Mayfair. As a neighborhood, it's a node in history with connections in several directions. Its residential vernacular is primarily the rowhome,
but with a newer twist than the rest of the city. Many of them were built just before WWII in beautiful stone with grass front lawns, which is
appropriately symbolic given Mayfair's physical location. To its south and west, urban Philadelphia where rowhome reigns. To its north and
east, the great beyond, where suburbs began flourishing after the same war was over. This flourishing came largely in part to mass urban
exodus, but Mayfair has seemed to survive white flight, even if its art deco era (Mayfair Theatre, to name one) succumbed.
Mayfair is a stable neighborhood of roughly 30,000, mostly white, proud of its proximity to Pennypack Park, its landmark Diner and now its Grey
Lodge Pub, named recently by Beer Advocate one of the 50 best
bars in America. Head northeast and shoot for somewhere between Frankford Ave, the Boulevard and Pennypack Park -- try Cottman, for example --
and you'll be headed in the right direction.
This is Mayfair of the Great Northeast.
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