, now known as Sycamore Mills. The mills operated until 1901, when they were damaged by fire.The bulk of the property was acquired into the state park system in the 1960s from the estate of well known horse breeder Walter M. Jeffords Sr. and his wife Sarah, a niece of Samuel D. Riddle. The Jeffords had originally acquired the land starting about 1912 in small parcels, until they had over, which was the largest private undeveloped property in the Philadelphia area by the 1960s. By 1918 they had built a large mansion, now the park office, around a stone colonial farmhouse. Twenty-four other historic properties were located on the grounds, many farmsteads that had retained family ownership since the seventeenth century. These properties were acquired by the Pennsylvania State Parks system in the 1960s using "Project 70" funds, with facilities dedicated to public use during August of 1972. In 1976 these properties were registered on the National Register of Historic Places as a national historic district.
In 2024, Ridley Creek State Park was added to the National Old-Growth Forest Network, Pennsylvania's 32nd such woodland added to the registry.