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Ridley Creek State Park is a 2,606-acre state park in Edgmont, Middletown and Upper Providence Townships, Delaware County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is about 5 miles from the town of Media, and 16 miles from the city of Philadelphia. Ridley Creek runs through the park, and is very popular with fisherman. It is stocked with trout by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. A portion of the creek is a designated catch and release area for fly fishing only, as the Creek is well-stocked with trout. The park consists of 12 miles of hiking trails, a five-mile multi-use trail that is open to jogging, bicycling and walking, a 4.7-mile equestrian trail, a formal garden, and a Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation, which recreates daily life on a pre-Revolutionary farm. The garden was designed by the Olmsted Brothers. In the winter, cross-country skiers use the trail, and in hunting season, the park is open for archery deer hunting. There are hundreds of picnic tables in 14 different areas of the park, as many families take day trips to relax and picnic. Adjacent to the John J. Tyler Arboretum, the park is preserved by a nonprofit organization called The Friends of Ridley Creek State Park, is a nonprofit organization. The area was originally settled by English Quakers and remained agrarian into the twentieth century. In the early 18th century, a water mill was established to grind corn. Later in the century, a plaster mill was established, but was shortly thereafter replaced by a rolling and slitting mill. Workers cottages, a dam, and several outbuildings completed the mill complex, which is known as Sycamore Mills. The mills operated until 1901, when they were damaged by a fire. The bulk of the property was acquired in the late 1960s from the estate of horse breeder Walter M. Jeffords, Sr. and his wife Sarah, a niece of Samuel D. Riddle. The Jeffords had acquired the land starting about 1912 in small parcels, until they had over 2,000 acres, which was the largest private undeveloped property in the Philadelphia area by the 1960s. By 1918 they had built a large mansion, now the park office, around a stone colonial farmhouse. Ridley Creek Park was dedicated to public use in August 1972, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark.

http://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/FindAPark/RidleyCreekStatePark/Pages/default.aspx