“Quarry Rock Garden” is the working title of the space the Friends of the Cresheim Trail have begun restoring in earnest. As the name suggests, it was at one time a quarry, and later a rock garden, before falling into disrepair. Roughly an acre in size, it’s the signature feature of the Friends Loop trail.
In 2023, FOCT opened the first pass of the Friends Loop, with help from Friends of the Wissahickon, Chestnut Hill Community Association (CHCA), and Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting (CHFM). The trail traverses the eight acres of City-owned parkland between Germantown Avenue on the southwest, Cresheim Valley Drive on the southeast, the SEPTA Chestnut Hill East Line on the northeast, and the CHFM and Blossom property lines on the northwest. In 2025, we extended the trail, doubling its size to a little over a half-mile.
The Friends Loop has four access points: two from the CHFM property, and two in Mermaid Park in Chestnut Hill, the small green space at 7645 Germantown Avenue between the Mermaid Inn and Chestnut Hill Flower & Garden. It’s one of several pocket parks in Chestnut Hill cared for by CHCA, who are working with Lupine Site Design on a new design for the space.
Heading out the trail from Mermaid Park toward Cresheim Valley Drive, it turns and opens into the Quarry Rock Garden. At the turn of the 20th century, this land was owned George Woodward, who quarried the Wissahickon schist for buildings and properties in Chestnut Hill. In the 1930s, after the quarry was spent and Cresheim Valley Drive had been built, Woodward donated the land to the City of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park system. Woodward also donated the modern equivalent of $30,000 for plantings and rock features, many of which still exist, including several groupings of daffodils and rock terraces. [Chestnut Hill Conservancy.] It was used in this way for 15–20 years before falling into disrepair and becoming overgrown with vegetation.
FOCT intends to restore the space, beginning in 2026 with a Two for the Trails grant from Athletic Brewing Company, the nonalcoholic brewery based in Connecticut that has grown to 8th-largest craft brewery in America. Our plan includes restoring pathways, removing and minimizing invasive vegetation, planting native trees and shrubs, and introducing new rock features and a possible climbing route.
Through this work, we will strengthen partnerships (including CHFM and CHCA) and engage new neighbors and volunteers to help foster a longer term stewardship of the space.