west philadelphia demographics west philadelphia demographics

These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The eastern side of West Philadelphia is also known as University City. [citation needed] Harrity Elementary School is a district-owned school operated by Mastery Charter Schools.[6]. The Woodlands mansion and cemetery continue to operate today. 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. 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. 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. The highest numbered street to run any considerable distance contiguously is 58th Street, which runs from the northern frontier of West Philadelphia at City Avenue south to the Schuylkill River. 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. The construction of the University City Science Center required the demolition of the residential Black Bottom neighborhood in the 1960s. The Airport Line serves University City at University City Station in the University of Pennsylvania, going on to southernmost Southwest Philadelphia and the airport. Today, Penns influence can be felt throughout the University City neighborhood it inhabits, from displacement of working-class black neighborhoods in the mid-twentieth century to more recent campaigns to revitalize the neighborhood and provide services and better schools for its residents. Throughout the eighteenth century much of what would become West Philadelphia remained sparsely populated farmland. What is the population of 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. ET on Saturday, 3/4/2023. QuickFacts provides frequently requested Census Bureau information at the national, state, county, and city level. 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. During the colonial era, West Philadelphia was accessible from the city only by ferry. Philadelphia played a key role in the birth of the American pharmaceutical industry during the early nineteenth century. 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. On the morning of August 8, 1978, Mayor Frank Rizzo ordered police to enter the property by force. Its western majority African American neighborhoods were declining in population and median income. 8,376,755. 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. Professional basketball has a long history in the Philadelphia region, from the first professional league, formedin 1898,to the NBA. Our nationally-comparable school ratings are covered under US Patent No. Raw data sources: Other settlements followed, including Mantua Village, carved from the holdings of a local landowner, Judge Richard Peters (1743-1828), and laid out in 1809. 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. The decision tarnished Penns community relations for many years to follow, especially as the University City Science Center failed to promptly live up to the universitys lofty goals. Here, middle neighborhoods are places like East Mt. According to the 2010 census, 216,433 people live among the ZIP codes of 19104, 19131, 19139, 19143 and 19151.[1](Map). By 1950, West Philadelphia had lost a quarter of its Irish-American and 11 percent of its Italian-American population, while the African American population increased by 72 percent. For the 1844-54 legal entity, see, Neighborhood of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 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. The 77th Street in Overbrook is not contiguous with the 77th Street in the column of streets that ends with 90th Street in Southwest Philadelphia. 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. 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. The two 77th Streets (as well as all numbered streets after 58th) are miles apart. West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. The houses in this grouping are primarily three-story Italianate buildings, linked by material, decorative detail, and form. In first decades of the twenty-first century, parts of West Philadelphia saw a revival. 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. Over twenty-five hundred residents were displaced and the neighborhood was razed. 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 NeighborhoodScout search engine is covered under US Patents No. Some estimates presented here come from sample data, and thus have sampling errors that may render some apparent differences between geographies statistically indistinguishable. 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 average annual household income in Overbrook Park is $63,686, while the median household income sits at $47,174 per year. 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). 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. CLOSE. After years of neighbor complaints regarding the group loudly broadcasting political messages and neglecting its children, MOVE was ordered to leave the property. 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 Route 38 trolley, running from Wynfield to Center City via Belmont Avenue, and the Route 31 trolley, running from Overbrook to Center City via Haverford Avenue, were replaced by diesel buses when the Philadelphia Transportation Company transferred control of the trolley service to National City Lines. 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 Grades Offered Grades 9-12 Total Students 372 students Gender % Total Classroom Teachers 32 teachers Students by Grade School Rankings Many public sector unions became majority African American, or at least enjoyed large minorities of Black members, giving their neighborhoods larger political and economic anchors. 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. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. 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. 47, No. Later renamed the Civic Center Museum, it closed in 1994. Etienne, Harley F. Pushing Back the Gates: Neighborhood Perspectives on University-Driven Revitalization in West Philadelphia. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. By 1840, the tract was only ninety-two acres. 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 next most-common racial group is black at 20.3%. Every day, thousands of vehicles travel this route, which is one of the major commuter routes into and out of Philadelphia from Delaware and Chester Counties. Airy, West Oak Lane, East Oak Lane, Rhawnhurst, Germantown, Mayfair, Tacony, Wynnefield and Olney. By the 1840s developers in Philadelphia, which was the second-largest city in the United States at the time, were already looking beyond the Schuylkill for fresh land. Neither area proved popular at first, but as the city became more highly developed the lots began to sell. West Philadelphia is home to a slight majority of female residents (54.11%) and a minority of male residents (45.89%) with a median age of 32.9 years. Median household income provides the best measure of the budget of the typical family or other non-family household. Commuter trains have helped to shape and define Philadelphia and its region since their introduction in 1832. In 2014, President Barack Obama designated a swathe of West Philadelphia neighborhoods, including Mantua, as one of twenty-two national Promise Zones. and the West Virginia border. Lancaster Avenue begins at 34th street near Drexel University; runs westward to the city line at City Avenue; and continues on as U.S. Route 30 to Lancaster, York, Pittsburgh. 302 South 12th Street. In 1963, four stone eagles were added to the bridge approaches after being salvaged from New York Citys recently demolished Penn Station. 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. The group resurfaced in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood in 1981 and was again the subject of neighborhood complaints. This photograph is from a street festival on Baltimore Avenue in the Cedar Park section of University City. Despite the industry clustered along the areas shores, development in this period remained largely residential in the rest of West Philadelphia. 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 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. From radios earliest days, Philadelphia-area college and high school students have tested its boundaries. Estimates are not comparable to other geographic levels due to methodology differences that may exist between different data sources. 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. Updated annually. on the 200 block of West Queen Lane, in Philadelphia's . A series of wooden and iron bridges were constructed to replace it until the modern-era span was completed in 1932. After Hamiltons death, much of the land was sold for residential and commercial development. St. Thomas More High School for Boys at 47th and Wyalusing Avenue was closed in 1975 and now houses the Sr Clara Muhammad School. It was purchased by the Woodlands Cemetery Company that year for use as a rural cemetery. University of Pennsylvania Library and College Hall. 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. West Philadelphia High School was one of the biggest and most diverse schools in state when it was opened in 1911. The Black neighborhoods closest to the river, and therefore closest to Penn, tended to be those with the lowest income and the least political power. 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. Outbreaks of violence, like the 1844 Nativist Riots in Kensington and Southwark, exposed the Philadelphia police departments inability to police areas outside of center city, spurring calls for consolidation. The demographic statistics for this exhibit have been compiled fromSocial Explorerby the staff of theUniversity Archivesof theUniversity of Pennsylvania. Combined, these trolley routes convey more than 150,000 passengers daily, and operate 24-hour schedules, even in blizzards. Learn how and when to remove this template message, West Philadelphia Streetcar Suburb Historic District, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, National Register of Historic Places listings in West Philadelphia, "Studio 34's Eponymous Trolley, or, A Short History of Route 34", Mastery Charter Schools' big test in Philadelphia, "Commodore Theatre in Philadelphia, PA - Cinema Treasures", West Philadelphia Community History Center, Graduate Hospital / Southwest Center City. 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. 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. The teacher population of 32 teachers has declined by 17% over five school years. They were also necessary to create a more walkable environment and additional housing for a growing student body. Philadelphia was at the forefront of the early nursing profession and its prestigious nursing schools set new standards for professionalism in the field. Allegheny West. The Orlons, who recorded the hit song 'South Street,' formed at Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia in the 1950s. 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. [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.". The main thoroughfare, Market Street, runs East and West, paralleled to the north and south by smaller streets named for tree species. 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. The Route 34 trolley runs along Baltimore Avenue from Cobbs Creek at 61st Street to the transit tunnel at 40th Street in University City. The Cynwyd Line is a limited-service express line from Center City to the Bala Cynwyd neighborhood of Lower Merion Township. West Philadelphia did not exist until the middle of the nineteenth century. The El once powered the economic engine of West Philadelphia. A pivotal factor in the development of West Philadelphia was the construction of the University of Pennsylvanias campus. But over the course of the twentieth century, as the area became majority African American, it was hobbled by racist lending and employment practices. . The area has declined in prominence over the last 50 years, thanks in part to increasing crime and the migration of many middle and upper-class residents to suburbs and other sections of the city. This gradual elevation makes the skyline of Center City visible from many points in West Philadelphia. They were also discouraged, by legal means or by violence, from immediately following the white population into the growing suburbs. The group refused to leave and a year-long blockade followed. 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 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 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. 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. The students of "West" were the children of middle-class black people, as well as of Irish, Jewish, Polish and other immigrant groups. 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. With other anchor institutions in the area, it supported development of the University City District to provide further amenities. The decline of the neighborhoods after World War II allowed many of these old homes to be preserved by neglect as they were not under the pressures of more central neighborhoods to develop during the urban renewal movement of the mid-twentieth century. Some early residential developments along streetcar lines developed charters to preserve the residential character of the neighborhood by stipulating no undesirable industry could be established nearby. 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. [3] One of the major retail strips in West Philadelphia, it is lined with shops and restaurants through to 64th Street in the Wynnefield neighborhood. In . The law profession in Philadelphia dates back to the days of William Penn. In contrast, people younger than 25 and those older than 65 earn less, at $35,844 and $33,684, respectively. Northsouth streets are numbered, rising consecutively from 30th Street at the Schuylkill River to 77th Street on the far western edge near Cobbs Creek and to the block-long 90th Street in Southwest Philadelphia near the airport. 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. [4], The Philadelphia Police Department divides West Philadelphia into four patrol districts: the 16th, 18th, 19th, and 92nd.[5]. The western reaches of West Philadelphia included miles of two-story rowhouses with bay windows above classical columned front porches. The district still had fewer than a hundred thousand people in 1890, but every new census revealed meteoric growth. This postindustrial economic vise resulted in the kind of divestment and shadow economy dealings that blighted many other inner city neighborhoods. The police department made matters worse by becoming the first U.S. law enforcement institution to bomb its own city. 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. In later decades, many of these large row houses were subdivided into apartments and were joined by larger multiunit buildings as the neighborhoods continued to boom. 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. Age is classified into groups; each percentage listed is that group's percentage of the total population. The consolidation was one of the many factors in West Philadelphias nineteenth-century population boom. Second, the questions asked by census takers usually vary from one census year to the next. The land also houses over 750 historic plants and trees, some grown from seeds brought to Philadelphia by the 1804 Lewis and Clark expedition. Although this part of the region witnessed small settlements of Lenape and Swedes who established Lutheran churches and log cabins on the west side of the Schuylkill, it was not included in the original plan of Philadelphia. 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. Promise Zones are advertised as entities organized to "leverage federal resources to increase economic activity and opportunity, create jobs, improve education and reduce violent crime. Asian and Hispanic residents may identify with one of the more specific subcategories. 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. The map below highlights areas of . 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. 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. 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. Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. mile) Land Area (in sq. The University of Pennsylvania was instrumental in coining the name "University City" as part of a 1950s urban renewal and gentrification effort. Hospitals and academic medical centers have played a central role in the economies of many major U.S. cities, including Philadelphia. Both College Hall and the library remain standing and are West Philadelphia landmarks. After that, the population exploded from eleven thousand in 1850 to twenty-three thousand in 1860. The educational institutions and city planners wanted to establish a research park like Stanford Universitys Industrial Park to revitalize the community. Like the rest of the citys manufacturing sector, West Philadelphias industry enjoyed great diversity. One of the first homes built in West Philadelphia, in an area that was then Blockley Township, was William Hamiltons country estate, the Woodlands. 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. 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. Foreign Born residents have immigrated to the United States from another country and may or may not be naturalized citizens. A plethora of recreational bike trails and a bike sharing program provide cyclists with new options in the twenty first century. In 1923 the Philadelphia Bulletin estimated that at least half the population of the district commuted in to center city every day. 1 Beds Bds; . 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). 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. Users should exercise caution when comparing 2017-2021 ACS 5-year estimates to other ACS estimates. Since the mid-nineteenth century, West Philadelphia's fortunes have risen and fallen with shifts in transportation and demographics.