Francisville, a neighborhood in North Philadelphia, is a neighborhood on the rise. Running between Broad and Corinthian Street, Fairmount and Girard Avenues, Francisville has seen a considerable amount of new construction and redevelopment in the last few years, and things do not seem to be slowing down. Once a thriving commercial corridor, Ridge Avenue runs through the middle of the neighborhood. Ridge is in the stages of a recovery, with older buildings getting fixed up and new buildings getting built. The Francisville Playground is located on the 700 block of Francis Street and boasts a full baseball field, children's play area, two basketball courts and a large community pool, giving the neighborhood’s young families a great public space to enjoy. And with close proximity to Fairmount Avenue, there are plenty of bars and restaurants very close by. Already a good place to live, Francisville will only get more desirable in the years to come.
Francisville is sometimes considered to be a part of the Fairmount neighborhood, but Fairmount more specifically lies to Francisville's west. To its south is the Spring Garden neighborhood. Francisville's street grid is unique because some of it is parallel to Ridge Avenue, rather than being oriented North-South. This is because this section was settled before the uniform street grid of Philadelphia had extended that far north. The community was likely a small village on the Ridge Avenue route from Philadelphia proper (today's Center City) to East Falls.
The neighborhood’s location provides residents easy access to the area’s major arteries including North Broad Street (Route 6110, Girard Avenue and Spring Garden Streets as well as Interstate-676 and 76. Further, the area is served by Broad Street Subway stations at Fairmount and Girard Avenues, the SEPTA Route 15 trolley, in addition to the 2, 33, and 61 bus routes.
