Follow Backgrounders on Twitter Using interactive maps and data reports, Social Explorer makes available detailed information from the United States Census, beginning with the first census of 1790 and continuing to the present. Its western majority African American neighborhoods were declining in population and median income. To accommodate the bourgeoning population, in 1844 Hamiltonville, Mantua, and Powelton joined together to incorporate as the borough of West Philadelphia, before being brought into the city proper with the consolidation of 1854. As African Americans began living in more neighborhoods, the white population began fleeing to the expanding suburbs. Throughout the eighteenth century much of what would become West Philadelphia remained sparsely populated farmland. and the West Virginia border. Here, middle neighborhoods are places like East Mt. 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. Then in the 1870s the University of Pennsylvania left its cramped center city location for West Philadelphia, a move with enormous effect on the development of surrounding neighborhoods, especially during the second half of the twentieth century. Most of the houses in West Philadelphia are row houses, although there are areas of semi-detached and detached houses. The demographic statistics for this exhibit have been compiled fromSocial Explorerby the staff of theUniversity Archivesof theUniversity of Pennsylvania. New routes into the city aided this movement too, like the Chestnut Street bridge completed in 1866. The group refused to leave and a year-long blockade followed. The process began during World War I, as Black migrants arrived in the city in increasing numbers. It was the first covered bridge in the United States. The Darby Road also ran up to this point, granting access to communities like Chester farther down the Delaware River. 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. The NBC drama American Dreams is set in West Philadelphia in the mid-1960s. Please note: Unemployment data updated November 2022. Most recently many of these retail districts with the exception of 52nd Street have been converted to largely residential areas. A pivotal factor in the development of West Philadelphia was the construction of the University of Pennsylvanias campus. Under the guidance of university president Judith Rodin (b. 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. 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. 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. West Philadelphia drew national attention in 1978 and 1985 for violent clashes between police and an Afro-centric, back-to-nature group called MOVE. This gradual elevation makes the skyline of Center City visible from many points in West Philadelphia. 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. Households with a computer, percent, 2017-2021. Data.census.gov, Census Data API, and Census Search will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. 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. William Penn wrote that the area is likely to be a great part of the settlement of this age and intended to expand settlement across the river. Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. Discover your neighborhood's best match, anywhere. 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. The Route 11 trolley runs along Woodland Avenue from the transit tunnel at 40th Street to the city line at Cobbs Creek and continues into Darby Borough. The majority race in Philadelphia overall is white at 62.2% of residents. 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. 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. According to the 2010 census, 216,433 people live among the ZIP codes of 19104, 19131, 19139, 19143 and 19151.[1](Map). 8,376,755. Age is classified into groups; each percentage listed is that groups percentage of the total population. 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. Over twenty-five hundred residents were displaced and the neighborhood was razed. The most comprehensive, authoritative reference source ever created for the Philadelphia region. There are 200,637 residents in West Philadelphia, with a median age of 33.1. None of the households in Philadelphia, PA reported speaking a non-English language at home as their primary shared language. (Author information current at time of publication.). From designs evoking Greek temples built at the dawn of the automobile age to the ubiquitous utilitarian structures of the twenty-first century, gas stations have become a fixture of the Philadelphia area's landscape. The police department made matters worse by becoming the first U.S. law enforcement institution to bomb its own city. Two other trolley lines originally ran through West Philly. Click the Quick Info icon to the left of each row in TABLE view to learn about sampling error. They were also necessary to create a more walkable environment and additional housing for a growing student body. The Cynwyd Line is a limited-service express line from Center City to the Bala Cynwyd neighborhood of Lower Merion Township. [citation needed] Harrity Elementary School is a district-owned school operated by Mastery Charter Schools.[6]. Airy, West Oak Lane, East Oak Lane, Rhawnhurst, Germantown, Mayfair, Tacony, Wynnefield and Olney. Combined, these trolley routes convey more than 150,000 passengers daily, and operate 24-hour schedules, even in blizzards. of Pa. U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Grand Army of the Republic Civil War Museum and Library, National Museum of American Jewish History, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=West_Philadelphia&oldid=1128789657, Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox settlement with no coordinates, Articles needing additional references from July 2017, All articles needing additional references, Articles to be expanded from December 2009, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2009, Articles needing additional references from December 2010, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2012, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2010, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Non-Hispanic Black or African-American: 164,921 (76.2%), Non-Hispanic White/European: 37,010 (17.1%), This page was last edited on 22 December 2022, at 00:50. Zip codes included in this demographic data: 3600 CONSHOHOCKEN AVENUE, Philadelphia, PA. The then-scion of the family, William Hamilton (1745-1813), established the estates Georgian mansion and laid out. 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. The search engine finds the neighborhoods that are the optimum fit to the set of criteria you choose. 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. Measuring America's People, Places, and Economy. It holds the graves of many famous Philadelphians. 1944), who was born and raised in West Philadelphia, Penn promised to not repeat the aggressive steps taken in the 1950s and 1960s. 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. [All 13 serve 30th Street Station on the edge of West Philadelphia.] Public sector employment in city government and the school district offered a wide range of employment opportunities for Black workers, from professional positions as managers and teachers to jobs that required less formal education, like sanitation and transportation. The University of Pennsylvania was instrumental in coining the name "University City" as part of a 1950s urban renewal and gentrification effort. (For example, 84th Street becomes Hook Road when it crosses into Sharon Hill.) A series of wooden and iron bridges were constructed to replace it until the modern-era span was completed in 1932. Etienne, Harley F. Pushing Back the Gates: Neighborhood Perspectives on University-Driven Revitalization in West Philadelphia. This article is about the present-day area. 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. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. After generating area maps from Google Maps,they added census boundaries and census tract labels as needed. Some of the largest concerns included the metal workings at Job T. Pughs Auger Works, the Otto Gas Engine Manufacturing Company, and the Allison & Sons Car & Tube Works, one of the biggest wagon firms in the nation until its destruction by fire in 1872. Finally the decision was made by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor to drop an incendiary device on the bunkerlike structure to weaken MOVEs position. The city held public unwrappings in the nineteenth century and is home to several important collections, including the holdings of the Penn Museum. Follow The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia on Instagram People who identify as black are most likely to be living in the central places. City officials found these species much more tolerant of the urban environment and resistant to disease. This set the living pattern apart from its counterparts in North and South Philadelphia, where row houses were interspersed with factories and warehouses. Mummies have captured the imagination and sparked the curiosity of Philadelphians since the Colonial Era. 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. These neighborhoods were subjected to redlining, a discriminatory practice that prevented residents of undesirable neighborhoods from procuring mortgages or loans and exacerbated the poverty. From radios earliest days, Philadelphia-area college and high school students have tested its boundaries. The map below highlights areas of . All of this information was taken from the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau. This is how city residents have self-reported their race and ethnicity to the US Census. This photograph shows two clusters of houses on an otherwise vacant street, awaiting the relocation of residents before demolition. View All Data Tools and Apps The demographic statistics presented here include all variables found in the "Comprehensive Reports" generated by Social Explorer for the census years since 1940. 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. 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. 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. As the century wore on, the only corners of West Philadelphia that were not overwhelmingly Black were immediately around Drexel and Pennsylvania universities and in a band of neighborhoods to the west of the higher education cluster that remained racially mixed from the 1960s onward. 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. 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. After years of neighbor complaints regarding the group loudly broadcasting political messages and neglecting its children, MOVE was ordered to leave the property. University City is the easternmost portion of West Philadelphia, encompassing several Philadelphia universities. Arrivals from East Asia and Latin America, mainly Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans, have given the area small Hispanic and Asian American populations. Founded in 1897, the Commercial Museum promoted the merits of international trade. Updated annually. 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. 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. 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. American Bandstand (1952-89) was a massively popular music television program with strong Philadelphia roots, storied national success, and the power to shape the music industry and society. Small communities began to spring up to support these businesses, like Hamiltonville in 1804. By the end of the 1920s, 220,000 African Americans lived in Philadelphia, and they desperately needed housing beyond the older Black ghetto in North Philadelphia. In Elegy (for MOVE and Philadelphia), Philadelphia poet and playwright Sonia Sanchez questions the paradoxical nature of a city that seemingly set itself and its people ablaze near Sixty-Second Street and Osage Avenue. Both College Hall and the library remain standing and are West Philadelphia landmarks. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990. Unlike the omnibuses, the streetcars were on rails that provided faster and more efficient travel. 215, 267, and 445. In 2014, President Barack Obama designated a swathe of West Philadelphia neighborhoods, including Mantua, as one of twenty-two national Promise Zones. West Philadelphia High School was one of the biggest and most diverse schools in state when it was opened in 1911. After Hamiltons death, much of the land was sold for residential and commercial development. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011. Residents complained of a bullhorn broadcasting political messages all day and accused the group of stockpiling weapons. The 36 trolley leaves the 40th Street transit tunnel running along Woodland Avenue until 49th Street where it turns south to continue along Lindbergh Boulevard turning at Elmwood Avenue starting at 55th Street. For the first time in West Philadelphia, houses had garages. U.S. District Court for the Eastern Dist. University of Pennsylvania Library and College Hall. 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. 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. Along with a decrease in crime and a trend toward urban living, most of University City underwent gentrification. 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. An official website of the United States government. 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. 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. Some estimates presented here come from sample data, and thus have sampling errors that may render some apparent differences between geographies statistically indistinguishable. West Philadelphia was divided into townships and districts with independent governments. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Philadelphia city, Pennsylvania QuickFacts Table (a) Includes persons reporting only one race (c) Economic Census - Puerto Rico data are not comparable to U.S. Economic Census data (b) Hispanics may be of any race, so also are included in applicable race categories Methodology: The Big 5, an association of local college basketball programs, played at the University of Pennsylvania's Palestra arena from the time of its formation until 1986. The site of Philadelphia General Hospital became the multi-institution Philadelphia Center for Health Care Sciences. The construction of the University City Science Center required the demolition of the residential Black Bottom neighborhood in the 1960s. 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. Initial development was divided into block lots and sold in 1852 with the condition that "substantial stone or brick buildings" be erected. Similar homes for rent in Washington Square West, Philadelphia. A bustling light industrial sector continued to grow south of Market Street on land adjacent to the river, relying on the Pennsylvania Railroads infrastructure around 30th Street Station to convey the sectors goods efficiently. But during the early decades of majority-Black West Philadelphia, these challenges were attenuated by the growth of African American political power and the slowly declining, but still available, unionized industrial jobs. A click on a specific census tract as found in either the list or the map for a given census year will present a detailed map with a link to the demographic statistics for that census tract. The Emerging Suburb: West Philadelphia, 1850-1880, Pennsylvania History, Vol. University Archives staff created the census tract maps found here. Persons per household, 2017-2021. Population Estimates, July 1 2022, (V2022), Population Estimates, July 1 2021, (V2021), Population estimates base, April 1, 2020, (V2022), Population estimates base, April 1, 2020, (V2021), Population, percent change - April 1, 2020 (estimates base) to July 1, 2022, (V2022), Population, percent change - April 1, 2020 (estimates base) to July 1, 2021, (V2021), American Indian and Alaska Native alone, percent, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, percent, White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, percent, Owner-occupied housing unit rate, 2017-2021, Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2017-2021, Median selected monthly owner costs -with a mortgage, 2017-2021, Median selected monthly owner costs -without a mortgage, 2017-2021, Living in same house 1 year ago, percent of persons age 1 year+, 2017-2021, Language other than English spoken at home, percent of persons age 5 years+, 2017-2021, Households with a computer, percent, 2017-2021, Households with a broadband Internet subscription, percent, 2017-2021, High school graduate or higher, percent of persons age 25 years+, 2017-2021, Bachelor's degree or higher, percent of persons age 25 years+, 2017-2021, With a disability, under age 65 years, percent, 2017-2021, Persons without health insurance, under age 65 years, percent, In civilian labor force, total, percent of population age 16 years+, 2017-2021, In civilian labor force, female, percent of population age 16 years+, 2017-2021, Total accommodation and food services sales, 2017 ($1,000), Total health care and social assistance receipts/revenue, 2017 ($1,000), Total transportation and warehousing receipts/revenue, 2017 ($1,000), Mean travel time to work (minutes), workers age 16 years+, 2017-2021, Median household income (in 2021 dollars), 2017-2021, Per capita income in past 12 months (in 2021 dollars), 2017-2021, Total employment, percent change, 2019-2020, Men-owned employer firms, Reference year 2017, Women-owned employer firms, Reference year 2017, Minority-owned employer firms, Reference year 2017, Nonminority-owned employer firms, Reference year 2017, Veteran-owned employer firms, Reference year 2017, Nonveteran-owned employer firms, Reference year 2017. 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). 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. 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. 927 Spruce Street. Demographic data shown in this section was gathered from the latest U.S. Census Bureau release, the 2020 . Philadelphia played a key role in the birth of the American pharmaceutical industry during the early nineteenth century. In 1831, horse-drawn omnibus services were established in the city and some lines ran over the recently built Market Street Bridge into West Philadelphia, but it was not until they were replaced by horse-drawn streetcars in 1850 that development began in earnest. 1 Baths Ba; 320 S. 10th Street. Immigration has become a major driver of population growth in Philadelphia in recent years, with long-term demographic and economic implications for the city and the region. . With firefighters fearful of being fired upon, the blaze was allowed to burn. 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. It is situated directly across the Schuylkill River from Center City . Route 36 terminates in Southwest Philadelphia at Island Avenue west and 73rd Street, near the Philadelphia International Airport. The show was produced in Studio B of television station WFIL-TV (Channel 6, now WPVI-TV), located in the station's then-new addition at 4548 Market Street. 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). For a complete list of the variables and breakdowns of data available, consult the professional version of Social Explorer available from the University of Pennsylvania Libraries and other institutional subscribers. The building, which still sports a large satellite dish on its roof, is now home to the West Philadelphia Enterprise Center. Community opposition fell on deaf ears and the city demolished vacant houses, declared Black Bottom a blighted neighborhood, and purchased it through eminent domain. Estimates are not comparable to other geographic levels due to methodology differences that may exist between different data sources. [28] By the early twenty-first century West Philadelphia was about as populous as it had been in 1910, having lost more than a hundred thousand residents after 1950. The vintage year (e.g., V2022) refers to the final year of the series (2020 thru 2022). 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. The University and Urban Revival: Out of the Ivory Tower and Into the Streets. Starting at $1,192 USD /mo. Raw data sources: There are more white people in the northwest areas of the city. As of 2010, there were 24,608 people of West Indian ancestry living in Philadelphia, representing about 1.6 percent of the city, the vast majority of which are Haitians and Jamaicans. The information is updated yearly, as soon as new data is made available by the US Census Bureau. Streetcar suburbs blossomed throughout the Philadelphia area in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as streetcar lines radiating from the city's heart allowed people to move further into its fringes. In 1850, it was destroyed by fire. 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. 47, No. 77th and 86th Streets run just a few blocks before they leave the city for surrounding jurisdictions. The world view has basic facts, trade, and projections by country. Population by Neighborhood in Philadelphia There are 158 neighborhoods that are fully or partially contained within Philadelphia (144 fully and 14 partially). In the mid-1980s, crack cocaine reached West Philadelphia and wreaked havoc in many neighborhoods, resulting in a crime wave that scared off many middle-class African Americans and some of the remaining white families as well. 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. 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. Finally, the Route 36 trolley is the longest trolley Green Line service. Select your ideal criteria and let Scout do the rest. The Route 34 trolley runs along Baltimore Avenue from Cobbs Creek at 61st Street to the transit tunnel at 40th Street in University City. By sending this Report you agree to NeighborhoodScout's, Real Estate in Popular Philadelphia Neighborhoods. Despite the industry clustered along the areas shores, development in this period remained largely residential in the rest of West Philadelphia. US-born citizens make up 88.6% of the resident pool in West Philadelphia, while non-US-born citizens account for 5.29%. They were also discouraged, by legal means or by violence, from immediately following the white population into the growing suburbs. In May 1985, an attempt to evict MOVE again escalated to violence. The Airport Line serves University City at University City Station in the University of Pennsylvania, going on to southernmost Southwest Philadelphia and the airport. The consolidation was one of the many factors in West Philadelphias nineteenth-century population boom. 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. In 1900 West Philadelphia had 148,548 residents, in 1910 the number grew to 247,928, and by 1920 there were 359,601.