TORRESDALE, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

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'Torresdale', also formerly known as Torrisdale, is a neighborhood in the Far Northeast section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Torresdale is located along the Delaware River between Holmesburg and Bensalem Township in neighboring Bucks County.
The adjacent confluence of the Poquessing Creek with the Delaware River had been favored by William Penn's surveyor, Thomas Holme, as the site for the city that Penn planned to found. Although a more southerly site was finally selected, Holme and others acquired property there, where he is buried.
Torresdale was named by Charles Macalester for his Scotland home.
Before the Act of Consolidation, 1854, Torresdale had been part of Delaware Township of Philadelphia County, and before 1853, part of Lower Dublin Township of the same county.
Long before there was what is referred to today as the Pennsylvania Main Line, Torresdale, along with Holmesburg to its south and Andalusia to its north, had been Philadelphia's posh suburban neighborhood, as evidenced by, for example, Glenn Foerd on the Delaware, a luxurious riverside estate.
Torresdale is the site of Holy Family University.
Prominent former residents include Virginia Knauer, William J. Green, Jr., William J. Green, III, Francis Anthony Drexel, Saint Mother Katharine Drexel, 1930s news commentator Boake Carter and Gia Carangi.