Fort Washington, Pennsylvania
Encyclopedia
Fort Washington is an unincorporated census-designated place
Census-designated place
A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...

 and suburb of Philadelphia in Montgomery County
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Montgomery County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of 2010, the population was 799,874, making it the third most populous county in Pennsylvania . The county seat is Norristown.The county was created on September 10, 1784, out of land originally part...

, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 5,446 at the 2010 census.

Prior to the Revolutionary War

The Fort Washington area was settled by many German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 immigrants. One such person was Philip Engard who immigrated in 1728. Engard purchased 100 acres (40.5 ha) on what was to be named Susquehanna Road and Fort Washington Avenue. By the mid-18th century the area came to be known as Engardtown, and Fort Washington Avenue was originally called Engardtown Road. The house built by Philip Engard is listed as the "Engard Family Home - 1765" in the Upper Dublin Township Open Space & Environmental Resource Protection Plan - 2005, as part of the Upper Dublin Historical Properties #25.

American Revolutionary War

During the Philadelphia campaign
Philadelphia campaign
The Philadelphia campaign was a British initiative in the American Revolutionary War to gain control of Philadelphia, which was then the seat of the Second Continental Congress...

 of the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

, George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

 and the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...

 were encamped here after their October 4, 1777 defeat at the Battle of Germantown
Battle of Germantown
The Battle of Germantown, a battle in the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War, was fought on October 4, 1777, at Germantown, Pennsylvania between the British army led by Sir William Howe and the American army under George Washington...

, and immediately prior to their march to Valley Forge
Valley Forge
Valley Forge in Pennsylvania was the site of the military camp of the American Continental Army over the winter of 1777–1778 in the American Revolutionary War.-History:...

. From December 5–8, 1777, the Battle of White Marsh
Battle of White Marsh
The Battle of White Marsh or Battle of Edge Hill was a battle of the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought December 5–8, 1777, in the area surrounding Whitemarsh Township, Pennsylvania...

 was fought here between British and American forces. Throughout the encampment, Washington was headquartered at the Emlen House, built by Quaker George Emlen in 1745. British commander General William Howe
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, KB, PC was a British army officer who rose to become Commander-in-Chief of British forces during the American War of Independence...

 observed the American lines from the bell tower of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church (at Bethlehem Pike and Camp Hill Road), site of the British encampment on December 5. Today, Fort Washington State Park
Fort Washington State Park
Fort Washington State Park is a Pennsylvania state park in Springfield and Whitemarsh Townships, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is noted for the springtime flowering of dogwood trees, and is popular with families for picnics and hiking...

 contains the area in which the primary American defenses were situated.

Great Train Wreck of 1856

On July 17, 1856, Fort Washington was the site of one of the worst train accidents in the United States when two North Pennsylvania Railroad
North Pennsylvania Railroad
North Pennsylvania Railroad was a railroad company formed in 1855, and served Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County and Northampton County, Pennsylvania.-History:...

 trains collided with one another near the Sandy Run station (later renamed to Camp Hill, now the defunct Fellwick Station). The exact number of deaths is uncertain, but 59 were killed instantly and dozens more perished from their injuries. Many of the dead were children from St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church from the Kensington
Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Kensington is a neighborhood in the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is between the Lower Northeast section of Philadelphia and North Philadelphia. Not to be confused with the former Kensington District, now commonly referred to as Fishtown, the area modernly referred to as...

 section of Philadelphia, who were traveling to Sheaff's Woods, a park in the Fort Washington area, for a Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...

 picnic.

Incorporation into Upper Dublin Township

On January 1, 1946, the Township of Upper Dublin was created, and in doing so, encompassed Fort Washington along with nine other communities. Parts of Fort Washington were also incorporated into Whitemarsh Township.

Fort Washington Office Park

The primary center of business and industry in Upper Dublin Township is the Fort Washington Office Park, which occupies 536 acres (216.9 ha) and contains 6000000 square feet (557,418.2 m²) of building space. There are more than 65 buildings of various sizes up to 658535 square feet (61,179.9 m²). The park contains the offices of over 100 different companies, including Honeywell
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....

, Aetna
Aetna
Aetna, Inc. is an American health insurance company, providing a range of traditional and consumer directed health care insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, group life, long-term care, and disability plans, and medical management...

, AccuWeather
AccuWeather
AccuWeather is an American media company that provides for-profit weather forecasting services worldwide.AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Penn State graduate student working on degrees in meteorology. His first customer was a gas company in Pennsylvania. While running the...

, Eastern National
Eastern National
Eastern National is a non-profit organization based in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, that partners with the National Park Service in the United States...

, Genworth Financial
Genworth Financial
Genworth Financial is a Fortune 500 global financial security company that specializes in life and long term care insurance, wealth management, mortgage insurance, lifestyle protection insurance and annuities...

 and a suburban campus of Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...

. The office park was also home to the corporate headquarters of CDNow
CDNOW
CDNOW.com was an online retailer. The company was founded in February 1994 by twin brothers Jason Olim and Matthew Olim of Ambler, Pennsylvania...

, the pioneering online music retailer. It is also home to a branch of The Paul Green School of Rock Music
The Paul Green School of Rock Music
School of Rock is a performance-based music program for those between the ages of 8 and 18. This for-profit educational company operates and franchises after-school music instructional programs in the United States and Mexico...

. In recent years, the Fort Washington Office Park has experienced a vacancy rate higher than that of other commercial/industrial parks in the region, due in some part to problems with flooding.

Johnson & Johnson facility

The Fort Washington Office Park contains the corporate headquarters of Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....

 division McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, marketers of over-the-counter
Over-the-counter drug
Over-the-counter drugs are medicines that may be sold directly to a consumer without a prescription from a healthcare professional, as compared to prescription drugs, which may be sold only to consumers possessing a valid prescription...

 and prescription
Prescription drug
A prescription medication is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a medical prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over-the-counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription...

 pharmaceuticals including Tylenol
Tylenol
Tylenol is a North American brand of drugs advertised for reducing pain, reducing fever, and relieving the symptoms of allergies, cold, cough, and flu. The active ingredient of its original, flagship product, paracetamol , is marketed as an analgesic and antipyretic...

 (acetaminophen) and Motrin IB (ibuprofen
Ibuprofen
Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used for relief of symptoms of arthritis, fever, as an analgesic , especially where there is an inflammatory component, and dysmenorrhea....

) products. Their building is based on a 110 acres (44.5 ha) site and has a workforce of 2,600 employees. Johnson and Johnson closed this plant in April 2010 after a series of manufacturing problems led to embarrassing product recalls for faulty manufacturing practices.

Former Fort Washington Expo Center

The Fort Washington Office Park was also home to the Fort Washington Expo Center. Opened in 1993, the Expo Center hosted some of the region's biggest consumer and trade shows, and at 290000 square feet (26,941.9 m²), was the largest such suburban venue in the northeastern United States
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...

. The Expo Center closed in 2006 after the building was sold to Liberty Property Trust
Liberty Property Trust
Liberty Property Trust , based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, USA is a real estate investment trust. Liberty Property Trust owns over of office and industrial space in 20 markets throughout the United States and the United Kingdom .-History:...

 who renovated the center into Class A office space. The center, which can accommodate 2,800 employees, was leased to GMAC Mortgage who took over the space in 2007.

Schools

Residents living in the Upper Dublin portion of Fort Washington are served by the Upper Dublin School District
Upper Dublin School District
Upper Dublin School District is located in Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.-General information:The school district operates four elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school, and serves students in grades K-12. The professional staff has an average of 16 years...

, while those living in parts incorporated into Whitemarsh are served by Colonial School District
Colonial School District (Pennsylvania)
The Colonial School District covers the Borough of Conshohocken and Plymouth Township and Whitemarsh Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania...

.

Public

  • Fort Washington Elementary School (K-5)
  • Upper Dublin High School
    Upper Dublin High School
    Upper Dublin High School is a four-year public high school located in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the sole high school in the Upper Dublin School District....

     (9-12) (ranked as the 8th best high school in the state)

Private

  • Germantown Academy
    Germantown Academy
    Germantown Academy is America's oldest nonsectarian day school, founded on December 6, 1759 . Germantown Academy is now a K-12 school in the Philadelphia suburb of Fort Washington, having moved from its original Germantown campus in 1965...

     (PK-12) (oldest nonsectarian day school in the country)
  • Lakeside School (7-12)
  • New Horizons Montessori School (PK-5)
  • Open Door Christian Academy (PK-8)
  • The Paul Green School of Rock Music
    The Paul Green School of Rock Music
    School of Rock is a performance-based music program for those between the ages of 8 and 18. This for-profit educational company operates and franchises after-school music instructional programs in the United States and Mexico...

  • Wordsworth Academy (PK-12), a private special school
    Special education
    Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...


Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 3,680 people, 1,161 households, and 1,013 families residing in the community. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 1,349.9 people per square mile (520.5/km²). There were 1,173 housing units at an average density of 430.3/sq mi (165.9/km²). The racial makeup of the community was 91.30% White, 3.04% African American, 0.08% Native American, 5.03% Asian (0.46% Asian Indian, 2.20% Chinese, 1.93% Korean, 0.16% Vietnamese, 0.27% Other Asian), 0.11% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 0.43% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.71% of the population.(0.08% Mexican, 0.19% Puerto Rican, 0.11% Cuban, 0.33% Other Hispanic). 90.65% of the population is White, non-Hispanic.

There were 1,161 households out of which 45.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 81.7% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 4.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.7% were non-families. 10.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.06 and the average family size was 3.32.

The population is spread out with 28.5% under the age of 18, 5.2% from 18 to 24, 22.1% from 25 to 44, 32.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 100.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.6 males.

The median income for a household in the community was $103,469, and the median income for a family was $112,863. Males had a median income of $76,205 versus $37,321 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the community was $43,090. About 1.5% of families and 3.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.7% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Points of interest

  • Clifton House
    Clifton House
    Clifton House is a historic building located at 473 Bethlehem Pike in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.During the autumn of 1777, Washington's Continental Army spent six weeks camped at nearby Whitemarsh...

  • Fort Washington State Park
    Fort Washington State Park
    Fort Washington State Park is a Pennsylvania state park in Springfield and Whitemarsh Townships, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is noted for the springtime flowering of dogwood trees, and is popular with families for picnics and hiking...

  • The Highlands Mansion & Garden
    The Highlands (Pennsylvania)
    The Highlands is a historic building and property located at 7001 Sheaff Lane in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, in the United States.The Highlands was built in the years 1794-1796 by Philadelphia merchant and politician Anthony Morris , and was designed by Philadelphia architect Timothy Matlack...

  • Hope Lodge
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