Brewerytown Garden

Collection Metadata

Subject

Hildebrand, Sharon
Brewerytown Garden (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Community gardens -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
Urban gardening -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
Neighborhood Gardens Trust

Description

Located at 27th and Master Streets, Brewerytown Garden was originally established in 2011 as Marathon Farm, a farm-to-table restaurant enterprise with a small designated space for community members to grow their own produce. By 2014, the restaurant’s interest in this project had waned, and neighbors swiftly took steps to ensure that the garden would remain part of the neighborhood, working in tandem with community leaders and local government officials to re-establish it in 2015 as Brewerytown Garden, an entirely community-run, nonprofit organization. Later that same year, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation selected Brewerytown Garden as its first preservation garden in its recently-founded FarmPhilly program. Through that alliance, Brewerytown Garden was able to secure half its land through the city of Philadelphia.

Sitting on just over a half acre of land, Brewerytown Garden is presently equipped with running water, electricity, greenhouse, tool shed, composting bins, picnic and event area, community board, beehives, and over 80 individual garden plots for growing organic produce. It provides a place where members of the community can meet and learn from one another, grow organic produce, practice sustainable living, and share food, knowledge, and friendship with all of our neighbors. We are a multicultural, diverse, and all-inclusive group of households from Brewerytown, Strawberry Mansion, and North Fairmount passionate about providing ever-increasing access to healthy food and a vibrant, serene community gathering space in our neighborhood. -- Brewerytown Website, accessed February 2, 2023

The collection contains images from PHS McLean Library and includes an interview by Joe Makuc with Sharon Hildebrand