west philadelphia demographics

Unlike the omnibuses, the streetcars were on rails that provided faster and more efficient travel. The setback of these houses was 25 feet, allowing generous front yards. West Philadelphia High School's student population of 372 students has declined by 22% over five school years. 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. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. The property was cut off from all city services, though sympathetic Philadelphians sometimes delivered food and other necessities. 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. ET on Saturday, 3/4/2023. [7] Founded in the late 1980s, Masjid Al-Jamia is located in the former Commodore Theatre, a cinema which opened in 1928 and which was built in the Spanish Colonial or Moorish architectural style. 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. New routes into the city aided this movement too, like the Chestnut Street bridge completed in 1866. West Philadelphia did not exist until the middle of the nineteenth century. Living in same house 1 year ago, percent of persons age 1 year+, 2017-2021. 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. The teacher population of 32 teachers has declined by 17% over five school years. Many young professionals and families have moved into the area. The street was unified by front yards, and enclosed by decorative iron fences. Apartment buildingsunusual in this row-house-dominated citybegan to spring up as well. (For example, 84th Street becomes Hook Road when it crosses into Sharon Hill.) 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. Route 36 terminates in Southwest Philadelphia at Island Avenue west and 73rd Street, near the Philadelphia International Airport. The remaining African American neighborhoods continued to suffer discrimination in access to jobs and capital while many of the jobs that previously fostered economic stability were lost or undercut by the flight of manufacturing firms. Other settlements followed, including Mantua Village, carved from the holdings of a local landowner, Judge Richard Peters (1743-1828), and laid out in 1809. 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. In May 1985, an attempt to evict MOVE again escalated to violence. Starting at $1,020 USD /mo. The University and Urban Revival: Out of the Ivory Tower and Into the Streets. The University of Pennsylvania was instrumental in coining the name "University City" as part of a 1950s urban renewal and gentrification effort. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011. What is the population of West Philadelphia? Mummies have captured the imagination and sparked the curiosity of Philadelphians since the Colonial Era. A reinforced, bunkerlike structure built on the roof supported this belief. 16.5%. 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. Rodin, Judith. A map showing West Philadelphia in relation to the rest of the city. 77th and 86th Streets run just a few blocks before they leave the city for surrounding jurisdictions. In contrast, people younger than 25 and those older than 65 earn less, at $35,844 and $33,684, respectively. The city held public unwrappings in the nineteenth century and is home to several important collections, including the holdings of the Penn Museum. The western reaches of West Philadelphia included miles of two-story rowhouses with bay windows above classical columned front porches. Marsh, Margaret. First, census tracts may vary from census year to census year, both with regards to boundaries and numbering. 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". 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 introduction of electric streetcars in the 1890s further altered the area, as those with more resources moved farther out, leaving behind a more broadly based middle class. The Cynwyd Line is a limited-service express line from Center City to the Bala Cynwyd neighborhood of Lower Merion Township. 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. 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. Despite the industry clustered along the areas shores, development in this period remained largely residential in the rest of West Philadelphia. The earliest developments began in 1850 and the final period of mass construction ended in 1930. Over the city's three centuries, it has evolved into a diverse and vital aspect of the city community. It was not until 1805 that the first bridge was constructed spanning the Schuylkill River at what is now Market Street. 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 district still had fewer than a hundred thousand people in 1890, but every new census revealed meteoric growth. Under the guidance of university president Judith Rodin (b. The Emerging Suburb: West Philadelphia, 1850-1880, Pennsylvania History, Vol. [citation needed], The nation's oldest zoological garden, the Philadelphia Zoo, has exhibitions and educational programs. The NeighborhoodScout search engine is covered under US Patents No. Founded in 1897, the Commercial Museum promoted the merits of international trade. In 1900 West Philadelphia had 148,548 residents, in 1910 the number grew to 247,928, and by 1920 there were 359,601. 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. As African Americans began living in more neighborhoods, the white population began fleeing to the expanding suburbs. Asian and Hispanic residents may identify with one of the more specific subcategories. An official website of the United States government. 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. With firefighters fearful of being fired upon, the blaze was allowed to burn. 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. Philadelphia Population & Age Distribution Age. 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 High school sports programs began in the nineteenth century in Greater Philadelphia. This section compares the 50 most populous of those to each other. Most recently many of these retail districts with the exception of 52nd Street have been converted to largely residential areas. West Philadelphia was also the home of American Bandstand, the popular dance show that launched the career of host Dick Clark and turned some local high school students into teen idols. 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. Age Under 5 Years: 6.6% 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. 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. Language other than English spoken at home, percent of persons age 5 years+, 2017-2021. 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. 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%). Rows of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival style houses were built much further from the city center in neighborhoods like Cedar Park and Kingsessing and commercial corridors developed down streets like Baltimore Avenue and Fifty-Second Street. The Black population swelled again during World War II, breaking West Philadelphias racial boundaries by moving south of Market Street and west of Fifty-Ninth Street. The Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (now USciences) was the nation's first pharmacy college. The process began during World War I, as Black migrants arrived in the city in increasing numbers. The eastern side of West Philadelphia is also known as University City. 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 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. One of West Philadelphia's most prominent features is the "El", or SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line or Blue Line. Raw data sources: 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. Finally the decision was made by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor to drop an incendiary device on the bunkerlike structure to weaken MOVEs position. 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. Philadelphia. 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. 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. One of the first homes built in West Philadelphia, in an area that was then Blockley Township, was William Hamiltons country estate, the Woodlands. By 1840, the tract was only ninety-two acres. Demographic data shown in this section was gathered from the latest U.S. Census Bureau release, the 2020 American Community Survey. In . 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. 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. on the 200 block of West Queen Lane, in Philadelphia's . In 1872 the university moved to a new campus near Spruce and Thirty-Fourth Streets in West Philadelphia. 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. The demographic statistics for this exhibit have been compiled from Social Explorer by the staff of the University Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. 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. 1 non-Hispanic 2 excluding black and Asian Hispanics. The Paoli/Thorndale Line serves Overbrook and Wynnefield, and continues to the Main Line communities and Paoli. West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. The upgrades to campus were impressive. A pivotal factor in the development of West Philadelphia was the construction of the University of Pennsylvanias campus. Most of the houses in West Philadelphia are row houses, although there are areas of semi-detached and detached houses. 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. The group refused to leave and a year-long blockade followed. Like The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia on Facebook, Follow The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia on Instagram, Like The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia on Facebook, Philadelphia, the Place that Loves You Back, (Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries), International Peace Mission Movement and Father Divine, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum), Community leaders to unveil plans for a new West Philadelphia bicycle track (WHYY, May 5, 2012), Taking refuge in West Philadelphia's Clark Park (WHYY, July 26, 2012), Store front church a safe haven for kids in West Philly neighborhood (WHYY, August 3, 2013), Why parts of West Philly not getting the boost from attracting artists (WHYY, August 29, 2014), Philly Love Note: The 'Love Letters' of West Philly's El riders (WHYY, September 4, 2014), HUD chief tours West Philly 'Promise Zone' (WHYY, September 5, 2014), University City Science Center plans expansion that will double its size (WHYY, June 2, 2015), Area near Drexel in West Philly wins big school grant (WHYY, December 22, 2016), Historical marker coming to site of MOVE debacle (WHYY, March 31, 2017), New mural to honor Philly native Ed Bradley of '60 Minutes' (WHYY, May 3, 2017), West Philadelphia Community History Center (University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center), West Philadelphia Italianate (PhillyHistory Blog), West Philadelphia: A Suburb in a City (PhillyHistory Blog), An Iron Baron's West Philadelphia Castle (PhillyHistory Blog), Decidedly Different West Philadelphia Twins (Hidden City Philadelphia), New Apartments, Old Glory in West Philadelphia (Hidden City Philadelphia), A Place for Enlightenment in Southwest Philadelphia (Hidden City Philadelphia), West Philly Home Still Sings the Praises of Paul Robeson (Hidden City Philadelphia), PhilaPlace: 4228 Walnut Street: Masjid al-Jamia (Historical Society of Philadelphia), I'm From Philly. University of Pennsylvania Library and College Hall. The houses melded the suburban principles of front porches and greenspace with the urban rowhouse form, producing profitable, yet desirable, middle-class suburban housing. It was purchased by the Woodlands Cemetery Company that year for use as a rural cemetery. Abraham Browers innovative omnibus service, introduced to Philadelphia in 1831, allowed new settlers speedy access into the central city. By sending this Report you agree to NeighborhoodScout's, Real Estate in Popular Philadelphia Neighborhoods. Finally, the Route 36 trolley is the longest trolley Green Line service. West Philadelphia was divided into townships and districts with independent governments. In 2014, President Barack Obama designated a swathe of West Philadelphia neighborhoods, including Mantua, as one of twenty-two national Promise Zones. This gradual elevation makes the skyline of Center City visible from many points in West Philadelphia. 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. Trains influenced suburban development and provide a green alternative to crowded highways systems. 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. 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. 3,248,528. When the smoke cleared, sixty-two houses had been destroyed and eleven people, including founder John Africa and five children, were dead. Computer and Internet Use. The demographic statistics presented here include all variables found in the "Comprehensive Reports" generated by Social Explorer for the census years since 1940. The Darby Road also ran up to this point, granting access to communities like Chester farther down the Delaware River. 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. 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. For the 1844-54 legal entity, see, Neighborhood of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The students of "West" were the children of middle-class black people, as well as of Irish, Jewish, Polish and other immigrant groups. 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. During the 1940s, the Warriors drew crowds to the Philadelphia Arena at Forty-Fifth and Market Streets. 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. The then-scion of the family, William Hamilton (1745-1813), established the estates Georgian mansion and laid out. Of this, 45.85% are males and 54.15% are females. 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. 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. 2020 (latest available). 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. Hospitals and academic medical centers have played a central role in the economies of many major U.S. cities, including Philadelphia. During the latter confrontation, police firebombed the group's headquarters, killing 11 people and destroying an entire block of Osage Avenue and Pine Street. 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. A plethora of recreational bike trails and a bike sharing program provide cyclists with new options in the twenty first century. Measuring America's People, Places, and Economy. Professional basketball has a long history in the Philadelphia region, from the first professional league, formedin 1898,to the NBA. The demographic statistics for this exhibit have been compiled fromSocial Explorerby the staff of theUniversity Archivesof theUniversity of Pennsylvania.