What started in 1980 as a small group of neighbors tired of the dilapidated buildings on Germantown Avenue has turned into a robust Community Development Corporation with a staff of ten. For 45 years, we have worked to grow Mt. Airy in a positive direction through our projects and programs in real estate development, housing counseling, children’s literacy, and small business support. Help us grow!

Our Mission

Mt. Airy CDC has a mission to preserve, empower, and enrich a vibrant and diverse Mt. Airy. In 2024 alone, we served 1129 people through our Housing department, helping 60 of them finalize purchase of their first home. We supported 80+ small businesses through our Go Mt. Airy Business Association. We served 65 local children in our summer reading camps – helping them to improve their literacy skills and avoid the summer slide. 

And we held a number of free community events, bringing thousands of neighbors together to celebrate the beauty of Mt. Airy and providing an economic boost to the commercial corridor.

Why Your Support Matters

As a nonprofit, Mt. Airy CDC relies on public funds to support our core programs as well as sponsorships and gifts from generous donors. In these times of uncertain government resources, the support of our small donors matters more than ever.

DONATE

By joining our $45 for 45 campaign, you can make a direct impact on the Mt. Airy community – helping us support first-time homebuyers, sustain small businesses, nurture young readers, make infrastructure improvements in the neighborhood, and more.

When you commit to a $45 donation monthly, you can do even more to sustain and grow our programs for Mt. Airy. Your generosity will help us reach more people through our programming and fulfill our mission of empowering and enriching a vibrant and diverse Mt. Airy.

Historic Retrospective

In June 1980, residents of East and West Mt Airy came together to incorporate the Mt. Airy Village Development Corporation.  These visionaries who created the organization intended for it to be a vehicle for positive change, strengthening Germantown Avenue, removing blight, promoting safety and housing, and realizing Mt. Airy’s promise as a diverse community of opportunities.  Within 10 years, the organization had created its first headquarters with a mini police station and purchased its first property for redevelopment.
By the 1990s, the organizaion was leveraging civic activism to create real change, as protests shut down local nuisance bars, breaking up criminal activity.  Now known as Mt. Airy USA, the organization began working to promote diverse homeownership and hired its first employee–a housing counselor.
With the dawn of the new millennium, Mt. Airy USA began changing the face of the lower end of Germantown Avenue, as the derelict Wagon Wheel Inn was transformed into PHEBE Commons, a modern business and office hub.
The transformations kept coming, as Mt. Airy USA renovated the dilapidated Winston Commons, purchased new properties, and built a half block of affordable new rowhomes on Montana Street.
By the next decade, the organization began to think more comprehensively about the evolving needs of the community.  It was no longer just about fixing up collapsing buildings, but also about education, planning, and convening.  From Street Fare, to the Philly iHub, the Mt. Airy Schools Coalition, and the Mt. Airy 2025 Neighborhood Planning Process, our programs sought to bring residents together, help them articulate a vision for their community’s future, and give them the resources to achieve it.
As we hit the halfway point of our fourth decade, we’re proud to still be breaking new ground, whether that’s literally breaking ground on $10M in infrastructure at a local rec center or figuratively, with new programs that make our streets safer, cleaner, and more welcoming to families.

While much has changed since 1980 and we live in very uncertain times, Mt. Airy CDC has stayed faithful to its guiding principles, continuing to empower the vibrant and diverse Mt. Airy to which its founders aspired. Help us make the next 45 years even better!

Related Posts

Share This