Havertown's Darby Creek Trail No Longer Stops at Merry Place

How far can you walk beside Darby Creek in Havertown without a car or a stretch of road? Until this month, the honest answer depended on which piece of trail you were standing on. As of the October 10 ribbon cutting, the answer is 1.5 continuous, off-road miles, from the West Chester Pike end down to McDonald Field, as the Delco Times reported.

The new piece is only two-tenths of a mile long. What it changes is how the trail gets used. For thirteen years, the Darby Creek Trail was mostly a paved path you drove to and walked out and back. Now it works as a route, with entrances from the streets around it. Where you join it decides where you can park, what surface you'll walk on, and whether the dog can come along.

Two-tenths of a mile that closed a gap

Haverford Township built the first paved section in 2013, linking Merry Place at Glendale Park to the public works yard near Old West Chester Pike and Hilltop Road. South of Merry Place, the path broke off. The new link runs from Merry Place to McDonald Field and joins the existing segments into one line.

The township expected this to take longer. Its Winter/Spring 2026 newsletter called the Merry Place to McDonald Field link the final phase of the southern extension and projected completion in "late 2026." It opened October 10.

"With the completion of this extension, residents and visitors can now enjoy a more continuous stretch of the Darby Creek Trail, making it easier to walk, run or bike farther along the creek," Haverford Township Parks and Recreation director Brian Barrett said in the release quoted by the Delco Times.

Several funders paid for the southern extension. The township's Summer 2025 recreation newsletter lists $500,000 from Delco Greenways, $300,000 from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, and $400,000 from Pennsylvania's Local Share Account. That is $1.2 million in grants for a project that comes out to a fifth of a mile of new main trail. The money also covered more than pavement. The project included stream bank restoration, new plantings, and a spur out to the street. The William Penn Foundation also appears among the trail's supporters.

The trail now has front doors

That spur is the part of the project most likely to change daily habits. It connects the trail to the intersection of Burmont Road and Glendale Road, with better sight lines, sidewalks, crosswalks and brighter signage.

That corner already had a way in. The Friends of Haverford Trails map describes the Pilgrim Gardens Spur as a short connection from that neighborhood's sidewalks. You crossed Burmont Road at Glendale Road "carefully," walked through a small grass field, and picked up an earthen path into the trees that reached Merry Place over a footbridge. The new spur puts sidewalks and crosswalks where that informal route used to be.

Two other neighborhood entrances are still footpaths, and both are steep:

• Westgate Hills Spur. A narrow earthen path that starts on Windsor Park Lane and winds down the creek valley hillside to the main trail.
• Hilltop Spur. A fairly steep earthen foot trail from the Hilltop and Steel Road ballfields down to Glendale Road. After crossing, it reaches the Merry Place gazebo by a small footbridge.

Before October 10, these spurs all fed into a trail that ended at Merry Place. Now each one opens onto the full 1.5-mile route, with trail running both north and south of where it comes in. A short walk from Pilgrim Gardens or Westgate Hills can now run all the way to McDonald Field or up to the Hilltop Road end without a car.

The trail also belongs to something much bigger. It is part of the Circuit Trails, a network of more than 500 miles of completed and in-progress trails across Greater Philadelphia and southern New Jersey.

Where to start, and what each start gets you

Because the trail is now one line, the starting points have become choices with different trade-offs. The Friends of Haverford Trails map predates the new link, so it no longer shows the trail as one route. Its directions to each access point still hold.

The center segment between Hilltop Road and Merry Place is the one the Friends group calls "a first class, multi-use macadam trail (great for baby strollers!)." South of that, the older map describes the trail along the edge of Jack McDonald Field as grass, stones and earth. From the Warrior Road lot, it continues along the creek toward the point where Township Line Road swings into State Road, across from the Drexeline Shopping Center. Strollers and road bikes will do best starting at the northern end.

Parking at Merry Place is also on the township's to-do list. The 2026 adopted budget lists $125,000 for Merry Place parking, separate from a $1,557,000 Darby Creek Trail line.

Wherever you start, township parks are open from 7 a.m. to dusk unless a park has working lights. Parking in a park outside those hours is prohibited. With November coming, plan earlier finishes.

The dog question depends on the doorway

The rules for dogs vary along the route. Haverford's park ordinance says canines "are not permitted" in a list of parks that includes Hilltop and Merry Place. The same section allows dogs that are under control and on a leash no longer than six feet on the pathways, perimeter and wooded areas of Darby Creek Valley Park. Owners must clean up after them, and dogs must stay out of, and at least eight feet from, playgrounds, sports fields, pavilions and similar areas. The Friends of Haverford Trails describes the Darby Creek Trail as running through Darby Creek Valley Park, which it calls a greenway.

In practice, the trail itself sits in a park where leashed dogs are allowed, while Merry Place, one of its best-known trailheads, is on the no-dogs list. The ordinance doesn't mark exactly where the trail ends and Merry Place begins, so posted signs at that junction are the best guide. This is general information, not legal advice. The ordinance text and the township's signs are what actually apply.

The north end is still its own trip

The 1.5 miles stop well short of Haverford Reserve, and that gap is now the trail's biggest missing piece. The master plan calls for extending the trail north to the Reserve as part of a planned 12.9-mile route connecting communities between Sharon Hill and Newtown Square. A 2025 township presentation sketched that route running under West Chester Pike and along Darby Creek Road. No construction date or funding award for it has been announced.

For now, the northern segment is a separate walk with its own rules. You park in the Reserve's bottom lot by the Dog Park and the Southbrook Trail entrance, walk down Parkview Avenue to Darby Creek Road, follow its wide striped shoulder under the Marple Road bridge, and look for a grassy access path on the right. The surface is gravel, earth and grass. The segment ends at private property with no exit, so you turn around and walk back.

The southern end has a longer horizon too. Delaware County's trail profile describes Haverford's planned alignment as running from Haverford Reserve south to the Upper Darby line at Pilgrim Park. The township's 2025 presentation mentioned talks with Upper Darby about continuing the trail toward Route 1. The county's August 2025 profile for the Upper Darby continuation listed no active projects. It flagged hard crossings at Township Line Road and the SEPTA Media trolley line.

December's trail dates are at the Reserve

Because the north end isn't connected yet, the township's scheduled trail events this winter are at Haverford Reserve, not on the Darby Creek Trail itself:

• Saturday, December 5, 9 to 11 a.m. The Chilly Trail Run 5K runs on three miles of Reserve trails. The same day, Discover Haverford's Havertown Holiday Festival runs from noon to 7 p.m. on Brookline Boulevard, with tree lighting and caroling at 5:45 p.m. and a December 6 rain date.
• Wednesday, December 30, 10:15 to 11 a.m. Treats on the Trail: Hot Chocolate Hike at CREC/Haverford Reserve combines exploring, learning and treats.

Until then, the new stretch is open from 7 a.m. to dusk. The quickest way to see what changed is to start at Merry Place, head south over the new two-tenths of a mile to McDonald Field, and take the Burmont and Glendale spur back to the sidewalk.

Trails like this one shape which streets people want to live on, and we track how they change around here. If you're curious how the trail's new reach affects a home near Merry Place, Westgate Hills or Pilgrim Gardens, Wagner Real Estate Group can walk you through it. Get your free home valuation.