Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club is expanding. The North Philly organization, known for its work with city youth, is taking up residence at the Cliffs in East Fairmount Park, thanks to a partnership with the Department of Parks and Recreation and the office of Council President Darrell Clarke.
“I have a whole new generation here,” club founder and patriarch Ellis “El Dog” Ferrell said Tuesday morning, as he cut the ribbon on the new space. “My great-grandkids, and my grandkids.”
The Cliffs, an 18th century mansion near 33rd and Oxford that became an urban ruin four decades ago after a devastating fire, has now been replaced by a new barn. The building contains 12 stalls for Fletcher Street horses, a wash station, plus a tack room, and a hay barn.
There’s an area to use for horse pasture along the north side — a welcome addition, as the club’s old grazing lands across from its namesake Fletcher Street property were developed into affordable housing.
The riding club will continue to maintain its current stables, according to spokesperson Nicole Bryan.
“We have more horses — including two miniature horses and a goat! — than the number of stables that will be at the Cliffs,” Bryan told Billy Penn. “It’s also important that our original club remains a place of refuge and learning for the youth in North Philly.”
The nonprofit, which Ferrell founded in 2004, has a stated mission is to “heal individuals and communities through an urban equine experience.”
That mission has attracted worldwide attention. The club has been documented in multiple art projects, such as Martha Camarillo’s 2006 book “Fletcher Street,” French-Algerian artist Mohamed Bourouissa’s 2017 exhibition “Urban Riders,” and Luxembourg-based photographer Ann Sophie Lindström’s 2015 documentary “Don’t Fence Me In.”
It gained Hollywood fame as a central filming location for “Concrete Cowboy”, a 2020 father-son drama that starred Idris Alba and featured some North Philly residents as actors.
Partnering with a council president who ‘grew up around here’
Yet as “Concrete Cowboy” was bringing renewed focus to the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club, its future remained unclear, as it didn’t own the land used for riding lessons and grazing.
In 2017, the lots were formally acquired by the Philadelphia Land Bank. Five years later, it’s the site of a 78-unit complex that provides affordable housing for seniors, including club founder Ferrell — who continued to search for new land for his horses.
The search came to an end in September 2020, when he met with Council President Clarke.
“I’ve been knowing him a long time,” Ferrell said about the legislator, who is retiring this year after two and a half decades as a councilmember. “He grew up around here.”
It was Clarke who suggested building the new stables at Fairmount Park, Ferrell said. With support from Parks and Recreation, the Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation, District 4 Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., and state Rep. Donna Bullock, the stables became a reality.
The building is owned by the city and leased by the club. Construction of the planned offices and storage facility are still underway, but the stables are complete. Like the originals, they’ll serve as an inviting space for youth to learn valuable life lessons through caring for horses.
“In this space, the tie bound between human and horse will continue to flourish, and the stories of the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club will continue to unfold,” Parks & Rec Commissioner Orlando Rendon said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The club will continue to host block parties, neighborhood festivals, toy drives, and get-out-the-vote Election Day rides.
With the expansion complete, El Dog’s son Darrin Ferrell will take the reins of the urban riding club, bringing it forward into Philly’s future.
