Spruce Hill

Spruce Hill is a neighborhood in West Philadelphia. It is between 40th and 46th streets, and it stretches from Market Street south to Woodland Avenue. With a population of over 16,000, it is a racially and ethnically diverse part of the city where much historic architecture is preserved. It was built as a streetcar suburb for Center City between 1850 and 1910. Among its most prominent developers was financier Clarence Howard Clark Sr. (1833 – 1906), who built dozens of rowhouses, donated land for the Walnut Street West Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, settled a tax assessment by founding the 9.1-acre Clark Park, and established his mansion on the grassy block that today holds the Penn Alexander public elementary school.