The Philadelphia Social History Project (PSHP) was an interdisciplinary project that played a central role in transforming the study of urban and social history by creating a computerized database to study the effect of industrialization and urbanization on Philadelphias minority populations between 1838 and 1880. West Philadelphia Eastern North Philadelphia Kensington Strawberry Mansion West Philadelphia West Philadelphia is a diverse, close-knit and vibrant community home to family-friendly parks and schools, celebrated eateries, and an active arts and culture scene. Philadelphia's love affair with the bicycle began with its public debut at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, held in Fairmount Park. University Archives staff members Mary D. McConaghy and Michael L. Ellerson gathered these statistical tables from the professional version of Social Explorerthen edited them for use here. Neither area proved popular at first, but as the city became more highly developed the lots began to sell. Immigration Surged The immigrant population spiked 59% in 17 years Shoppers at the Hung Vuong Supermarket on Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia. The University and Urban Revival: Out of the Ivory Tower and Into the Streets. Its western majority African American neighborhoods were declining in population and median income. New routes into the city aided this movement too, like the Chestnut Street bridge completed in 1866. It remained to be seen whether the ascendancy of the eastern section of West Philadelphia, where old industries and worker housing were giving way to new investment, would be enough to buoy the fortunes of the outlying, formerly middle class areas. These are the most common groups that city residents self-reported as their ancestry. By the 1940s, the new area of settlement stretched from the river out to Fifty-Ninth Street and housed about forty-four thousand African Americans, from poor and working class by the water to the Black elite in the northwestern neighborhoods closest to the Main Line. In the 1980s some immigrants began to move into the area, chiefly African and Cambodian, although the latter population would almost entirely decamp for other parts of the city by the beginning of the twenty-first century. For the 1844-54 legal entity, see, Neighborhood of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 8,376,755. West Philadelphia High School was one of the biggest and most diverse schools in state when it was opened in 1911. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011. However, the Paoli/Thorndale does not stop anywhere between 30th Street and City Line Avenue, instead bypassing most of West Philadelphia ever since the closure of 52nd Street station. The student body continued to grow into the twentieth century and by 1900 the campus had expanded to thirty buildings including dormitories, laboratories, and the Frank Furness-designed library shown at left in this postcard. Most of these passenger trips originate outside of the city, but more West Philly residents are using SEPTA's multi-ride "Transpass"[citation needed], which allows unlimited rides on SEPTA vehicles within the city limits. Philadelphia Population & Age Distribution Age. From 2000 to 2016, the number of foreign-born residents rose by roughly 95,000 while the number of U.S.-born Philadelphians fell by 44,500. The building, which still sports a large satellite dish on its roof, is now home to the West Philadelphia Enterprise Center. Miller, Rogerand Joseph Siry. The setback of these houses was 25 feet, allowing generous front yards. Here, middle neighborhoods are places like East Mt. The university was not the only force at work; its efforts were aided by a nationwide decline in crime and marginal increase in the desire for urban living among a segment of the professional classes. Combined, these trolley routes convey more than 150,000 passengers daily, and operate 24-hour schedules, even in blizzards. According to the 2010 census, 216,433 people live among the ZIP codes of 19104, 19131, 19139, 19143 and 19151.[1](Map). During the latter confrontation, police firebombed the group's headquarters, killing 11 people and destroying an entire block of Osage Avenue and Pine Street. The street grid ends at Cobbs Creek Park along with the western political boundary of Philadelphia, but many of the street names and a roughly similar street grid (it begins to degrade outside the city) continue beyond the city limits into Upper Darby Township, into which Market Street runs uninterrupted to 69th street at the El terminal, where it turns into West Chester Pike and runs through Delaware County and into Chester County. Other developments introduced urban density and architectural uniformity: the Queen Anne style with columned porches and decorative spindlework, brickwork and corbelling; steeply pitched gables with fishscale slate shingles; turrets; balconies; and windows with a single pane surrounded by small panes. [28] Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. Then on the far bank of the Schuylkill, port and mercantile infrastructure began to build up at this westward point of entry to the city. The construction of the University City Science Center required the demolition of the residential Black Bottom neighborhood in the 1960s. This gradual elevation makes the skyline of Center City visible from many points in West Philadelphia. top Male population 45.52% Female population 54.48% Citizen US Born 88.53% Citizen not US Born 5.24% Not Citizen 6.24% Moved from Abroad 0.94% Moved from Same County 9.19% Moved from Same State 2.37% Moved from Different State 3.65% Same House as Last Year 83.85% White 1 Hispanic 2 Black Asian Mixed 1 Other 1 -42.4% 35.3% 77.7% +6.3% 12.4% 6.12% +31.8% 42.9% 11.0% +3.8% 6.90% 3.14% +0.3% 2.05% 1.71% +0.2% 0.53% 0.28% 1 non-Hispanic 2 excluding black and Asian Hispanics Relative Ethno-Racial Composition by Age #3 In recent years, parts of West Philadelphia have undergone "Penntrification," a term that reflects the University of Pennsylvania's role in gentrification of the neighborhood; including a campaign to rename part of the area University City (the designation now appears on maps as well as public street signs and government listings). American Community Survey, U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Education, 50 state departments of education, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 18,000+ local law enforcement agencies, Federal Housing Finance Agency, U.S. Geological Service, National Agricultural Statistics Service. This photograph shows two clusters of houses on an otherwise vacant street, awaiting the relocation of residents before demolition. Unveiled at the University of Pennsylvanias Moore School of Electrical Engineering in 1946, the world's first nontechnical computer, the ENIAC, consisted of 40 nine-foot-high cabinets containing 18,000 vacuum tubes, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 1,500 relays. It is situated directly across the Schuylkill River from Center City . In that year, 40% of the city's households were cost-burdened, a figure that is in line with many other major cities. It was purchased by the Woodlands Cemetery Company that year for use as a rural cemetery. The Media/Wawa Line also serves University City and portions of Southwest Philadelphia before continuing to Media and points beyond. In addition, one of Philadelphia's six streetcar lines, the Route 10 Green Line, transports commuters and students daily along Lancaster Avenue from 36th and Ludlow streets to 63rd and Malvern Avenue in Wynnefield. View All Data Tools and Apps West Philadelphia has about 75 of Philadelphia's 196 blue historic markers, which note historically important birthplaces, homes, business and other places. 2 (April 1980), pp. QuickFacts provides statistics for all states and counties, and for cities and towns with a population of 5,000 or more. [citation needed], The nation's oldest zoological garden, the Philadelphia Zoo, has exhibitions and educational programs. In first decades of the twenty-first century, parts of West Philadelphia saw a revival. The area's African American population began growing in the 1880s through the migration of blacks from the southern states; white flight in the early 1960s completed the transition to a majority-black population. Under the guidance of university president Judith Rodin (b. The main thoroughfare, Market Street, runs East and West, paralleled to the north and south by smaller streets named for tree species. West Philadelphia is the home to several universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, and Saint Joseph's University. The two 77th Streets (as well as all numbered streets after 58th) are miles apart. and the West Virginia border. Starting at $1,020 USD /mo. In . West Philadelphia did not exist until the middle of the nineteenth century. Along with a decrease in crime and a trend toward urban living, most of University City underwent gentrification. West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Developers found they could increase profits by catering to this emerging group, shrinking lot sizes, and building more compact, less ornate houses. Total Population by Neighborhood#5 This activity resulted in the rejuvenation of the neighborhoods surrounding the university and the historically mixed-race neighborhood to its immediate west, which in 2010 became majority white for the first time since 1970. Discover your neighborhood's best match, anywhere. West Philadelphia was divided into townships and districts with independent governments. Much of the vacancy and crime that blighted West Philadelphia could be found in these areas, which were still cut off from legitimate employment and capital markets. The 5 largest ethnic groups in Philadelphia, PA are Black or African American (Non-Hispanic) (40.1%), White (Non-Hispanic) (34.1%), Asian (Non-Hispanic) (7.36%), Other (Hispanic) (6.86%), and White (Hispanic) (5.2%). Largely commissioned by speculative developers and designed by some of the city's most prolific architects, they were purchased by industrial managers and other professionals who led the first movement of upper and middle class from the more crowded city center. 1 Baths Ba; 320 S. 10th Street. The West Indian population is largely concentrated in West Philadelphia, with smaller numbers in the Southwest and Northeast sections. Instead, it provided unarmed security services to patrol the area and exercised soft power to provide incentives to staff, from professors to janitors, to buy and repair homes in a catchment area around the university. In 2008, the area around the Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia Zoo, and the Mann Music Center was designated the Centennial District: an area to be revitalized by the country's 250th birthday in 2026. After years of neighbor complaints regarding the group loudly broadcasting political messages and neglecting its children, MOVE was ordered to leave the property. Starting at $1,192 USD /mo. The numbering pattern is mixed; someone traveling along Market Street into Upper Darby would cross 62nd Street, then Cobbs Creek Parkway/63rd St, then several named streets until finally arriving at 69th Street, skipping 6468. Zip codes included in this demographic data: 3600 CONSHOHOCKEN AVENUE, Philadelphia, PA. Rural cemeteries were promoted in the mid-nineteenth century as a solution to crowded city churchyard and municipal cemeteries that also provided residents of the citys crowded center with green space for recreation and fresh air. 99-146. Modeled after the Crystal Palace Great Exhibition in London, the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 exhibited national pride and belief in the importance of education and progress through industrial innovation. The average annual household income in Overbrook Park is $63,686, while the median household income sits at $47,174 per year. The University of Pennsylvania was instrumental in coining the name "University City" as part of a 1950s urban renewal and gentrification effort. Philadelphia. They were also necessary to create a more walkable environment and additional housing for a growing student body. Rows of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival style houses were built much further from the city center in neighborhoods like Cedar Park and Kingsessing and commercial corridors developed down streets like Baltimore Avenue and Fifty-Second Street. The renowned Penn Relays draw high school and college track and field athletes from around the country. Data.census.gov, Census Data API, and Census Search will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. During a confrontation at the fortified compound of the anarcho-primitivist group MOVE in 1985, the police attempted to drop a high explosive on a bunker atop the radicals home. With firefighters fearful of being fired upon, the blaze was allowed to burn. It was not until 1805 that the first bridge was constructed spanning the Schuylkill River at what is now Market Street. Jake Blumgart is a reporter for WHYYs PlanPhilly. At the same time, new development moved beyond Forty-Fifth Street out to Cobbs Creek, the border with Delaware County. The houses melded the suburban principles of front porches and greenspace with the urban rowhouse form, producing profitable, yet desirable, middle-class suburban housing. Data Tool U.S. and World Population Clock See U.S. population by date, region, age and sex, and the top 10 areas by people and density. Satterlee Hospital, one of the largest Union Army hospitals of the Civil War, operated from 1862 to 1865; part of its grounds are now the northern section of Clark Park. Since the mid-nineteenth century, West Philadelphia's fortunes have risen and fallen with shifts in transportation and demographics. By the twentieth century many of the wealthy residents who remained in West Philadelphia located away from the Market-Frankford elevated line or the multiplicity of trolley lines, further accelerating the growth of the Main Line suburbs in the process. Other US patent applications are currently pending. The earliest developments began in 1850 and the final period of mass construction ended in 1930. Cultural venues include the Mann Music Center of the Performing Arts and the Bushfire Theater of the Performing Arts on 52nd Street. By the 1930s one of the more notable developments in West Philadelphia was the growing number of Black residents and the discriminatory pressures that boxed them into an intensely segregated area stretching south to Market Street, west to Fifty-Ninth Street, and bounded to the north and east by the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the river beyond it. The vintage year (e.g., V2022) refers to the final year of the series (2020 thru 2022). [citation needed] Harrity Elementary School is a district-owned school operated by Mastery Charter Schools.[6]. Another development on Locust Street, a project by banker and West Philly resident Clarence Howard Clark, comprised three-story, two-bay, brick, restrained Queen Anne rowhouses. Philadelphia was at the forefront of the early nursing profession and its prestigious nursing schools set new standards for professionalism in the field. Finally, the Route 36 trolley is the longest trolley Green Line service. But farther from the university in other West Philadelphia neighborhoods, like Kingsessing and Cobbs Creek on the Delaware County line, conditions stagnated or worsened as the Great Recession eliminated many public sector jobs. For more information, please visit the 2021 5-year ACS Comparison Guidance page. 302 South 12th Street. In the 1960s and 1970s, illuminated signs announced what speed to drive to travel 4.3 miles into Center City without stopping for a red light. QuickFacts data are derived from: Population Estimates, American Community Survey, Census of Population and Housing, Current Population Survey, Small Area Health Insurance Estimates, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, State and County Housing Unit Estimates, County Business Patterns, Nonemployer Statistics, Economic Census, Survey of Business Owners, Building Permits. Streetcars were electrified beginning in the 1890s and accelerated the suburbanization of West Philadelphia. Later renamed the Civic Center Museum, it closed in 1994. The remaining African American neighborhoods continued to suffer discrimination in access to jobs and capital while many of the jobs that previously fostered economic stability were lost or undercut by the flight of manufacturing firms. Most recently many of these retail districts with the exception of 52nd Street have been converted to largely residential areas. Hamiltonville as a continuation of Penns grid in Philadelphia proper. Mummies have captured the imagination and sparked the curiosity of Philadelphians since the Colonial Era. These houses are typical of the early 20th-century developments in West Philadelphia, and are unified by rhythmic patterning of porch and gable features. Black Bottom was a traditionally black, working-class neighborhood along the Market Street corridor, between the Powelton Village and Mantua neighborhoods and the campuses of Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania. Trains influenced suburban development and provide a green alternative to crowded highways systems. After generating area maps from Google Maps,they added census boundaries and census tract labels as needed. The western reaches of West Philadelphia included miles of two-story rowhouses with bay windows above classical columned front porches. 85.6%. Puckett, John L. and Mark Frazier Lloyd. The group refused to leave and a year-long blockade followed. As West Philadelphia became majority African American, the University of Pennsylvania began an ambitious expansion framed by its 1948 master plan (the universitys first update in almost half a century). Age is classified into groups; each percentage listed is that group's percentage of the total population. In 1963, four stone eagles were added to the bridge approaches after being salvaged from New York Citys recently demolished Penn Station. This process accelerated with the full extension of the Market-Frankford line in 1907, which boosted settlement, including that of immigrant and Black laborers living close to the line. For eight remarkable decades, local Philadelphia fans consistently supported a series of Black baseball clubs whose successes generated racial pride and represented a triumph of African American institution-building. Multiple business corridors sprouted on Fifty-Second Street and Baltimore, Lancaster, Woodland, and Girard Avenues. The property was cut off from all city services, though sympathetic Philadelphians sometimes delivered food and other necessities. The Woodlands mansion and cemetery continue to operate today. By 1840, the tract was only ninety-two acres. The Woodlands Cemetery, which is located near the west bank of the Schuylkill River, was originally the estate of Andrew Hamilton who bought the property in 1735 from descendants of Blockley Township's founder, William Warner, who hailed from Brockley, England. The second story, projecting, semi-hexagonal bay is incorporated into this design, an element which defines the later rowhouses. The information is updated yearly, as soon as new data is made available by the US Census Bureau. These neighborhoods were subjected to redlining, a discriminatory practice that prevented residents of undesirable neighborhoods from procuring mortgages or loans and exacerbated the poverty. Later Tudor and Spanish Revival houses, and the Art Deco influenced apartment houses also filled in available lot spaces between developments and made it possible for more middle-class Philadelphians to move to the area. The street was unified by front yards, and enclosed by decorative iron fences. University City Science Center, the nation's first urban research park was conceived as an ambitious urban renewal project, but ignited racial tensions in a city marred by poverty. The introduction of electric streetcars in the 1890s further altered the area, as those with more resources moved farther out, leaving behind a more broadly based middle class. Blocks away from "West" were the West Philadelphia Catholic High Schools for Girls at 46th Street and Boys at 48th Street, now consolidated into West Catholic Preparatory High School in the building at 46th Street. As of early 2017, large proposed developments in West Philadelphia include the 30th Street Station District and Schuylkill Yards. University of Pennsylvania Library and College Hall. The district still had fewer than a hundred thousand people in 1890, but every new census revealed meteoric growth. A few African American neighborhoods close to campus were largely destroyed by eminent domain as a result, most famously the area known as Black Bottom that stood between the university and Powelton Village. In the period after World War II, many white residents and industrial jobs left the city for its suburbs, leaving in their wake overwhelmingly black communities with few employment opportunities. These are the types of employers who city residents work for. It stood divided, like much of the city and the country, between the haves and the have nots. Unlike the omnibuses, the streetcars were on rails that provided faster and more efficient travel. Most residents of West Philadelphia are U.S.-born citizens (88.93%) with a minority of non-U.S. citizens (6.25%) and an even smaller percentage of U.S. foreign-born citizens (4.82%). Beginning in the 1990s, the University of Pennsylvania began a process of community engagement to help rebuild the surrounding neighborhoods by providing an unarmed security force in University City and establishing the university-affiliated Sadie Alexander School. 1960 Census 1970 Census 1980 Census 1990 Census 2000 Census 2010 Census 2010 Census Tracts The demographic statistics for this exhibit have been compiled from Social Explorer by the staff of the University Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Hospitals and academic medical centers have played a central role in the economies of many major U.S. cities, including Philadelphia. This postindustrial economic vise resulted in the kind of divestment and shadow economy dealings that blighted many other inner city neighborhoods. Hampton Demographics. Penn also competed with other parts of the city for urban renewal funds (much of the money allocated within West Philadelphia went to the universitys ends).