Rose Tree Media School District, Delaware County, PA
Media Borough
About
Media Borough is the county seat of Delaware County, incorporated by Special Act of the Pennsylvania Assembly on March 11, 1850, from four farms totaling 480 acres platted on a rectangular grid around the new Delaware County Courthouse. The borough’s geographic boundaries have not changed since that date, holding the community to 0.8 square miles and a 2020 census population of 5,991. In June 2006, Media became the first Fair Trade Town in the United States — a status requiring a borough council resolution, fair-trade product availability across local businesses, and a sustained steering committee — and the SEPTA D1 (formerly Route 101) trolley terminates on State Street in the center of downtown, connecting residents to the 69th Street Transportation Center and the broader SEPTA network.
Specifications
Home Stock
Housing stock spans roughly 170 years of organic development. The borough’s oldest residential blocks contain brick Victorian-era homes including late Victorian, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and American Foursquare styles — many constructed after Media passed a post-fire ordinance in the early 1850s mandating brick construction over wood frame. Mid-century detached homes occupy some outer residential blocks. More recent infill has added townhomes, twins, and condo units in converted or new-construction buildings.
Location & Access
Route 252 (Providence Road) runs north–south along the eastern border of the borough. Baltimore Pike (former U.S. Route 1) forms a major corridor just south of downtown. Interstate 476 (the Blue Route) is accessible via interchange approximately one mile from the borough. State Street is the central commercial and transit spine, carrying the SEPTA D1 (formerly Route 101) trolley line through the middle of the downtown.
Location Anchors
What Makes This Distinct
Media Borough is not governed by a single homeowners association; the borough itself is the governing authority under an elected mayor and council, with the Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB) empowered by Ordinance No. 1044 (ratified April 17, 2008) to require Certificates of Appropriateness before any exterior alteration visible from a public way within the three designated historic districts — Courthouse Square, Lemon Street, and the Providence Friends’ Meeting House District. Individual condo and townhome communities within the borough may carry their own separate HOA structures with independent fees and obligations that buyers must review independently.
Worth Asking
Have you considered that a Media mailing address with ZIP code 19063 can place a buyer in any one of nine different municipalities and up to five different school districts — meaning the school district, tax rate, and governing township on a specific property may be entirely different from what the ZIP code implies?
Common Questions
What school does a child attend when living in Media Borough proper?
Children residing within Media Borough’s municipal boundaries attend schools in the Rose Tree Media School District (RTMSD). Elementary-age students (K–5) attend Media Elementary School. From there, students progress to Springton Lake Middle School for grades 6–8, then to Penncrest High School for grades 9–12. However, because ZIP code 19063 covers five separate school districts, buyers must verify school assignment by specific address with RTMSD directly — a Media mailing address alone does not confirm Rose Tree Media enrollment.
Does Media Borough have a homeowners association (HOA)?
Media Borough as a whole does not have a single overarching HOA. The borough is governed by an elected mayor and borough council. Buyers of condos or townhomes within specific infill or planned developments inside the borough may encounter individual HOAs with their own fees and covenants. Additionally, properties located within any of the borough’s three designated historic districts (Courthouse Square, Lemon Street, and the Providence Friends’ Meeting House District) are subject to HARB review under Ordinance No. 1044, requiring a Certificate of Appropriateness before exterior alterations visible from a public street can be made.
How does the SEPTA trolley factor into commuting from Media Borough?
The SEPTA D1 light rail line (formerly Route 101) runs along State Street through the center of Media Borough and terminates just west of the Orange Street/State Street intersection, two blocks from the Delaware County Courthouse. This connects Media residents to the 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby, where transfers to subway and regional rail lines are available. Media also has a separate SEPTA Regional Rail station on the Media/Wawa Line approximately one mile south on Orange Street, providing a second direct connection toward Center City Philadelphia. The two transit options are not physically connected within the borough.
Items to Verify with Your Agent
A few specifics on this page are sourced from secondary aggregators or older filings. Confirm before relying:
- Approx Homes — No single authoritative housing unit count for Media Borough proper could be verified from a named, current source during research. TownCharts references approximately 3,072 housing units for a ‘Media’ area but it is unclear whether this figure is scoped to the borough only or a broader geography. Census QuickFacts was under maintenance. This field is left null pending direct Census ACS verification.
- Interior Sqft Range Text — No reliable borough-wide square footage range could be verified across the full mixed housing stock (Victorian singles, twins, condos, infill townhomes). Range varies too widely for a single defensible claim without public records aggregation.
- Hoa Name — Media Borough as a municipality has no single HOA. Individual infill condo or townhome developments may have project-specific HOAs but none could be uniformly identified as representative of the borough-wide housing stock.
- Builder — No single builder applies. Media Borough developed organically over 170+ years from 1850 through present-day infill. Individual builders have contributed specific projects but none is representative of the borough overall.
- Avg Year Built (Appreciation Index Input) — The supplied avg_year_built of 1951 is plausible for a borough with a wide mix of pre-Civil War Victorian homes, mid-century residential blocks, and more recent infill — the average could reasonably land in the mid-20th century. No anomaly flagged, but the figure should be understood as a statistical average across a very wide distribution, not indicative of the predominant era of construction.
- Cross Border Note — School District Risk — ZIP 19063 overlaps five school districts per livelovelocale.com. Buyers with a Media mailing address outside the actual borough boundary may be in Wallingford-Swarthmore, Marple Newtown, Garnet Valley, or Penn-Delco rather than Rose Tree Media. This is a material fiduciary risk that should be disclosed prominently on the page.
School District
Media Borough is served by the Rose Tree Media School District. Buyers should verify current school assignments directly with the district.
View Rose Tree Media School District Information
Sources Consulted
Public deed records · Delaware County Recorder · en.wikipedia.org · mediaborough.com · philadelphiaencyclopedia.org · ecode360.com · inquirer.com · damonmichels.com · rtmsd.org · mariadoylerealtor.com · phillyyimby.com · livelovelocale.com · visitmediapa.com · thecyrteam.com
Data refreshed: April 25, 2026 (median sold, appreciation, performance tiers, narratives) · Content reviewed: April 25, 2026 (overview, structural insight, FAQs)
The Cyr Team · 2418 neighborhoods · 4 counties · 33 years of public sales records