History & local legend
Princeton Avenue in Ridley Township is a short street of small Tudor cottages built in 1911 as a summer and artists’ colony. Their steep roofs and compact lots inspired a very different local explanation: that a circus troupe had settled there and built miniature homes for performers with dwarfism.
The story became a nighttime driving dare for generations of Delaware County teenagers, with the houses growing smaller and stranger in the retelling. Temple student filmmakers revisited the neighborhood for the documentary Tiny Town, interviewing residents, officials and historians.
