The stretch of Huntingdon Pike between Welsh Road and County Line has spent the last nine months looking a little thinner than usual. Iron Hill's windows went dark last September when the company filed for Chapter 7. A few doors down, the same regulars kept looping the Pennypack Trail as if nothing had changed. By the end of June, one of those two facts stops being true.
Here is the argument this post is built on: Huntingdon Valley's summer doesn't happen at a town square, because we don't really have one. It happens along a single north-south axis — the Pennypack Trail and Huntingdon Pike running roughly parallel — and that corridor is quietly reassembling itself right now.
The Pike is coming back online
The Iron Hill Brewery at 785 Huntingdon Pike is on the last leg of the new ownership group's revival tour. Iron Hill's Hershey location will be back in business June 1, with the Huntingdon Valley and Lancaster brewpubs to follow by June 30, per spokesperson Paul Furiga.
This is not the same company that closed. In January, a new ownership group acquired Iron Hill's trademark and intellectual property in conjunction with the transfer of five restaurant leases. It would later be revealed that the group includes original cofounder Mark Edelson and other former executives of the brewery, which was founded in Delaware in 1996. The team leading the reopening pairs Edelson with Director of Operations Alexis Lundeen, Chef Walter Weddington III, Regional Brewer Matt Gundrum, and General Manager Eric Maney.
Two details worth holding onto. First, the new team rolled out a new loyalty program and announced special offers, such as a free beer and free appetizer for patrons with pre-bankruptcy gift cards that are no longer usable. If you have an old card in a kitchen drawer, it now has value again. Second, Huntingdon Valley was chosen. Plenty of former Iron Hills across the region are still sitting vacant seven months after bankruptcy, including the Chestnut Hill, Exton, North Wales, and Media locations, which are being marketed for lease. Ours got the phone call.
The trail is the actual main street
If the Pike is where the businesses live, the Pennypack Trail is where the neighborhood actually spends its Saturday. The Pennypack Trail was built on the Fox Chase-Newtown SEPTA rail line. It is a 6.2 mile crushed stone path that travels along a scenic corridor beginning at Rockledge Park and continuing north to the Bucks-Montgomery border at County Line Road. Most residents know the middle third. Fewer use the ends, and the ends are where the summer opens up.
Three trailheads, three different afternoons:
- 183 Moredon Road (Lorimer Park lot). The full-service option. Restrooms, water, picnic tables, the shortest walk to Council Rock and the creek.
- 800 Welsh Road (Bethayres). The commuter start. Portable restrooms only, but you can go north into Bryn Athyn or south toward Lorimer with roughly equal mileage before you have to turn around.
- 1750 Byberry Road (near Mason's Mill Business Park). The northern terminus. Portable restrooms. From here you can walk straight into the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust's land, or cross under the Pennsylvania Turnpike and pick up the Newtown Rail Trail into Bucks County.
That last connection is the one most residents still haven't used. The trail previously terminated at Byberry Road in Bryn Athyn. On May 11, 2021, an extension north to County Line Road at the Bucks County border opened, which crosses under both a Norfolk Southern Railway bridge and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. A connection at County Line Road links the Pennypack Trail to the partially-completed Newtown Rail Trail which will eventually extend to Newtown, Bucks County.
The trail also crosses the active SEPTA West Trenton Line at a grade crossing. If you are riding with kids, that is the spot to dismount and push buttons before proceeding.
What Lorimer holds that most residents underuse
Lorimer Park is the anchor, and yet most people who live within three miles of it have only seen the picnic pavilion.
This 230 acre oasis of woods and meadows, in the suburbs of eastern Abington Township, attracts visitors to its natural beauty year-round. A bequest from the late George Horace Lorimer, former Editor-in-Chief of The Saturday Evening Post, Lorimer Park is a haven for wildlife under a canopy of huge trees. Activities include hiking, picnicking, bird and animal watching, horseback riding (with your own horse), and, in the winter, sledding and cross-country skiing.
Two things to know for summer specifically. For the angler, Pennypack Creek is stocked with trout by the PA Fish & Boat Commission. Overlooking the creek is majestic Council Rock where, legend says, Native Americans used to meet to plan their activities. A PA fishing license is a fifteen-minute purchase online and unlocks the closest stocked water to most Huntingdon Valley front doors.
The second thing is a schedule quirk worth writing down. The main gates by the picnic area and bathrooms will be CLOSED on weekends and during major holidays during daylight savings time (March to November). For traffic control and visitor safety only vehicles with registered handicap tags will be admitted. Translation: if you want to drive into Lorimer for a Saturday picnic in July, you cannot. You park at Moredon and walk in. Plan food and cooler weight accordingly.
For the residents who want more solitude than Lorimer offers on an August afternoon, cross Moredon and keep going. PERT has eleven miles of woodland, meadow and creekside trails for hikers of all levels across more than 850 acres of preserved open space. You can enjoy the rolling hills and spectacular views of the 160-acre Raytharn Farm on the Raytharn Trail, walk through the old-growth forest on the Peak Trail or enjoy the calming sounds and sights of Pennypack Creek on the Creek Road Trail. The Peak Trail through the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust is the quietest walk within a fifteen-minute drive of the Pike.
The June-through-August calendar worth pinning
A handful of dated events anchor the summer without leaving zip code 19006.
AHF June Fete Fair & Horse & Pony Show 2026 — Friday, June 5, from 4:00 PM, at 2990 Edge Hill Road. A benefit event that has been part of the Huntingdon Valley summer for decades and reads like a small county fair transplanted onto a horse farm.
The county's Pennypack Trail page also flags smaller closures worth watching before you commit to a bike ride. Recent notices covered a Welsh Road closure and a Moredon Road parking lot repaving that ran into early June. Check the Montgomery County parks page before you drive to a trailhead on a weekday.
The Huntingdon Valley Library keeps a live calendar as well, and it is more active in July and August than most residents realize. Summer reading kickoffs, family movie afternoons, and adult programming show up on short notice.
Where locals actually eat after
The dining conversation in Huntingdon Valley usually reduces to Iron Hill on one end and pizza on the other. The middle is more interesting than that.
- Cafe Carmela. Cafe Carmela in Huntingdon Valley is known as a popular Italian family restaurant. Its namesake is the owner's mother who was born in Italy. Traditional menu, low-drama room, the kind of Sunday early-dinner reservation you make for your parents.
- La Voglia Mediterranean. The consensus favorite among the newer arrivals on the local review sites. A room that punches above the storefront exterior.
- White Elephant. A beloved Thai spot with consistent quality and attentive service, the popular entrees start around $18 during dinner. Go for a steaming bowl of coconut soup, or a plate of drunken noodles with tofu and shrimp — the vegetable tofu soup and jasmine tea are our favorites. Open until 10pm most nights, it's also a great spot for a cozy celebration meal.
- La Strada. Whenever you need something comforting after a long week, head to La Strada Italian Restaurant for pasta specials and tiramisu. The cozy family-owned spot in Huntingdon Valley feels like a neighborhood gem, and a BYOB bottle of wine will set you up for a relaxed evening of good conversation.
- First Watch. Just off the main thoroughfare in Huntingdon Valley, First Watch should be near the top of your list for a convenient yet special morning meal. The popular breakfast spot's family-oriented location serves up its famous smoked salmon and roasted vegetable frittata in a clean, inviting atmosphere.
- Naked Brewing Company. A working brewery that hosts recurring events beyond taproom hours, including regular pop-ups worth checking on Friday and Saturday nights.
Also on the list without long descriptions: Amalfi Ristorante, Sutton's, Ginger, Lascala's Fire, and Geronimo's, each of which shows up repeatedly on local ranked lists.
A summer routine that uses the whole corridor
Here is the version of a July Saturday that most residents don't realize is available inside their own zip code. Park at 1750 Byberry Road at 8:30 AM. Walk south three miles into the PERT lands and back before the humidity turns. Drop the dog at home. Drive four minutes down Huntingdon Pike to First Watch for a late breakfast, or drive nine minutes to the reopened Iron Hill at 785 for a lunch that did not exist last summer. Take a nap. In the evening, walk into Lorimer from Moredon with a blanket, watch Council Rock catch the last light, then finish at La Strada with a bottle you brought yourself.
That entire loop lives inside a two-mile-wide strip of Huntingdon Valley. It uses one trail, one park, one country road, and one commercial pike. If you moved here for the yard and the schools, the corridor is the part you may still be underusing.
The one number worth stating plainly: the Pennypack Trail is a 16.8-mile trail and is part of the Circuit Trails network, a system of multi-use trails in the Greater Philadelphia and southern New Jersey region that when finished will include more than 850 miles of trails. Sixteen of those miles start behind your neighborhood.
If you have been thinking about what your Huntingdon Valley home is actually worth this summer, or you are watching the corridor and wondering whether now is the right moment to buy nearby, Hernan Alvarado Jr. works this market in English and Spanish and would rather have a straight conversation than a sales pitch. Let's Connect.
