Text, below, is an excerpt from The First 275 Years, Warminster Township 1711-1986 by Paul C. Baily.
The district known presently as "the Speedway," within the bounds of York Road, Street Road, the Reading Railroad, and County Line, had been partially leveled in 1914 for the purpose of building an automobile race track - probably among the first so conceived.
"The Speedway" has an interesting history. It was originally farmland being part of the Noble grant. Because of its more or less level grade, it was ideally situated for a race track. Races, in Warminster, were nothing new; in 1825, Thomas Beans laid out a beautiful one-half mile circular race track on his property behind the Warminster Hotel. Later, there was a trotting track on Street Road, between the present Madison Avenue and York Road. These were purely a community interest for sport's sake only, and after several serious accidents, they were abandoned by popular consent. The wide, level area, however, continued to haunt sports enthusiasts for years and in 1914 a corporation was formed to build a combined automobile and horse racing tract. Sidings were to be run in from the railroad right of way and accommodations for thousands of sports enthusiasts were sought. A great amount of grading was done and, until recently, the results of that grading were still evident in great mounds of earth here and there about the area. The last of these, on the north side of Olive St. between Sunnemeade and Evergreen Avenues, was removed just recently (1985).
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Aspen Street • Beech Street • Cedar Street • Date Street • Elm Street • Evergreen Avenue • Fir Street • Grape Street • Hawthorne Street • Ivy Street • Juniper Street • Kalmia Street • Lemon Street • Madison Avenue • Maple Street • Nemoral Street • Norwood Avenue • Olive Street • Sunnemeade Avenue