"If this event wasn't at Lemon Hill, Lemon Hill wouldn't be invested in," a co-lead of the volunteer Lemon Hill Neighbors Association told Billy Penn this month. "This investment came because of this event. It's not because we were asking for things."
The record backs that up. The new playspace and the court and field renovations at Lemon Hill had been in city plans for years before the park was picked as the FIFA Fan Fest site in June 2024. Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Capital Program Office never got city budget money to build them. The Fan Fest changed that. Something else held up through the whole summer. The upgrades follow the event's needs and the funders' plan. Upkeep, bathrooms and the small fixes still fall to the people who live around the park, and this fall's park calendar shows it.
Fan Fest Already Paid for the Paths and Wiring
Fairmount gave up a lot this summer. The park and the roads around it closed on May 26, the day after Memorial Day. The Fan Fest opened for the first match on June 11 and stayed open every day after that, apart from a couple of weather closures, until the final on July 19. Over those 39 days it drew 575,000 people, with 55,000 on its busiest day. Philadelphia was the only host city that kept its bid promise to run a fan fest for the whole tournament. Crews had set August 1 as the deadline to clear the site and finished by July 25.
Before any of that, the city spent $11.8 million getting Lemon Hill ready to host. That work is finished, and it's the part of the park you can use today. The city's project page lists it as complete:
- New electrical service throughout the park
- Lemon Hill Drive repaved
- New ADA curb ramps and accessible walkways, including an asphalt path from Sedgley Drive up to the upper parking lot
- The Sedgley Drive sidewalk repaired and regraded
- The walkway between Poplar Drive and Sedgley Drive rebuilt, with new benches
- New striping, signage and crosswalks
- Fishpond repairs to the coping, historic railing and drains
- The historic gazebo restored
- Invasive plants cleared to reopen the park's historic view toward Center City
For anyone walking up from the Fairmount side, the Sedgley Drive approach and the reopened view are the biggest everyday changes.
Fenced Off Until Spring
On Monday, October 5, city officials, World Cup organizers and park volunteers held a thank-you celebration for neighbors and planted the first of more than 100 new trees. The city's project page, in an update dated October 6, calls that tree planting the official start of construction. A September 4 update had said construction fencing would go in the week of September 8. The legacy project costs nearly $7 million. Four million of that comes from the William Penn Foundation and Philadelphia Soccer 2026, the group behind the city's host bid.
| Coming to Lemon Hill | What the city has published |
|---|---|
| Inclusive playspace | 43,500 square feet overall, with a 15,300-square-foot play area, separate zones for ages 2–5 and 5–12, stepping logs and stones, an adult fitness area and 20 new trees |
| Picnic pavilions | Two ADA-accessible pavilions with views of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the skyline |
| Lighting | 53 new light poles along existing walkways and roads |
| Sports | Basketball court and baseball field renovations |
| Historic fabric | Stairway masonry restoration and HVAC work at the mansion |
| Grounds | Canopy and understory planting, new wayfinding signs, security bollards to keep vehicles off walkways and planting beds |
The playground stays closed until the playspace opens. In its October 8 report, Billy Penn said the playspace is expected to open "this spring." It gave no exact date. Most of the park stays open during construction, with some areas closed temporarily. In the meantime the city points families to the Parks & Recreation Finder to find open playgrounds nearby.
Not in the Plan: Restrooms, Water and the Fountain
The city held nine public engagement sessions, where more than 200 people left over 350 comments. Common requests were to protect Lemon Hill's historic and natural character and to restore amenities it already had. Lemon Hill Neighbors ran its own survey too. Its almost 450 responses came mostly from Fairmount and Brewerytown. These were the top three priorities:
- Pedestrian safety. This one is partly covered by the finished crosswalk and signage work. Billy Penn noted, though, that a few leftover temporary sidewalk ramps on Sedgley Drive may block drainage and encourage people to cross mid-block. A small Fan Fest gazebo next to Poplar Drive also hadn't been removed when the article ran.
- Restored bathrooms. These are not in the project. Lemon Hill isn't a fully staffed site, so anyone hosting a large gathering there has to rent portable restrooms. The volunteer group said at a September open meeting that it is still asking the city to bring back water and bathroom access.
- Long-term maintenance funding. This is outside any single project budget. Billy Penn, citing Inquirer reporting, said Mayor Parker's administration doubled Parks and Recreation spending per resident over its first two years. Research by the Trust for Public Land shows that figure is still well below the national average.
The fountain by the old pond is also left out. During Fan Fest it held a giant replica of the tournament's "Trionda" ball for photos. Now it holds standing water after attempts to drain it didn't work, and the city has no plans to restore it as a working fountain.
The Volunteers Doing the Upkeep
Lemon Hill Neighbors is a volunteer friends group. The same two co-leads have run it for more than ten years, and for the past two it has been fiscally sponsored by Park to Broad Arts & Business District. On the Saturday before the tree planting, a handful of volunteers worked a hillside on Sedgley Drive next to the old pond. They pulled invasive plants and planned to put in 450 plugs of native plants. Their pollinator garden by the pond steps was still in bloom.
The group raised $4,000 over the summer, partly by selling t-shirts of a soccer ball crashing into Lemon Hill Mansion. The money paid for a set of stairs beside the mansion, built with help from the nonprofit Power Corps PHL. After Fan Fest, neighbors reported metal debris left on the grounds. The volunteers picked up what they found so the park was safe for people and pets, and the city later said Parks and Rec was using a magnetic sweeper on the area. City crews had also been leveling and aerating the ground in late July as part of their own cleanup.
At the October 5 ceremony, the group's other co-lead pointed out that new amenities bring new maintenance and need more volunteers, and called for long-term, steady funding for Parks and Recreation. Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., whose 4th District includes Lemon Hill, said the department's budget is "the first budget to get raided when something bad happens."
What's Left on the Lemon Hill Calendar
Lemon Hill hosted four other events this year on top of Fan Fest, and two dates remain. Neither comes from the World Cup budget. Both are community-run.
Jazz in Fairmount, Sunday, November 1. The concert schedule lists Lemon Hill for that date. The performer is still "TBD" and no start time has been posted. All of its programs are free. The nonprofit has brought Philadelphia-area jazz musicians to neighborhood concerts since June 2021.
Lemon Hill Love Your Park, Saturday, November 14, 10 a.m. Volunteers meet outside Lemon Hill Mansion to put the pollinator garden to bed for winter, plant trees along the trails and handle other jobs. It is part of the citywide Love Your Park Fall Weekend, November 13–15. That weekend, park friends groups work with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and Fairmount Park Conservancy at more than 100 parks.
Between those two dates, the park's riverside edge stays open on weekends. Under the city's 2026 schedule, MLK Drive is closed to cars from Saturday at 7 a.m. to Monday at 7 a.m. through November 29. The one exception is Head of the Schuylkill Regatta weekend, October 24–25, when vehicles are allowed. The side path stays open either way.
At Sean Elstone, we follow what's happening at the parks around Fairmount, including the playspace opening next spring and which amenities come back to Lemon Hill. If you're thinking about how changes like these play into your own plans in Fairmount or elsewhere in Center City, request a VIP Consultation and we'll walk through it with you.
