Delaware County · Pennsylvania
Chris RivielloMayor of Midgetville
One street in Ridley Township. A dozen tiny Tudor cottages from 1911. And a Delco legend that got almost every detail wrong — until somebody finally went looking for the paperwork.
The record
What Midgetville actually is
The Place
Princeton Avenue, Ridley Township — across from the former Taylor Hospital, a short walk from Ridley Park.
The Year
Built in 1911 as a cluster of small, one-of-a-kind English Tudor cottages, unusually scaled for the era.
The Truth
It was conceived as an artists' and summer colony — never a community built for people with dwarfism.
The Legend
Generations of Delco teenagers drove through after dark, and the nickname stuck long past its expiration date.
Folklore vs. fact
Three stories that won't die
“A circus troupe built the houses.”
No record supports it. The cottages predate the legend by decades and were built as a designed enclave, not by residents.
“The doors and windows are miniature.”
They read small because of steep Tudor rooflines, tight lots and modest footprints — standard construction, unusual proportions.
“It's abandoned.”
People live there. It's a quiet residential street in Ridley Township, and the folklore brings traffic they never asked for.
The mini-documentary
Midgetville, explained
A short film on the 1911 artists' colony, the hospital across the street, and how a neighborhood became a rite of passage for Delco kids with a driver's license.
A word about the neighbors
Princeton Avenue is somebody's front yard. Drive slow, keep the headlights and the volume down, and don't go up on the porches. The history is the interesting part — the folklore is just how we got here.