Clifton Heights is a small borough in southeastern Delaware County, about 5 miles west of Center City Philadelphia, in ZIP 19018. Roughly 6,900 people live here today, packed into a compact patch of brick twin homes, corner stores, and trolley tracks. It is the town where the Slinky was invented, the home of the country's first Italian ice company, and one of the closest-in boroughs in Delco with an older, home-owning character you can feel the moment you turn off Baltimore Pike.
If you have been looking at Upper Chichester and Boothwyn and wondering what the towns closer to the city feel like, Clifton Heights is a different kind of Delaware County living: less sprawl, more porch, and a trolley that still rattles through the middle of town on its way to the 69th Street Terminal. It has history on almost every block, and it deserves a spot on your list.
A Tiny Borough With a Big Slinky Legend
Clifton Heights celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2025, which makes it one of Delaware County's older boroughs. Its most famous story starts on a backyard in 1943, when a local naval engineer named Richard James was experimenting with springs and watched one tumble off a shelf and "walk" across the floor. He and his wife Betty turned that accident into the Slinky, James Industries manufactured the toy right here in Clifton Heights until 1965, and a historical marker in the borough still tells the story.
The other local legend is a sweet one. Rosato Water Ice, founded in 1912 and widely credited as the nation's first Italian ice cream company, still operates on Madison Avenue and opens its doors every spring, the way it has for more than a century. On the first warm day of the year, lines form the same as they did for generations of Delco kids. The borough also claims the glam metal band Cinderella as a hometown act, which started out playing the local club circuit in the eighties. Not bad for a town that fits in roughly a mile and a half.
Getting Around: Trolley Tracks, Regional Rail, and a Straight Shot to Center City
Transit is where Clifton Heights really pulls its weight for commuters. The SEPTA Route 102 trolley, now rebranded the D2, runs north and south through the heart of the borough along Baltimore Avenue, linking the 69th Street Transportation Center on one end and Sharon Hill on the other. The Springfield Road stop at Springfield Road and Madison Avenue sits right in the middle of town, so a trolley ride to the 69th Street Terminal, and then the Market-Frankford line into Center City, is a daily reality for hundreds of residents.
For riders who prefer rail, the Clifton-Aldan station at 1 Springfield Road sits directly on SEPTA's Media/Wawa Line, with its own parking lot for commuters. That gives the borough two distinct ways to reach Center City without ever sitting in I-95 traffic, which is more than most Delaware County towns can offer. And because the borough is barely 5 miles from the city line, the drive to the airport or downtown stays short when you do want the car.
What Schools Serve Clifton Heights?
Clifton Heights is served by the Upper Darby School District, one of the largest districts in Pennsylvania, which covers the borough alongside Upper Darby Township and Millbourne. Most neighborhoods in the borough are zoned to Westbrook Park Elementary School, and secondary students attend Upper Darby High School, a large comprehensive high school known for its range of Advanced Placement courses, athletics, and performing arts programs. District buses run everywhere, and the schools feel like part of the neighborhood fabric.
School questions tend to be personal, so I always walk families through the details room by room. For a fuller look at the district, housing prices, and the programs that matter to families, head over to my complete Clifton Heights community guide and read it with your coffee this weekend.
What It Feels Like to Live Here
Clifton Heights looks and feels like an old Main Line-adjacent borough: blocks of brick twin homes with proud fronts porches, a compact main street of corner shops and bakeries, and enough sitting on those porches on warm evenings that neighbors actually know each other by name. Washing the sidewalk, painting the trim, planting the window boxes: it is the kind of place where upkeep is a point of pride.
The town sits right on Darby Creek, which runs along part of its western edge and gives the borough a softer, greener feel than you might expect this close and this access to the city. You trade square footage and a big yard for a dose of character, transit, and a commute measured in minutes instead of hours. Buyers here are usually first-timers and city folks who want the same close-in, walkable feel at a Delaware County price.
Where to Eat and Sit a Spell
The borough punches above its size at the dinner table. Broadway Bar & Grille on East Broadway is the closest thing Clifton Heights has to a corner pub with a full kitchen, and it comes with a strong local following. Rosati Water Ice on Madison Avenue is the must-stop of the spring, and the cheesesteak, pizza, and hoagie shops along Baltimore Pike feed entire generations of Delco families. When you want more choices, the MacDade Boulevard corridor south of town adds supermarket, big-box, and chain dining just minutes away.
The honest way to test a borough is the dinner-table test: eat there, walk the main drag, and ask yourself if you could picture being a regular. Clifton Heights passes that test for a lot of buyers, which is why its inventory changes the moment it lists.
Who Is Clifton Heights a Good Fit For?
Clifton Heights suits buyers who rank location, transit, and character above all. If your ideal is a commute that doesn't eat your morning, brick twins with front porches built to last for generations, and a town where the Slinky was born and the water ice line forms every spring out the door, this borough will feel right almost immediately.
It also suits people moving from rented city apartments into their first home without giving up everything they love about city life: walkable strips, easy shops, and real affordability. The neighborhood welcomes longtime locals and newcomers alike, and neighbors take visible pride in their hundred-year-old streets.
Come See the Borough That Invented Fun
Clifton Heights is one of those Delaware County towns that never made the guidebooks but has been quietly great for a century and a half. A trolley still runs through the middle of town, a Slinky historical marker stands near where the toy was invented, and a water ice line has been forming every spring since 1912. If you have been touring Upper Chichester and Boothwyn and are curious about the closer-in Delco towns, spend an afternoon here: ride the trolley end to end, walk the main drag, and stand on the porch of a brick twin when the evening light hits it.
When you are ready to look seriously at Delaware County homes, I would love to help. As a Realtor licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, I guide buyers across Delco, from 115 Louise Dr in Upper Chichester to the trolley towns near the city. Call me at 267-977-0304, or book a quick chat, and let me show you around. You can also find more seller and buyer reads and about-me background at AndreRichardson.com.
Andre Richardson
Realtor · HomeSmart Realty Advisors · PA RS349905 · NJ 1969348