The city was later ordered to pay a settlement to MOVE, which continue to have a presence in Philadelphia and to fight for the release of the MOVE Nine arrested in the 1978 gunfight. They were also necessary to create a more walkable environment and additional housing for a growing student body. Suburban Lives. West Philadelphia has about 75 of Philadelphia's 196 blue historic markers, which note historically important birthplaces, homes, business and other places. Starting with the first wave of Irish immigrants in the early 19th century, West Philadelphia was home to large numbers of European immigrants and their descendants. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990. Asian and Hispanic residents may identify with one of the more specific subcategories. Unlike the bucolic landscape of Stanfords park, the University City Science Center was to be located in the densely populated areas just north of the college campuses. 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. Over the city's three centuries, it has evolved into a diverse and vital aspect of the city community. [8], The area gained some fame through the DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince song "Yo Home to Bel-Air", which became the theme song to the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in which Wynnefield native Will Smith raps, "In West Philadelphia, born and raised.". Other settlements followed, including Mantua Village, carved from the holdings of a local landowner, Judge Richard Peters (1743-1828), and laid out in 1809. As West Philadelphias population climbed in the 1920s to the point that would have ranked it the nineteenth most-populous city in the United States, ambitions for the area soared. Similar homes for rent in Washington Square West, Philadelphia. Select your ideal criteria and let Scout do the rest. The demographic statistics for this exhibit have been compiled from Social Explorer by the staff of the University Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Scope: population of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia -40% -20% -0% +20% % ref. Arrivals from East Asia and Latin America, mainly Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans, have given the area small Hispanic and Asian American populations. In two of West Philadelphias most infamous turns of events, a conflict between the urban black liberation organization MOVE and the Philadelphia Police Department left people dead and many other West Philadelphia residents without homes. Becoming Penn: The Pragmatic American University, 19502000. During this period, the university adopted the moniker University City for the surrounding neighborhoods. The Media/Wawa Line also serves University City and portions of Southwest Philadelphia before continuing to Media and points beyond. 85.6%. Many young professionals and families have moved into the area. In 1872 the university moved to a new campus near Spruce and Thirty-Fourth Streets in West Philadelphia. 1944), who was born and raised in West Philadelphia, Penn promised to not repeat the aggressive steps taken in the 1950s and 1960s. West Philadelphia is also served by five of SEPTA's thirteen Regional Rail Lines, which transport thousands of commuters daily to and from Center City and University City, and provide a quick and inexpensive link to the Philadelphia International Airport. 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. Computer and Internet Use. The western portion of the neighborhood was once home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country (and much striking Victorian-era architecture remains). The impetus for Penns expansion came from an infusion of government research funding along with the urban renewal dollars made available by the national Housing Act of 1949. In 1900 West Philadelphia had 148,548 residents, in 1910 the number grew to 247,928, and by 1920 there were 359,601. Penn took full advantage of postwar federal largesse, competing successfully with its counterparts in higher education for research and development grantsespecially after the flood of funding following the Soviet Unions Sputnik success in 1957. By sending this Report you agree to NeighborhoodScout's, Real Estate in Popular Philadelphia Neighborhoods. Most recently many of these retail districts with the exception of 52nd Street have been converted to largely residential areas. Beginning in 1801, the university occupied the Presidents House, a building constructed on Ninth and Market Streets in the hopes that George Washington would reside there during his presidency, but it was never used for this purpose. 30 Years Later, I'm Still Trying To Make Sense Of The MOVE Bombing (National Public Radio), PhilaPlace: Association of Islamic Charitable Projects (AICP) An Interview with Linda Hauber (Historical Society of Pennsylvania). The area's public schools are operated by the School District of Philadelphia. Users should exercise caution when comparing 2017-2021 ACS 5-year estimates to other ACS estimates. Unlike the omnibuses, the streetcars were on rails that provided faster and more efficient travel. Photo: Lexey Swall/GRAIN for The Pew Charitable Trusts The population density in City Center West is 97% higher than Philadelphia; The median age in City Center West is 7% higher than Philadelphia; In City Center West 78.92% of the population is White; In City Center West 6.11% of the population is Black; In City Center West 11.66% of the population is Asian Median household income provides the best measure of the budget of the typical family or other non-family household. [4], The Philadelphia Police Department divides West Philadelphia into four patrol districts: the 16th, 18th, 19th, and 92nd.[5]. View All Data Tools and Apps The information is updated yearly, as soon as new data is made available by the US Census Bureau. West Philadelphia was among the early streetcar suburbs, and a portion of it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the West Philadelphia Streetcar Suburb Historic District. Philadelphia After the 1854 Act of Consolidation. Running above and, for a portion, under Market Street, this transportation link is one of Philadelphia's two major transit lines that transport hundreds of thousands of students and workers daily into and around the city. The Route 10 trolley runs along Lancaster Avenue from 63rd and Malvern Avenue through to 36th and Ludlow Streets where a portal allows access to the subway tunnel into Center City. 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). Hampton Demographics. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the northwest, Cobbs Creek to the southwest, and the SEPTA Media/Wawa Line to the south. Methodology: They were also discouraged, by legal means or by violence, from immediately following the white population into the growing suburbs. The demographic statistics for this exhibit have been compiled from Social Explorer by the staff of the University Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. As African Americans began living in more neighborhoods, the white population began fleeing to the expanding suburbs. The community has a fair number of Afro-Caribbean/Caribbean American residents, from the Jamaica, Haiti, Barbados, and other areas of the West Indies, as well as a growing number of African immigrants. According to the 2010 census, 216,433 people live among the ZIP codes of 19104, 19131, 19139, 19143 and 19151.[1](Map). 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%). For more than 150 years streetcars have served the Philadelphia area and helped Center City Philadelphia retain its commercial, retail, and entertainment supremacy in an ever-expanding region. Retail districts lined every street where there was a station as well as along Market Street. For a detailed map and demographic statistics for a specific census tract, click on a tract number in the map or as listed below: After a slow start, the Science Center eventually prospered. After several high-profile murders of Penn graduate students living in the mixed- race neighborhoods beyond the campus borders, which had lost much of their white population during the 1990s, the university began to again be active in the community. [All 13 serve 30th Street Station on the edge of West Philadelphia.] Development was enabled by the creation of the horsecar, which pushed development to about 43rd Street, and, after the arrival of the electrified streetcar in 1892, accelerated to the west and southwest.[2]. Updated annually. By 1840, the tract was only ninety-two acres. The houses melded the suburban principles of front porches and greenspace with the urban rowhouse form, producing profitable, yet desirable, middle-class suburban housing. An additional but smaller and less ornate 16 Italianate, brownstone, semi-detached houses, similar in form to the initial houses, were built around Chester Avenue. Philadelphia's love affair with the bicycle began with its public debut at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, held in Fairmount Park. The new bridge spurred growth, prompting a network of industries, including stockyards, lumber mills, slaughterhouses, coal yards, foundries, and glass factories to serve the city across the river. 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. The original bridge, often called the Schuylkill Permanent Bridge, was first built with exposed trusses, but covered a few years after its completion with a wooden roof and walls adorned with sculptures by William Rush. For the next half century at least, West Philadelphia largely became a suburb in the cityabetted by a series of advances in transportation technology, starting with the horsecars of the 1850s. 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. 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. This gradual elevation makes the skyline of Center City visible from many points in West Philadelphia. Unlike standardly available Census demographics, NeighborhoodScout uses dozens of custom models to transform 8.5 million raw demographic data elements from government sources into proprietary indices and insights. Two other trolley lines originally ran through West Philly. Per capita is the best measure of the average spending power of each person in the city. DJs have shaped musical tastes since the 1950s, broadcasting from stations such as WFIL, originally located at 4548 Market Street (the Enterprise Center in 2016). QuickFacts provides frequently requested Census Bureau information at the national, state, county, and city level. Follow The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia on Instagram Thus, it is sometimes, but not always, possible to track changes over time. An official website of the United States government. Everything from printers and bakeries to slaughterhouses and mirror manufacturers dotted this slice of the landscape. Over twenty-five hundred residents were displaced and the neighborhood was razed. The intersection of 52nd Street and Market Street in West Philadelphia was listed number eight in a 2007 list of the city's top ten recreational drug corners according to an article by Philadelphia Weekly reporter Steve Volk. The streets were once lined with American Chestnut and walnut trees that touched across the five lanes of roadway, but many were removed due to Chestnut blight and replaced with a mix of sycamore and poplar trees. (For example, 84th Street becomes Hook Road when it crosses into Sharon Hill.) These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. Starting at $1,020 USD /mo. Despite the industry clustered along the areas shores, development in this period remained largely residential in the rest of West Philadelphia. Puckett, John L. and Mark Frazier Lloyd. It is situated directly across the Schuylkill River from Center City . In 1924, the president of Drovers and Merchants National Bank argued that West Philadelphia should have its own seat on the local Federal Reserve Board. Date(s) & Update Frequency: No representation, guarantee or warranty is made as to the accuracy or completeness of information modified or aggregated for specific neighborhoods and/or zip codes. Along with a decrease in crime and a trend toward urban living, most of University City underwent gentrification. Originally, Philadelphia city extended only from the Delaware River west to the Schuylkill River and from Vine Street to South Street. The site of Philadelphia General Hospital became the multi-institution Philadelphia Center for Health Care Sciences. From radios earliest days, Philadelphia-area college and high school students have tested its boundaries. 7,043,501 and 7,680,859. 2020 (latest available). Nestled in the center of Fairmount Park, it is near Memorial Hall, the current home of the Please Touch Museum, Kelly Pool, The Carousel House, and the new Microsoft partner high school, the "School of the Future". A pivotal factor in the development of West Philadelphia was the construction of the University of Pennsylvanias campus. It holds the graves of many famous Philadelphians. Throughout the eighteenth century much of what would become West Philadelphia remained sparsely populated farmland. In 2014, President Barack Obama designated a swathe of West Philadelphia neighborhoods, including Mantua, as one of twenty-two national Promise Zones. Apartment buildingsunusual in this row-house-dominated citybegan to spring up as well. It stood divided, like much of the city and the country, between the haves and the have nots. Copyright 2000-2023 Location Inc. [citation needed], The nation's oldest zoological garden, the Philadelphia Zoo, has exhibitions and educational programs. As a consequence, large swaths of the area became deteriorated and underpopulated, despite a vibrant Black political and cultural scene and, in the twenty-first century, a resurgent higher education and medical cluster. Combined, these trolley routes convey more than 150,000 passengers daily, and operate 24-hour schedules, even in blizzards. Only two MOVE members, Ramona Africa and a child, Birdie Africa, survived the blaze. Social Explorer was created by a group of New York demographers to provide online access to U.S. socioeconomic data from a variety of sources, including the United States Census. Another major transit link in West Philadelphia are the five Subway Surface Lines, often called the Green Lines for their representation on SEPTA route maps. Grades Offered Grades 9-12 Total Students 372 students Gender % Total Classroom Teachers 32 teachers Students by Grade School Rankings This set the living pattern apart from its counterparts in North and South Philadelphia, where row houses were interspersed with factories and warehouses. Abraham Browers innovative omnibus service, introduced to Philadelphia in 1831, allowed new settlers speedy access into the central city. This is how city residents have self-reported their race and ethnicity to the US Census. A gunfight ensued and in the end, police officer James Ramp was dead and nine MOVE members, including Delbert Africa, shown here, were arrested. West Philadelphia drew national attention in 1978 and 1985 for violent clashes between police and an Afro-centric, back-to-nature group called MOVE. 302 South 12th Street. Mummies have captured the imagination and sparked the curiosity of Philadelphians since the Colonial Era. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. It was purchased by the Woodlands Cemetery Company that year for use as a rural cemetery. 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. For the 1844-54 legal entity, see, Neighborhood of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia Population & Age Distribution Age. The most comprehensive, authoritative reference source ever created for the Philadelphia region. Initial development was divided into block lots and sold in 1852 with the condition that "substantial stone or brick buildings" be erected. 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 educational status of the citys residents who are 18 and older. miles) 13.6 : Sex : Total Population: 275,579 : Male: 128,893: 46.8% 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. West Philadelphia's population expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thanks in large part to horsecars, then streetcars, and Schuylkill River bridges that allowed middle-class breadwinners to commute into the Central Business District a few miles to the east. On Chestnut Street, Drexel Universitys WKDU regularly welcomed local talent into its studio for live events, as did WPEN, which lent its studio to college broadcasters. The demographic statistics presented here include all variables found in the "Comprehensive Reports" generated by Social Explorer for the census years since 1940. These are the most common groups that city residents self-reported as their ancestry. 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. West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Farther west, African American neighborhoods tended to be more stable, with larger populations of public sector workers and private sector white collar workers, but that was little comfort to the displaced residents of Black Bottom. The land also houses over 750 historic plants and trees, some grown from seeds brought to Philadelphia by the 1804 Lewis and Clark expedition. 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. These neighborhoods were subjected to redlining, a discriminatory practice that prevented residents of undesirable neighborhoods from procuring mortgages or loans and exacerbated the poverty. Other US patent applications are currently pending. As of early 2017, large proposed developments in West Philadelphia include the 30th Street Station District and Schuylkill Yards. Since the mid-nineteenth century, West Philadelphia's fortunes have risen and fallen with shifts in transportation and demographics. For more information, please visit the 2021 5-year ACS Comparison Guidance page. Demographic data shown in this section was gathered from the latest U.S. Census Bureau release, the 2020 American Community Survey. Finally, the Route 36 trolley is the longest trolley Green Line service. 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. West Philadelphia contains many places of worship. 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. A reinforced, bunkerlike structure built on the roof supported this belief. A controversial Philadelphia-based organization often associated with the Black Power movement, MOVE is best known for a 1985 incident in which the Philadelphia police dropped an incendiary device on their West Philadelphia headquarters. He noted there was $60 million in manufacturing capital invested in the district, mostly by the river, and fifteen banks with total deposits of $40 million. After 1880 the larger houses closer to the river and the university, which dated to earlier in the century, began to be carved into smaller units. The Woodlands mansion and cemetery continue to operate today. U.S. District Court for the Eastern Dist. In the following decade, farther to the east, general violence continued to rise, as it did in the rest of the country. The land that makes up West Philadelphia was not always part of the city. 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). West Poplar; Philadelphia Population Statistics. and the West Virginia border. By this standard, about 231,000 Philadelphia householdsor about 529,000 peoplewere cost-burdened in 2018, the last year for which data was available. Of this, 45.85% are males and 54.15% are females. Like the rest of the citys manufacturing sector, West Philadelphias industry enjoyed great diversity. St. Thomas More High School for Boys at 47th and Wyalusing Avenue was closed in 1975 and now houses the Sr Clara Muhammad School. The University of Pennsylvania was instrumental in coining the name "University City" as part of a 1950s urban renewal and gentrification effort. 47, No. Housing was at a premium, and due to the desirability of the area, the newspaper of record noted that more than any other section of the city, West Philadelphia encouraged the construction of apartment buildings and the subdivision of old mansions to accommodate the boom. On the far side of the Schuylkill, the new housing developments were mostly marketed for the middle and upper classes, whose westward movement was further enabled by the replacement of the omnibus by horse cars in 1858. Discover your neighborhood's best match, anywhere. What is the population of West Philadelphia? The educational institutions and city planners wanted to establish a research park like Stanford Universitys Industrial Park to revitalize the community. University Archives staff created the census tract maps found here. Community groups have called on SEPTA to reopen closed Regional Rail stations in areas further away from the Market-Frankford Line and the Broad Street Line. Philadelphia played a key role in the birth of the American pharmaceutical industry during the early nineteenth century. Our nationally-comparable school ratings are covered under US Patent No. On the morning of August 8, 1978, Mayor Frank Rizzo ordered police to enter the property by force. 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. Since the dawn of rail transportation, Philadelphia has been home to a number of grand railroad stations. Under the guidance of university president Judith Rodin (b. West Philadelphia High School was one of the biggest and most diverse schools in state when it was opened in 1911. Meanwhile, in many neighborhoods on the border of Delaware County and elsewhere, conditions worsened during the Great Recession and the subsequent decimation of the public sector workforce. 8,376,755. Other major thoroughfares include Chestnut and Walnut Streets, which together form Pennsylvania Route 3. number of members in ethno-racial group. Finally the decision was made by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor to drop an incendiary device on the bunkerlike structure to weaken MOVEs position. This photograph shows two clusters of houses on an otherwise vacant street, awaiting the relocation of residents before demolition. 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. Population : 275,579 : Population Density (per sq. 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. US-born citizens make up 88.6% of the resident pool in West Philadelphia, while non-US-born citizens account for 5.29%. The law profession in Philadelphia dates back to the days of William Penn. The setback of these houses was 25 feet, allowing generous front yards. 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 Warner was the first known European west of the Schuylkill. A handful of chestnut trees remain near Cobbs Creek. The neighborhood of Eastwick in Southwest Philadelphia, near Philadelphia International Airport, showed the greatest poverty-rate increase of any community, rocketing from 12 percent during 2006-10 to 26 percent in the newest survey. The least populous of the compared neighborhoods has a population of 11,228. 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. The Darby Road also ran up to this point, granting access to communities like Chester farther down the Delaware River. One of the aggravating factors in this change has been the recent reconstruction of the EL which, due to detours of the "number streets" or numbered northsouth thoroughfares and closure of large portions of Market Street, have led to many remaining businesses failing. Total Population by Neighborhood#5 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. With the exception of Market Street, these streets can be regarded as being "named after" the streets in West Philadelphia, not continuations, as they are cut off by the park. 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. 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. In . The Route 13 trolley runs along Chester Avenue from the transit tunnel at 40th Street and Baltimore Avenue to 67th Street where it turns off Chester Avenue and continues along PA Route 13 into Yeadon, Delaware County on to its terminus at Green Lane. CLOSE. In first decades of the twenty-first century, parts of West Philadelphia saw a revival. At the time, the majority of residents were working classabout half immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Englandand settlements of any density tapered off at what would become the boundaries of Fortieth Street, with the wealthy clustered along Walnut and Chestnut near this westward extremis. Follow Backgrounders on Twitter Finally, note that Social Explorer has included in its Comprehensive Reports most, but not all, of the variables available for each census year. . 77th and 86th Streets run just a few blocks before they leave the city for surrounding jurisdictions. As African Americans began living in more neighborhoods, the white population began fleeing to the expanding suburbs. West Philadelphia's streets are laid out in a modified grid. We apologize for the inconvenience. One of the single largest sectors of the city of Philadelphia at almost fifteen square miles between the Schuylkill River to the east and Delaware County to the west, West Philadelphia at its peak, in the early twentieth century, attracted an influx of new residents to its verdant, suburban-feeling neighborhoods. First, census tracts may vary from census year to census year, both with regards to boundaries and numbering.
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