On Creighton Road in Lower Merion, it’s not unusual for residents to buy the house next door.
The owners of the 3.85-acre property at 648 Creighton Rd. did just that when they purchased the home but wanted a pool. They decided to put one on the neighboring property.
The century-old main house with seven bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, and three half bathrooms is available for $7.9 million. And the one-bedroom, one-bathroom carriage house next door that was rebuilt in 2015 is on the market for $2 million.
Creighton Road “has become the estate street,” said listing agent Lavinia Smerconish with Compass Real Estate.
The property is 3.85 acres and includes a sprawling yard.
The owners are open to selling their properties separately, but they won’t sell the carriage house before the main one in case a buyer wants both.
The fieldstone main house is 11,418 square feet. It used to have a series of small rooms for staff and a giant entrance that looked like a banquet hall that no one knew what to do with, Smerconish said. A previous owner reimagined the home with larger rooms, more natural light, and more functional space.
The home has a commercial kitchen with a large island with seating.
The front door opens to an entrance tower with a chandelier and winding staircase. Living and dining rooms branch off from the foyer with the family room straight ahead.
The home has a commercial kitchen with an island with seating. The property includes an exercise room, solarium, four fireplaces, suite above the attached garage for guests or a nanny, sprawling yard lined with trees and hedges, terraces, and detached garage. The sitting room off the primary bedroom could be kept as is or turned into a huge closet, Smerconish said.
The finished basement spans 1,538 square feet and includes a wine cellar.
The basement includes a sports bar with TVs, wine cellar for up to 3,000 bottles, movie room, gym, and bathroom.
The property “is both impressive and cozy at the same time,” Smerconish said.
The carriage house on the market for $2 million on Creighton Road in Lower Merion is being sold as a package along with the $7.9 million house next door.
The carriage house next door spans just over 1,000 square feet on an almost one-acre lot. It has a bedroom, bathroom, laundry room, eat-in kitchen, and living room. A flagstone patio leads to the heated saltwater pool.
The properties are walking distance from the Appleford estate, which is an event venue, bird sanctuary, and arboretum with gardens and walking paths. They are minutes from Villanova University and Stoneleigh, a public garden of the nonprofit Natural Lands.
And they’re also minutes from the Schuylkill Expressway and I-476.
The carriage house includes a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom.
The properties were listed for sale on Dec. 5. Now that the holidays are over, Smerconish said, she will start accepting appointments to tour them. She said photos of the main house especially don’t do it justice.
“You get more with a physical tour and experiencing it,” she said.
Flagstone surrounds the carriage house’s heated saltwater pool.
A segment of the Schuylkill River Trail that has beenclosed since October because of a sinkhole has been repaired, and reopened just in time for Christmas Eve.
Joe Syrnick, executive director of the nonprofit Schuylkill River Development Corp. (SRDC), said Wednesday afternoon that repairs finished earlier in the day.
But, he said Wednesday, the weather cooperated enough this week that a crew was able to complete the work over a few days, “as a holiday present for our trail users.”
This week, the hole was filled and paved. It reopened about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday after the paving had cooled.
“It’s open and people are already using it,” Syrnick said. “People are happy.”
Some cleanup is still needed around that area, he noted, and fencing needs to be removed. That should be finished by Friday or Monday, Syrnick said.
The Schuylkill River Trail is now open between JFK Boulevard and Race Street in Philadelphia, Pa., on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025.
The sinkhole occurred between Race Street and JFK Boulevard, just north of the SEPTA Bridge, after it formed beneath the asphalt. The trail runs along Schuylkill Banks, a portion of the Schuylkill River Trail.
The SRDC works with the city to revitalize the Schuylkill corridor from the Fairmount Dam to the Delaware River, the eight-mile stretch known as Schuylkill Banks.
The sinkhole repair presented a problem that stemmed from a steel bulkhead that was built for the trail in 1995. The bulkhead helped extend land farther into the river and create more parkland.
But gaps developed in a seal between the bulkhead and concrete sewer infrastructure. Those gaps allowed soil to seep away with the tide, eventually washing away enough to create a sizable hole.
Syrnick said the SRDC and the Philadelphia Streets, Parks and Rec, and Water Departments worked together to come up with a solution.
So workers had to seal the gaps.
The weather was clear enough this week that crews were able to pour concrete to fill part of the hole and backfill it before paving it Wednesday.
The lower Schuylkill winds 36 miles from Phoenixville in Chester County to its tidal meeting point with the Delaware River at Philadelphia’s Navy Yard, sheltering more than 40 species of fish along the way.
In Center City, the river doubles as a striking urban backdrop, bordered by a trail that can draw thousands of hikers and cyclists daily.
This year, the waterway is vying for the title of Pennsylvania’s River of the Year, an annual competition spotlighting the state’s most significant waterways.
Online voting, which began Dec. 9, runs through Jan. 16, giving Pennsylvanians the chance to select the 2026 winner from three contenders: Chillisquaque Creek, the Conestoga River, and the lower Schuylkill in the Philadelphia region.
The River of the Year program is administered by the Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers, with funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).
The contest is meant to draw public attention to rivers and their environmental importance. The winning river’s nominating organization receives a $15,000 DCNR grant to fund yearlong celebrations, including paddling events and community activities. The DCNR produces a commemorative poster in honor of the river.
Jackson Quitel, river programs coordinator for the nonprofit LandHealth Institute, said his organization nominated the Schuylkill along with a plan to educate the public “in the many wonders in this unique body of water.”
“While the Schuylkill River is widely known, not many people are aware of the immense recreational activities and ecological wonders that are present on the river today,” Quitel said.
The LandHealth Institute helps increase awareness of the river through guided walks, fishing, and kayaking, taking more than 500 people out on the water in 2025. If the Schuylkill wins, Quitel said, it would allow the group to double its reach.
Joe Syrnick, executive director of the nonprofit Schuylkill Development Corp., which helped develop the Schuylkill Banks trail along the river, called the river “a great asset to the region.”
“It would be nice to see it get the recognition it deserves,” Syrnick said.
Once a vital waterway for the Lenni-Lenape, the river later endured severe pollution from upstream coal mining and industrial waste, eventually rebounding through years of efforts, including the protections of the federal Clean Water Act.
The Schuylkill became the nation’s first municipal‑scale water system through Fairmount Water Works and continues to provide drinking water to 1.5 million people through two intakes along its banks.
The Schuylkill River Trail, a continuous corridor running alongside most of the lower Schuylkill, has broadened access to the river’s views for residents, giving them more insight into a river many were once cut off from.
Most recently, the Schuylkill Banks section in Center City debuted a new $48 million cable‑stayed, pedestrian‑only bridge, anchoring a trail extension known as the Christian to Crescent Trail Connector. The 2,800‑foot segment delivers sweeping, unobstructed views of the river.
The DCNR describes the lower Schuylkill as an “urban oasis surrounded by bustling roads and a backdrop of a gorgeous skyline.”
Pennsylvania has 25 rivers. Of those, six are federally designated as wild and scenic and 13 are state-designated scenic rivers.
Contest nominees can also include tributaries within river watersheds. For example, Chillisquaque Creek is a 20 mile-long tributary of the Susquehanna River’s west branch. It flows through Northumberland and Montour Counties.
The Conestoga, meanwhile, feeds Chesapeake Bay.
Overall, Pennsylvania has 85,000 miles of waterways, which is the highest stream density in the continental United States.
A sinkhole that shut down a segment of the popular Schuylkill Banks trail in Center City in October remains unrepaired, though work could begin early in the new year — if weather allows.
Joe Syrnick, executive director of the Schuylkill River Development Corp. (SRDC), a nonprofit that has driven the revitalization of the section of the Schuylkill River Trail known as Schuylkill Banks, said he expects repairs to start soon, though he could not offer a firm timeline.
The trail has been closed between Race Street and JFK Boulevard, just north of the SEPTA Bridge, after a “chasm”-sized void opened beneath the asphalt.
According to Syrnick, the city Streets Department will handle the repairs. The hole presented a challenge, Syrnick said, because of its size and position next to the river.
A representative for the Streets Department could not be reached Monday for comment.
Syrnick explained that the sinkhole has been far from a simple fix.
“It took a while to figure out the problem and develop a solution,” Syrnick said. “There were several dye tests and a drone flight into the sewer channel and visual observation from topside.”
The problem stems from a steel bulkhead that was built for the trail in 1995 to extend land farther into the river and create more parkland, he said.
Gaps developed in a seal between the bulkhead and concrete sewer infrastructure. It’s unclear, Syrnick said, whether those gaps occurred at the start or developed over time.
Regardless, the gaps allowed soil to seep away as the tide ebbs. Over the decades, enough soil was washed away “to create a sizable hole,” he said.
The gaps had to be sealed before anything else could be done.
So the job became more than just filling a hole. Recent progress has been halted by weather, especially recent cold and snow.
“City workers need two to three days of moderate temperatures and no rain to pour the concrete and let it cure,“ Syrnick said. ”After that, the hole has to be backfilled and paved.”
However, holidays also present a staffing issue, Syrnick said.
“In a perfect world,” he said, “the trail would be open by New Year’s or a short time after.”
SEPTA officially unveiled its long-awaited Wissahickon Transportation Center in Manayunk, which is about six times the size of the previous small bus depot.
The new center on Ridge Avenue, near Main Street, is expected to serve 5,000 bus riders a day, officials said Monday at the ribbon cutting.
Construction of the $50 million project began in 2023 at what was already one of SEPTA’s busiest transportation hubs. It is located within walking distance of the Wissahickon Regional Rail Station.
Officials say the center improves connections, provides a better waiting experience for riders, and serves as a key transportation link to busy Main Street. They also say it makes navigating the immediate area easier for buses, pedestrians, and bicyclists.
“We are making bus service safer and more reliable at one of our busiest transportation facilities,” SEPTA board chair Kenneth Lawrence said in a statement. “This new hub provides better access to work, school, and other opportunities, including reverse commute connections for Philadelphia residents to Montgomery and Delaware Counties.”
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Among the improvements:
Weather-protected waiting areas, benches, and bicycle racks
Better lighting, signs, and security cameras
A supervisor’s booth
A new left turn lane dedicated to buses on a wider road
Improved crosswalks for pedestrians crossing Ridge Avenue
Bicycle racks
Improved crosswalks
Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant boarding areas
The previous center that fronted Ridge Avenue was basically a large bus shelter where commuters who live in neighborhoods in the city’s northwest and pass through on their way to jobs in King of Prussia and Plymouth Meeting change buses.
Nearly three-quarters of the passengers who board at Wissahickon are transferring to or from other SEPTA services.
“This is our largest customer-centric bus project to date,” said SEPTA general manager Scott Sauer.
Officials say the center lays the groundwork for SEPTA’s new bus network. For about five years, the transit agency had been taking steps toward launching its first comprehensive overhaul of the bus system since SEPTA opened in 1964, but last year SEPTA put the project on indefinite pause due to funding issues.
The new center, which is immediately behind the old facility, is part of the city’s larger Wissahickon Gateway Plan to grow and improve the area where the Schuylkill and Wissahickon Creek meet at Ridge Avenue and Main Street.
The gateway plan’s goal is to address stifling traffic, dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, and provide easier access to the river.
As part of the gateway, a new trail segment is also planned that would include a paved path allowing walkers, runners, and cyclists to circumvent the busy nexus of roads, giving easier access to the Schuylkill River Trail.
When Adam Sawyer and his wife, Marissa Tan, moved to Philadelphia in 2024 from Baltimore, they were attracted to Center City by its proximity towork and mass transit.
The couple figured if they sold their car, they could even afford to rent in one of the thousands of new, high-rise apartments that have been built across Center City over the last 10 years.
Tan had just gotten a new job with the Cooper University Hospital in Camden, and Adam needed access to 30th Street Station for work. They eventually settled on the PMC Property Group’s Riverwalk North at 23rd and Arch Streets and have been impressed by the city, its transit system, and life without a car.
Adam Sawyer and his wife, Marissa Tan, moved to Philadelphia in 2024 from Baltimore.
“One of the things I love about living in a city is that you’ll be walking down the street and there are five different events you didn’t even know about,” Sawyer said. “Festivals, farmers markets, just activity, people doing things. I love that Philadelphia has so much energy.”
In many ways Sawyer and Tan — who are both 35 — are representative of the people who have taken up residence in the new apartment buildings across Center City. Between Pine and Vine Streets, river to river, 3,500 new apartments have opened since 2023.
Center City District (CCD) set out to learn more about who is calling these apartments home, with a survey of more than two dozen buildings constructed since 2015.
Like Sawyer and Tan, the vast majority of respondents to CCD’s survey are under 45 (83%), more than half don’t own a car (55%), and close to half moved from outside the Philadelphia area (44%). Sawyer works remotely like 21% of respondents, and Tan works in healthcare like 32% of them.
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In a city where a fifth of all residents live in poverty, the respondents aren’t representative of the average Philadelphian in many ways. The buildings surveyed have an average rent of $2,645, well above the median of $1,387.
But the results show that there is a market for the kind of new buildings that are still being proposed. They alsohighlight that many people are attracted to the most central parts of Philadelphia because it offersmore density, walkability, and other urban characteristics that few other American cities can boast.
“People actively choose Philadelphia over other cities and metropolitan areas because we outperform them in some ways,” said Clint Randall, vice president of Economic Development with CCD, which is funded by downtown property owners and provides advocacy and services like additional security and cleaning downtown.
“The city spent so many decades shrinking,” Randall said. “When you see this entire skyline of high-rise apartment buildings emerge, it contradicts what longtime Philadelphians think they know about this place, which is that it does not grow or attract residents.”
Reversing reverse commuting
Center City District’s survey confirmed a longtime finding of the organization’s other research reports: People who live downtown are likely to work there or very close by.
In Philadelphia, reverse commuting is common, a testament to the fact that many private-sector employers have remained outside the city to avoid wage and business taxes. But among survey respondents, only 12% commuted to the suburbs for work compared to almost 40% citywide.
Over half of respondents work in either Center City or University City, and a similar proportion work in either healthcare (32%) or in the jobs more typically associated with office towers: “business, professional, or financial services” (27%). Twenty-one percent work from home.
“A lot of people are in medicine, in healthcare. I see a lot of scrubs,” said Kaz Rivera-Gorski, about her building One Cathedral Squareat 17th and Race Streets.
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“I would imagine there’s a good amount of people that work remotely, too,” said Rivera-Gorski, who is a management consultant who works from home. “I see people on their laptops in the shared spaces during the day.”
Seventy percentof respondents said their jobs are within walking, biking, or transit distance from their homes, while 80% of them said that owning a car was not necessary to enjoy daily life in Philadelphia.
That’s part of what attracted Sawyer and Tan, even though another part of Philadelphia’s allure was that it was closer to family in central and eastern Pennsylvania (the couple have a Zipcar membership).
“While I do drive, I really, really dislike driving,” Sawyer said. “I’ve lost people. Everybody has, to either accidents or crashes or DUIs. So we were open to selling our car and became more and more convinced it was a good idea.”
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Retaining out-of-towners
Randall said that he was surprised by the proportion of CCD’s respondents who reported having moved to Philadelphia from outside the region. (A recent Realtor.com report showed that Philadelphia switched from having mostly local interest in rental listings before the pandemic to mostly out-of-towners today.)
The survey also found that the majority of Center City dwellers planned to be living in Philadelphia inthree to five years, with 45% planning to continue renting and 16% hoping to buy.
“You hear about the transience of other places like D.C. or Boston, and it seems like people are here [in Philadelphia] and they intend to stay,” Randall said.
That is certainly the goal of Annika Verma, a student at Temple University who lives in the Logan Lofts in Callowhill.
“I am already calculating: Can I get an entry-level job? What salary would work for the rent in this area?” Verma said. “I would love to stay. The area seems ideal for me in terms of commuting or walking. Anything, everything is a 15-20 minute walk or bus ride away.”
Sawyer and Tan are hoping to stay in Philadelphia, too. They are currently searching Center City for a condo to buy. They may try to stay in their current Logan Square neighborhood for its proximity to the Schuylkill River Trail and 30th Street Station.
“We love it,” said Sawyer, who notes that they’ve lived in three cities in Texas, Cooperstown in New York, and Baltimore before this. “But our favorite place we’ve ever lived is here in Philadelphia.”
A trail planned in Montgomery County is getting new funding to take the project to the next step.
The “Gulph Road Connector,” as it is currently called, is slated to connect to the Chester Valley Trail near the King of Prussia Mall, cross through Valley Forge National Historical Park, and link with the Schuylkill River Trail when completed.
The project was recently awarded a three-year $326,900 grant from the William Penn Foundation, which will begin in January, said Eric Goldstein, president and CEO of the King of Prussia District, which is leading the project. The official name of the trail has not been determined.
The influx of funds is slated for education, advocacy, and marketing, said Goldstein, who noted that the foundation is supporting “efforts to build a coalition of advocates” for the trail. The money will not be used for design or construction.
Segments of the planned 2.8-mile trail connector are in stages of design and construction, with some already built, Goldstein said.
“What we’re trying to do is ultimately fill in the blanks to make the 2.8-mile section complete,” he said.
Goldstein said the new funds will allow the King of Prussia District to work with different partners along the trail. The aim is to build a coalition and raise awareness of the proposed trail, which ideally would lead to more grant money down the line for design and construction, he said.
Map of the planned Gulph Road Connector trial near King of Prussia.
The new funding is “the impetus for this trail to start moving toward completion,” said Molly Duffy, executive director of the Valley Forge Park Alliance, a partner organization in the trail’s development.
There is no estimate yet for the total cost of the project, Goldstein said.
The project is part of the Circuit Trails, a regional network that aims to have more than 850 miles of trails through nine counties. Once the trail is built out, Goldstein said, he expects it will be managed by multiple entities, depending on the section.
He hopes to be able to complete the trail in the next 10 years.
Some parts of the trail are “enormously complex,” he noted, adding that pedestrian bridges over sections of highway would require complex engineering and be costly — which requires raising funds.
While the trail is expected to be used for recreation, it could also be an option for commuting to work.
“The second audience of this proposed trail network is employees that work in Upper Merion Township that are seeking alternative modes of transportation to get to and from work,” he said.
The trail also could make Valley Forge National Historical Park more accessible by ways other than driving, Duffy said.
“We want people to be able to get here,” Duffy said. “Knowing where this is — in this super densely populated suburban area — we know that there’s this missing link, really, between these two major trails that, once built, will literally connect thousands and thousands of people who live in the area, work in the area, are visiting the area.”
Bridget the Dino was a symbol for the neighborhood’s green spaces and neighborly affection, who oversaw the Manayunk Bridge Trail gardens.
When all hope was lost, the original owners of Bridget, and other neighborhood dinosaurs that have become a staple to Roxborough and Manayunk, saved the day.
Holod’s, the Lafayette Hill home and garden store, donated a brand new stone dinosaur to the Manayunk gardens at Dupont and High Streets, taking over Bridget’s yearslong watch as the garden guardian.
“After the heartbreak of seeing Bridget damaged, this unexpected act of kindness means more than words can say. The neighborhood love is real, and this Dino is already feeling it,” park organizers announced on Tuesday.
Now that the difficult task of placing a new 300-pound stone garden dinosaur is complete, the fun part comes: choosing a name for the new dino. When park organizers learned they would be getting a brand new dino, they decided they couldn’t just name the new statue Bridget, as she is “irreplaceable,” said park volunteer and Roxborough resident Juliane Holz.
“The community is so much a part of this that they can help us name this new one,” Holz said. “I like Manny. But we also have to decide whether she is a girl or a boy dino. I do like ‘Holly’ for Holod’s.”
Park organizers have already posted a list of suggested names for the new statue. This reporter is partial to “Yunker.”
Potential dinosaur names:
Manny (for Manayunk)
Archie (for the arch of the bridge)
Roxie (for the Roxborough side)
Schuylie (for the Schuylkill)
Ivy (garden vibes)
Rocky (Philly and Roxborough)
Ledger (bridge and connection vibes)
Petra (means “rock”)
Yunker (play on Manayunk)
Residents from Manayunk, Roxborough, and beyond can drop a comment below the park’s latest Instagram post to vote on one of the above names or suggest a new one.
Last Sunday, a neighbor found Bridget’s head lying at the feet of her stone body after it was smashed between late Saturday evening and early Sunday morning. The vandalism came as a shock to the community that welcomed Bridget with open arms, as she grew into a beacon for the ever-growing green spaces that the families of Manayunk and Roxborough have come to revitalize.
Bridget the Dino, a beloved stone garden statue at the Manayunk Bridge Garden, had its head smashed off between late Saturday night, Nov. 22, and early Sunday morning, Nov. 23, 2025. The 300-pound stone statue would be hard to move, neighbors say, leading some to believe an adult purposefully broke the statue.
“It seems like something silly to be upset about, but someone put a lot of effort and money — these statues and improvements are not cheap — into making that bridge garden a really nice place,” Manayunk resident Annie Schuster said. “I hate the fact that somebody did that.”
Neighbors believe the cowardly act to have been perpetrated by an adult who intended to destroy the iconic statue. Holz believed the statue proved too heavy for someone to mistakenly bump into it. Police reached out to Holz and park organizers to let them know they will investigate the crime, Holz said.
Bridget the Dino, a beloved stone garden statue at the Manayunk Bridge Garden, pictured in an Easter Bunny costume for Easter. The community often dresses up Bridget during different holidays and themed events. In November 2026, her head was smashed off her body.
Meanwhile, they’ll repurpose Bridget elsewhere among the garden beds and usher a new dinosaur dynasty with Holod’s latest statue. Holz said perhaps Bridget’s new iteration will be as a bird bath installation or an addition in a new sensory garden.
The Manayunk Bridge Garden is one of the many public spaces being transformed into neighborhood gardens and pedestrian thoroughfares. Since COVID-19 lockdowns, residents have donated their time, alongside the Roxborough Manayunk Conservancy, to making this place special for local families. Bridget and her new friend encapsulate all of that passion.
Bridget the Dino, a beloved stone garden statue at the Manayunk Bridge Garden, pictured in a construction worker’s uniform. The community often dresses up Bridget during different holidays and themed events. In November 2026, her head was smashed off her body.
“We are focused on improving the park’s ecology and creating opportunities for the community to enjoy and use the space. The gardens are stunning in autumn with their masses of purple asters and yellow goldenrod,” said Avigail Milder of the Roxborough Manayunk Conservancy.
Along with the welcoming stone dinosaur, volunteers have been planting native shrubs and herbaceous plants that bloom through spring and summer. A new sugar maple tree was planted for much-needed shade. And most recently, Opus Piano donated a mini grand piano to be enjoyed and played by all parkgoers.
Virginia A. Smith, 75, of Philadelphia, longtime reporter and editor for The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Bulletin, the Akron Beacon Journal, and other newspapers, mentor and working-mother role model to many, and avid gardener, died Friday, Nov. 14, of interstitial lung disease at Roxborough Memorial Hospital.
Born in Philadelphia, Ms. Smith joined her hometown Inquirer in 1985 after three years at the Beacon Journal in Ohio, six months at the Bulletin in Philadelphia, and earlier stints at other papers in New York and Connecticut. Until her retirement in 2015, she covered news, health, and gardens as a reporter for The Inquirer, and served as city and Pennsylvania editor.
In her official Inquirer profile, she described her final assignment as “happily writing — and learning — about gardening full time since 2006.” Her son, Josh Wiegand, said: “She was a curious person and interested in so many different things.”
Former colleagues praised the depth and variety of her reporting, especially the detailed long-form stories she wrote about Sister Mary Scullion in 1992, the Iraq War in 2004, her own extensive garden in 2006, and the other interesting people and significant events she encountered. “She was open to reporting a story until she was confident she had all of its shadings,” Inquirer investigations editor Daniel Rubin said. “She had a gift for the stories people would talk about.”
For Ms. Smith, there was no better place than her own garden.
Ms. Smith was named The Inquirer’s garden writer in 2006, and, of course, wrote detailed previews and reviews of the annual Philadelphia Flower Show. But her favorite stories, she told colleagues, were the hundreds of others about climate change, garden gnomes, community gardens, butterflies, pruning techniques, seed banks, edible weeds, how blind people enjoy gardens, and other topics.
Her winter holiday story in 2006 was not about poinsettias or Christmas tree farms. Instead, she profiled an author who discovered a treasure trove of old black-and-white photos of gardeners tending plots in prisons, war zones, and concentration camps.
“It was her idea,” said Joanne McLaughlin, her editor then. “She wanted to write about gardens nurturing the soul under the worst of circumstances, giving hope under the worst of circumstances.”
She wrote often about her own garden in East Falls and ended one story in 2006 with: “When winter arrives, maybe I’ll settle down. Oh, what are the chances? New years are for confessions, so here’s mine: Come first snow, I’ll be out there shoveling the garden pathways, hoping to sneak another peek.”
Ms. Smith wrote this two-part series in 2012.
Her column was called “Garden Scoop,” and she blogged at “Kiss the Earth” on Inquirer.com. She won two achievement awards from what used to be called the National Garden Writers Association and the 2011 Green Exemplar Award from Bartram’s Garden.
“She understood how important the topic was to this area,” said Reid Tuvim, a longtime editor at The Inquirer.
As a health reporter in the early 2000s, Ms. Smith wrote about bottled water, flu medicine, Lyme disease, organ donation, mental illness, children’s healthcare, and other issues. In 2004, she wrote a story about the Medical Mission Sisters, a progressive religious order that offered healthcare advice and full-body massages as well as spiritual guidance. In the third paragraph, she said: “But this is no spa. And that woman doing the hands-on — are you kidding me? — is a nun!”
She covered Scullion’s acceptance speech of the 1992 Philadelphia Award for community service and described it as “fiery and heartfelt, troubling and joyful.” Inquirer staff writer Amy Rosenberg said Ms. Smith “always drilled down to such emotional depths with her subjects. She defined so much of what The Inquirer meant back then.”
Ms. Smith doted on her granddaughters.
She mentored colleagues as she had been mentored and was a role model for fellow working mothers. “I watched her over and over again get up at 5 p.m. and walk out of the newsroom to get her son when he was young,” Rosenberg said. “Never mind what any of the boys in the room thought.”
Virginia Ann Smith was born Oct. 26, 1950. She graduated from the old Eden Hall high school in Philadelphia and earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Manhattanville University in New York in 1972. In 1981, she earned a master of legal studies degree at Yale University Law School through a Ford Foundation fellowship for journalists.
She married Alan Wiegand, and they had a son, Josh, and lived in East Falls. After a divorce, she married Randy Smith in 1985. He died in 2020, and she moved to Cathedral Village Retirement Community a few years ago.
Ms. Smith was a great cook, friends said. They said she was funny, stubborn, and opinionated. She was so into gardens, her son said, that she visited him in Colorado specifically to renovate his garden.
Ms. Smith poses with her husband, Randy, and her two granddaughters.
She listened to classical music and danced at blues festivals. Everyone said she made them feel as if she was their best friend.
“She was one of the most genuine people I’ve ever known,” said friend and former colleague Mari Schaefer. Friend and former colleague Mary Flannery said: “She was so creative and so brave.”
Her son said: “She was the best. I don’t know how she did it. She wanted to do it all, and she did.”
In addition to her son and her former husband, Ms. Smith is survived by two granddaughters, two brothers, and other relatives.
A celebration of her life is to be held later.
Donations in her name may be made to the Schuylkill Center, 8480 Hagys Mill Rd., Philadelphia, Pa. 19128.
Ms. Smith tends to her garden’s black-eyed Susans in this photo.
SEPTA’s21.5% increase in transit fares and service cuts fell hardest on disadvantaged Philadelphians this year, showing an urgent need to make the city’s Zero Fare program permanent, CityCouncilmember Nicolas O’Rourke argues.
He touted his proposal to dedicate 0.5% of the city budget each year to pay for the initiative that provides free SEPTA passes to people living in poverty.
O’Rourke’s proposedTransit Access Fund would be written into the City Charter “so it can’t be yanked away at a moment’s notice when somebody wants to shift something around in the budget,” hetold about 150 people in a town hall at the Friends Center on Cherry Street.
O’Rourke, Democratic State Sen. NikilSaval, and the advocacy group Transit Forward Philadelphia called the meeting to push for affordable public transportation and ways to sustainably fund SEPTA after Harrisburg’s failure to provide new state money for mass transit agencies.
A broad coalition and patience are needed in Pennsylvania, Saval said. ” Every major political win comes from months, years, sometimes decades, of work,” he said.
“We pushed back hard,” said O’Rourke, a member of the Working Families Party. “People with the least income are paying a larger share of their money just to get around. That’s upside down.”
Funding is not guaranteed after June 30, when the current budget expires, however.
If enacted, a Transit Access Fund would generate an estimated $34 million in the 2026-2027 fiscal year, O’Rourke’s office calculates.
That would generateenough money — between $20 million to $25 million, according to managers of the Zero Fare program —to give free SEPTA passes to 60,000 Philadelphians at or below the federal poverty standard.
O’Rourke and his staff also are considering usingthe remaining $10 million to $14 million for matching grants to help businesses, landlords and housing developments to join the SEPTA Key Advantage program, which provides subsidized transit passes.
People living at or below the federal poverty standard are eligible for the Zero FareSEPTA passes. For 2025, that is $15,650 for an individual and $32,150 for a family of four.
Philadelphia’s poverty rate was 19.7% in 2024, the latest figure available, according to the U.S. Census.
“When we’re made to feel like we’re on opposite sides of the fight, our numbers become smaller and we focus on the wrong targets,” said Saval.
“It’s not the person in Schuylkill County frustrated about potholes and road conditions that’s to blame for lack of transit funding” he said. “That person deserves to get safely where they need to go, too.”
