Northeast Philadelphia

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Map of Philadelphia County with Northeast Highlighted. Click for larger image.

Northeast Philadelphia ("the Northeast") is a section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 Census, the Northeast has a sizable percentage of the city's 1.5 million people — a population of between 300,000 and 450,000, depending on how the area is defined. Beginning in the 1980's, many of the Northeast's middle class children graduated college and settled in suburbs, especially nearby Bucks County. With this emigration of older populations, a new influx of Hispanics have settled along the southern edges of the Northeast, while blacks and Asian immigrants have purchased homes in this once almost exclusively white area of the city. The neighborhoods that make up Northeast Philadelphia include Fox Chase, Lawncrest, Rhawnhurst, Tacony, Frankford, Holme Circle, Mayfair, Morrell Park, Bustleton, Torresdale, Parkwood, Somerton, Burholme, Ryers, Holmesburg, and Crestmont Farms. It is sometimes said to include the neighborhoods of Bridesburg, Port Richmond, and Fishtown, as well.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Political representation
4 Local businesses and attractions
5 Education and news media
6 Recreation
7 Transportation
8 References

[edit] History

The Northeast in 1900, showing the region still to be a collection of towns and farms. Click for larger image.

[edit] Early settlement

The first European settlement in the Northeast was by Swedish farmers, who emigrated there when the area was a part of the New Sweden colony. They were followed by English Quakers, including Thomas Holme, who came to begin the settlement of William Penn's Pennsylvania colony in the late 1680s. In the years to follow, Northeast Philadelphia developed as a scattering of small towns and farms which were a part of the county, but not the city, of Philadelphia. Before consolidation with the city, what is now the Northeast consisted of the townships of Byberry, Delaware, Dublin, Holmesburg, Moreland, Oxford, Tacony, Torresdale and White Hall (largely rural areas); and the boroughs of Bridesburg and Frankford, which were more urbanized.

[edit] Growth in industry and farming

While most of the land in what is now the Northeast was dedicated to farming, the presence of many creeks, along with proximity to Philadelphia proper, made the towns of the Northeast suitable for industrial development. The Northeast's first factory was the Rowland Shovel Works on the Pennypack Creek. In 1802, it produced the first shovel made in the United States.^[1] More mills and factories followed along the Pennypack and Frankford Creeks, and traces of the mill races and dams remain to this day. The most famous of these factories was the Disston Saw Works in Tacony, founded by English industrialist Henry Disston, whose saw blades were world-renowned.^[1]^[2]

[edit] Consolidation and population increase

By 1854, the entire County of Philadelphia was incorporated into the City. In spite of the political incorporation, the Northeast retained its old development patterns for a time, and the dense populations and urban style of housing that marked older, more traditional sections of the city had not yet found their way there. In the first three decades of the 20th Century, rapid industrialization, spurred by World War I and early industrial innovation, provided new income to industrial workers and helped foster the expansion of the middle and managerial classes. These demographic changes, along with the building of the Market-Frankford Line train and new arterial highways, such as the Roosevelt Boulevard, brought new middle class populations to the lower half of the Northeast. Vast tracts of row homes were built in that section of the Northeast for new arrivals in the 1920s and 1930s, typically with small, but valued front lawns, which impart a "garden suburb" quality to much of the Northeast, reducing the sense of physical density felt elsewhere in the city. Much of this development occurred along the southern edge of the Northeast (Northwood), east of Roosevelt Boulevard (Mayfair, Torresdale) and along the Northeast's western fringe (Burholme).

Frankford and Cottman Avenues, a central location in the Northeast

[edit] Post-war growth

After World War II, newer arrivals, armed with the mortgage benefits of the GI Bill, brought the baby boom to the Northeast. This newer population was heavily Jewish or ethnic Catholic, and completed the development of the region, filling in undeveloped areas of Rhawnhurst and Bell's Corner and developing the previously rural Far Northeast. As older sections of the city lost populations of young families, the Northeast's school-age population swelled, requiring rapid expansion of schools, libraries, cinemas, shopping, transportation, restaurants and other needed amenities.

The period from 1945 through the 1970s was marked in many American cities by urban decline in older, more industrial areas. This was especially true in Philadelphia, in which much of the city's North, West and South sections lost population, factories, jobs and commerce, especially associated with "white flight." During the postwar period, the Northeast experienced a heavy influx of growing middle class families, and had become an almost exclusively white community. This aroused controversy in the 1960s and '70s, as passions for and against school busing were focused on the Northeast, to address racial imbalances, especially in the city's public schools. That racial imbalance was ultimately addressed by the upward mobility enjoyed by many of the graduates of the Northeast's excellent public and parochial school systems, who made their way out of the Northeast and into the suburbs from the 1980s onward, making room for new arrivals from the city's Latino, African American and Asian populations.

[edit] A separate identity

In the 1980s, the Northeast developed along a separate path from much of the rest of the city. In addition to the racial differences mentioned above, the political climate in the Northeast was balanced evenly between Republicans and Democrats, while the rest of the city almost uniformly voted for the latter party. As a result, many Northeasters became more and more discontented with the high city taxes and a perceived imbalance in the services they received for them. This discontent grew sufficiently to give rise to a secessionist movement, led by State Senator Hank Salvatore, among others. Salvatore introduced a bill in the State Senate to allow the Northeast to become a separate county, but the bill failed to progress beyond this stage. As the Philadelphia economy grew stronger, and the most discontented people fled to the suburbs, and a new, more popular mayor (Ed Rendell) was elected the call for secession waned, and the section settled back into life as a part of the city.^[3]

Today, the Northeast enjoys greater racial balance and relative stability. The region is uniformly developed, but like many American urban communities, it has witnessed the loss of manufacturing, factory conversions to marginal retail "outlets," and growing vacancies along shopping avenues, especially in the southern part of the region. With the recent tax advantages granted to new construction within the city limits, the Northeast has seen a growth in residential units on nearly any patch of available land.

[edit] Geography

Due to the size of the Northeast, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission divides it into two regions called "Near Northeast" and "Far Northeast", the names being derived from their distance from Center City. The term "Near Northeast" is not used colloquially ("Lower Northeast" is more commonly used), but the term "Far Northeast" is in widespread use. The demarcation line between the two sections is typically given as Pennypack Creek.

Northeast Philadelphia is bounded by the Delaware River on the east, Bucks County on the north, and Montgomery County on the west. The southern limit is given as Frankford/Tacony Creek or Adams Avenue.^[4]

[edit] Political representation

John M. Perzel, former Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, resides in Northeast Philadelphia

Unlike the rest of Philadelphia (a solidly Democratic city) there is lively competition between Republicans and Democrats in the Northeast. While Democrats running for federal office have been more successful of late, Republicans and Democrats both currently represent the Northeast in the State House of Representatives and in the Philadelphia City Council.

Almost all of Northeast Philadelphia is in the 13th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, and is currently represented by Allyson Schwartz. Some small parts of the section fall into the 1st, 2nd, or 8th districts.^[5]

In the Pennsylvania State Senate, most of the Northeast is in the 5th district, represented by Michael J. Stack, III. There are a number of State House of Representative districts in the Northeast, including that of Dennis M. O'Brien, the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and John M. Perzel, the former Speaker.

In the Philadelphia City Council, the Far Northeast is represented by the 10th district councilman, Brian J. O'Neill. The Lower Northeast is divided among a few other council districts, including the 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th. Jack Kelly, an at-large member, is also from the Northeast.^[6]

[edit] Local businesses and attractions

The Roosevelt Mall on Cottman Avenue

Northeast Philadelphia had been tested out as a region of manufacturing for a time, but with its not being best suitable for this environmentally and geographically, at least north of Tacony, such efforts arose and fell, including along the Delaware River "rust belt." Today, commercial businesses are predominate in this section of the city. Northeast Philadelphia is home to Franklin Mills Mall, one of the most visited attractions in the state. The lower sections of the Northeast still boast pleasant shopping avenues lined by stores and restaurants, such as Castor Avenue. Major shopping centers along Cottman Avenue include, the Cottman Bustleton Center, and the Roosevelt Mall which opened in 1964 at Cottman Avenue and the Roosevelt Boulevard.

Also present in the Northeast are two nationally recognized medical establishments, Friends Hospital and Fox Chase Cancer Center.

[edit] Education and news media

The main campus of Holy Family University is located in Northeast Philadelphia. The university, founded in 1954, has more than two thousand students.^[7] There are also public and private high schools, including Northeast, Abraham Lincoln, Frankford, George Washington, Archbishop Ryan, Father Judge, Nazareth Academy and Saint Hubert's. The Northeast is home to Fox Chase Farm, an educational facility that is the only working farm left in the Philadelphia city limits.^[8]

Frankford Avenue bridge over the Pennypack in Holmesburg

Two free weekly newspapers, the Northeast Times and the Northeast News Gleaner, are distributed throughout the Northeast. The News Gleaner is also printed there.^[9] The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, both dailies, are widely read.

[edit] Recreation

Northeast Philadelphia is known more than anything else by the Pennypack Creek, which runs through Pennypack Park. The park's 1,600 acres of woodlands slice across the middle of the Northeast, and serve as a natural oasis amid the dense city streets. The park is home to the oldest stone arch bridge still in use in the United States, built in 1697 on what is now Frankford Avenue.^[10]^[11]

The section is also home to many playgrounds and smaller parks, including Burholme Park.

[edit] Transportation

The Northeast's main highways are Interstate 95 and Roosevelt Boulevard (US 1). Secondary major arteries include Cottman Avenue (PA 73), Frankford Avenue, Woodhaven Road (PA 63), Grant Avenue, Oxford Avenue (PA-232), State Road, Bustleton Avenue (PA-532), Bridge Street, Aramingo Avenue, and Academy Road.

The Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, the only Delaware River crossing in Philadelphia not operated by the Delaware River Port Authority (thus resulting in a cheaper toll), allows one to drive between the Tacony section of the city and Palmyra, New Jersey.^[12]

The Northeast is also served by SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line (and acts as the easternmost terminus of the line at the newly refurbished Frankford Transportation Center), and three commuter rail lines. Many SEPTA bus routes run through the Northeast, although north-south buses run more frequently than west-east ones. Most north-south routes terminate at the Frankford Transportation Center.^[13]

One of two airports that serve Philadelphia, Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE), is located in this section of the city. PNE is the sixth busiest airport in Pennsylvania.^[14]