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. Over the city's three centuries, it has evolved into a diverse and vital aspect of the city community. University City, Philadelphia - Wikipedia There are 200,637 residents in West Philadelphia, with a median age of 33.1. ET on Saturday, 3/4/2023. 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 West Indian population is largely concentrated in West Philadelphia, with smaller numbers in the Southwest and Northeast sections. Count. The then-scion of the family, William Hamilton (1745-1813), established the estates Georgian mansion and laid out. 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. Starting at $1,192 USD /mo. 1960 Census 1970 Census 1980 Census 1990 Census 2000 Census 2010 Census 2010 Census Tracts The demographic statistics for this exhibit have been compiled from Social Explorer by the staff of the University Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. 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. 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. After years of neighbor complaints regarding the group loudly broadcasting political messages and neglecting its children, MOVE was ordered to leave the property. The area's African American population began growing in the 1880s through the migration of blacks from the southern states; white flight in the early 1960s completed the transition to a majority-black population. The eastern side of West Philadelphia is also known as University City. 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. 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. The Cynwyd Line is a limited-service express line from Center City to the Bala Cynwyd neighborhood of Lower Merion Township. 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). 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. 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. These include mosques such as Masjid Al-Jamia, a Sunni Muslim institution at 4228 Walnut Street. 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. The Woodlands mansion and cemetery continue to operate today. 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. 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. The group resurfaced in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood in 1981 and was again the subject of neighborhood complaints. Scope: population of Philadelphia and Allegheny West. QuickFacts provides statistics for all states and counties, and for cities and towns with a population of 5,000 or more. This is how city residents have self-reported their race and ethnicity to the US Census. These houses are typical of the early 20th-century developments in West Philadelphia, and are unified by rhythmic patterning of porch and gable features. 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. As West Philadelphia became majority African American, the University of Pennsylvania began an ambitious expansion framed by its 1948 master plan (the universitys first update in almost half a century). The NBC drama American Dreams is set in West Philadelphia in the mid-1960s. By 1820, residents of these neighboring suburbs outnumbered those of the city proper. Originally, Philadelphia city extended only from the Delaware River west to the Schuylkill River and from Vine Street to South Street. Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. Developers found they could increase profits by catering to this emerging group, shrinking lot sizes, and building more compact, less ornate houses. Documentationon the census data and variables is available onSocial Explorer. The land that makes up West Philadelphia was not always part of the city. Despite the industry clustered along the areas shores, development in this period remained largely residential in the rest of West Philadelphia. Arrivals from East Asia and Latin America, mainly Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans, have given the area small Hispanic and Asian American populations. These are the most common groups that city residents self-reported as their ancestry. Age Under 5 Years: 6.6% 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. 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. The Demographic Statistical Atlas of the United States - Statistical Atlas An alternate definition includes all city land west of the Schuylkill; this would also include Southwest Philadelphia and its neighborhoods. The next most-common racial group is black at 20.3%. Per capita is the best measure of the average spending power of each person in the city. A plethora of recreational bike trails and a bike sharing program provide cyclists with new options in the twenty first century. But the expansion into surrounding residential neighborhoods embittered many residents. [citation needed], The nation's oldest zoological garden, the Philadelphia Zoo, has exhibitions and educational programs. As African Americans began living in more neighborhoods, the white population began fleeing to the expanding suburbs. Unlike the omnibuses, the streetcars were on rails that provided faster and more efficient travel. 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. 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. Multiple business corridors sprouted on Fifty-Second Street and Baltimore, Lancaster, Woodland, and Girard Avenues. 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. 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. (Author information current at time of publication.). 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. 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. 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 houses melded the suburban principles of front porches and greenspace with the urban rowhouse form, producing profitable, yet desirable, middle-class suburban housing. 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 University of Pennsylvania was instrumental in coining the name "University City" as part of a 1950s urban renewal and gentrification effort. A handful of chestnut trees remain near Cobbs Creek. This set the living pattern apart from its counterparts in North and South Philadelphia, where row houses were interspersed with factories and warehouses. 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. 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. 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. These neighborhoods were subjected to redlining, a discriminatory practice that prevented residents of undesirable neighborhoods from procuring mortgages or loans and exacerbated the poverty. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Count White 1 Hispanic 2 Black Asian Mixed 1 Other 1 4.4% 629 2.8% 400 87.3% 12.4k 2.8% 395 2.2% 312 0.5% 71. Some, like the University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing, continue to educate men and women in the field. Demographic data shown in this section was gathered from the latest U.S. Census Bureau release, the 2020 . [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. U.S. District Court for the Eastern Dist. Philadelphia's Immigrants | The Pew Charitable Trusts Streetcars were electrified beginning in the 1890s and accelerated the suburbanization of West Philadelphia. The area's public schools are operated by the School District of Philadelphia. mile) Land Area (in sq. The setback of these houses was 25 feet, allowing generous front yards. Jake Blumgart is a reporter for WHYYs PlanPhilly. West Philly neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PA), 19139 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. Route 36 terminates in Southwest Philadelphia at Island Avenue west and 73rd Street, near the Philadelphia International Airport. 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. But over the course of the twentieth century, as the area became majority African American, it was hobbled by racist lending and employment practices. In West Philadelphia, this incorporated the West Philadelphia and Belmont districts as well as Blockley and Kingsessing Townships into the city. [4], The Philadelphia Police Department divides West Philadelphia into four patrol districts: the 16th, 18th, 19th, and 92nd.[5]. 3,248,528. 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. 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. In 1923 the Philadelphia Bulletin estimated that at least half the population of the district commuted in to center city every day. 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. On the morning of August 8, 1978, Mayor Frank Rizzo ordered police to enter the property by force. number of members in ethno-racial group. 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. 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. Follow Backgrounders on Twitter 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. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}395833N 751246W / 39.975709N 75.2129W / 39.975709; -75.2129. West Philadelphia Census Statistics | West Philadelphia Community Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. Race and Ethnicity in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania One of West Philadelphia's most prominent features is the "El", or SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line or Blue Line. Demographic data shown in this section was gathered from the latest U.S. Census Bureau release, the 2020 American Community Survey. 16.5%. Abraham Browers innovative omnibus service, introduced to Philadelphia in 1831, allowed new settlers speedy access into the central city. 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. Philadelphia, PA Demographics and Population Statistics - NeighborhoodScout 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. Copyright 2000-2023 Location Inc. 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. This gradual elevation makes the skyline of Center City visible from many points in West Philadelphia. Becoming Penn: The Pragmatic American University, 19502000. The NeighborhoodScout search engine is covered under US Patents No. The educational status of the citys residents who are 18 and older. Development was enabled by the creation of the horsecar, which pushed development to about 43rd Street, and, after the arrival of the electrified streetcar in 1892, accelerated to the west and southwest.[2]. 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. Man, 44, shot in the head and killed on a Germantown street, police say West Philadelphia has about 75 of Philadelphia's 196 blue historic markers, which note historically important birthplaces, homes, business and other places. 1 non-Hispanic 2 excluding black and Asian Hispanics. 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. 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. This photograph shows two clusters of houses on an otherwise vacant street, awaiting the relocation of residents before demolition. An official website of the United States government. 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. View All Data Tools and Apps Later renamed the Civic Center Museum, it closed in 1994. 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. Total Population 1,576,251. 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. Similar homes for rent in Washington Square West, Philadelphia. It was purchased by the Woodlands Cemetery Company that year for use as a rural cemetery. The property was cut off from all city services, though sympathetic Philadelphians sometimes delivered food and other necessities. Mapping Progress in 55 Philadelphia Neighborhoods - Next City Other high schools include University City High School; William L. Sayre High School, formerly Sayre Middle School; Robert E. Lamberton High School; Mastery Charter Shoemaker Campus, formerly William Shoemaker Middle School; and Overbrook High School. Etienne, Harley F. Pushing Back the Gates: Neighborhood Perspectives on University-Driven Revitalization in West Philadelphia. 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 demographic statistics for this exhibit have been compiled from Social Explorer by the staff of the University Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Professional basketball has a long history in the Philadelphia region, from the first professional league, formedin 1898,to the NBA. 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. 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. Initial development was divided into block lots and sold in 1852 with the condition that "substantial stone or brick buildings" be erected. 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%). In . 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. 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. 2 (April 1980), pp. Connecting the Past with the Present, Building Community, Creating a Legacy, TheEncyclopedia Scope: population of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia -40% -20% -0% +20% % ref. Total Population by Neighborhood#5 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Neighborhood Map Area: 0.192 square miles Population: 2,019 Population density: 1,660 71.5% Black 231 9.9% White 173 7.4% Hispanic or Latino 147 6.3% Asian 64 2.8% American Indian 48 2.1% Two or more races Median household income in 2019: Distribution of median household income 198 Less than $10,000 169 $10,000 to $19,999 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 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. West Philadelphia High School's student population of 372 students has declined by 22% over five school years. QuickFacts provides frequently requested Census Bureau information at the national, state, county, and city level.