Rodin, Judith. Scope: population of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia -40% -20% -0% +20% % ref. This gradual elevation makes the skyline of Center City visible from many points in West Philadelphia. The topography of West Philadelphia is composed of rolling hills rising slowly from the Schuylkill River toward Cobbs Creek in the west and toward Belmont Plateau in the northwest. Initial development was divided into block lots and sold in 1852 with the condition that "substantial stone or brick buildings" be erected. The Black residents of West Philadelphia were forced to contend with redlining and other discriminatory practices that limited access to capital and higher-paid employment for many residents. After that, the population exploded from eleven thousand in 1850 to twenty-three thousand in 1860. The second story, projecting, semi-hexagonal bay is incorporated into this design, an element which defines the later rowhouses. One of West Philadelphia's most prominent features is the "El", or SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line or Blue Line. Streetcars were electrified beginning in the 1890s and accelerated the suburbanization of West Philadelphia. Demographics | Hampton, VA - Official Website For more information, please visit the 2021 5-year ACS Comparison Guidance page. 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). Philadelphia After the 1854 Act of Consolidation. 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% 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. A gunfight ensued and in the end, police officer James Ramp was dead and nine MOVE members, including Delbert Africa, shown here, were arrested. Man, 44, shot in the head and killed on a Germantown street, police say 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. The Black population swelled again during World War II, breaking West Philadelphia's racial boundaries by moving south of Market Street and west of Fifty-Ninth Street. It was not until 1805 that the first bridge was constructed spanning the Schuylkill River at what is now Market Street. Computer and Internet Use. 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 earliest developments began in 1850 and the final period of mass construction ended in 1930. This postindustrial economic vise resulted in the kind of divestment and shadow economy dealings that blighted many other inner city neighborhoods. 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. 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. Unlike the omnibuses, the streetcars were on rails that provided faster and more efficient travel. Hamiltonville as a continuation of Penns grid in Philadelphia proper. The West Indian population is largely concentrated in West Philadelphia, with smaller numbers in the Southwest and Northeast sections. 10 Trends That Have Changed Philadelphia in 10 Years Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. 8,376,755. 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. It was the first covered bridge in the United States. What is the population of West Philadelphia? We apologize for the inconvenience. Becoming Penn: The Pragmatic American University, 19502000. 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. The demographic statistics for this exhibit have been compiled from Social Explorer by the staff of the University Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. In that year, 40% of the city's households were cost-burdened, a figure that is in line with many other major cities. Per capita is the best measure of the average spending power of each person in the city. Scope: population of Philadelphia and Allegheny West. 2023 University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center, The West Philadelphia Community History Center is sponsored by the, University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center. 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. Demographic data shown in this section was gathered from the latest U.S. Census Bureau release, the 2020 American Community Survey. The North Philadelphia neighborhood, which straddles Germantown Avenue just west of Broad Street and Erie Avenue, has seen its population rise 4 percent (above the city's 1 percent increase), its housing prices rose 11 percent again above the citywide average. There are more white people in the northwest areas of the city. With other anchor institutions in the area, it supported development of the University City District to provide further amenities. [citation needed] Harrity Elementary School is a district-owned school operated by Mastery Charter Schools.[6]. 1944), who was born and raised in West Philadelphia, Penn promised to not repeat the aggressive steps taken in the 1950s and 1960s. 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 next most-common racial group is black at 20.3%. Elementary schools include Morton McMichael Elementary School and Lea Elementary School. The then-scion of the family, William Hamilton (1745-1813), established the estates Georgian mansion and laid out. Founded in 1897, the Commercial Museum promoted the merits of international trade. Source & Methodology. [4], The Philadelphia Police Department divides West Philadelphia into four patrol districts: the 16th, 18th, 19th, and 92nd.[5]. Its western majority African American neighborhoods were declining in population and median income. Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. The upgrades to campus were impressive. In 1850, it was destroyed by fire. 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. Demographics of Philadelphia - Wikipedia 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. When the smoke cleared, sixty-two houses had been destroyed and eleven people, including founder John Africa and five children, were dead. 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. 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. Under the guidance of university president Judith Rodin (b. . Measuring America's People, Places, and Economy. St. Thomas More High School for Boys at 47th and Wyalusing Avenue was closed in 1975 and now houses the Sr Clara Muhammad School. West Philadelphia - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia 1 Beds Bds; . Originally, Philadelphia city extended only from the Delaware River west to the Schuylkill River and from Vine Street to South Street. Most recently many of these retail districts with the exception of 52nd Street have been converted to largely residential areas. 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. New Census figures on Philly neighborhoods show inequality, high - WHYY The home, a Federal-style mansion with a two-story columned portico, sat on a 250-acre parcel of land when it was constructed in 1770. 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. 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. The site of Philadelphia General Hospital became the multi-institution Philadelphia Center for Health Care Sciences. Arrivals from East Asia and Latin America, mainly Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans, have given the area small Hispanic and Asian American populations. The police department made matters worse by becoming the first U.S. law enforcement institution to bomb its own city. Professional basketball has a long history in the Philadelphia region, from the first professional league, formedin 1898,to the NBA. The city held public unwrappings in the nineteenth century and is home to several important collections, including the holdings of the Penn Museum. One of the first homes built in West Philadelphia, in an area that was then Blockley Township, was William Hamiltons country estate, the Woodlands. 77th and 86th Streets run just a few blocks before they leave the city for surrounding jurisdictions. Population : 275,579 : Population Density (per sq. To examine these statistics, go to the page for a given census year and follow the links for aggregate statistics and for statistics for individual census tracts. By this standard, about 231,000 Philadelphia householdsor about 529,000 peoplewere cost-burdened in 2018, the last year for which data was available. 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. 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. Police bombarded the home with water cannons and teargas, and the sides exchanged gunfire. This gradual elevation makes the skyline of Center City visible from many points in West Philadelphia. It stood divided, like much of the city and the country, between the haves and the have nots. Philadelphia Population & Age Distribution Age. 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. Foreign Born residents have immigrated to the United States from another country and may or may not be naturalized citizens. 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. This photograph shows two clusters of houses on an otherwise vacant street, awaiting the relocation of residents before demolition. West Philly neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PA), 19139 Cultural venues include the Mann Music Center of the Performing Arts and the Bushfire Theater of the Performing Arts on 52nd Street. In 2014, President Barack Obama designated a swathe of West Philadelphia neighborhoods, including Mantua, as one of twenty-two national Promise Zones. In contrast, people younger than 25 and those older than 65 earn less, at $35,844 and $33,684, respectively. The El once powered the economic engine of West Philadelphia. 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. Many young professionals and families have moved into the area. In first decades of the twenty-first century, parts of West Philadelphia saw a revival. [citation needed], The nation's oldest zoological garden, the Philadelphia Zoo, has exhibitions and educational programs. Philadelphia's connections to the Pacific World are as old as the city itself, including early participation in the China Trade and the first Japanese gardens in the United States at the Centennial Exhibition. Miller, Rogerand Joseph Siry. 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.