A little history

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Horticulture, agriculture and country estates

The Kingsessing neighborhood is one of the oldest settled areas of Philadelphia. Native American Lenni Lenape tribes treasured the rich soil along the Schuylkill River. Swedish colonists formally settled the township of Kingsessing—“the place where there is a meadow”—in 1644. In the 1700s, the area became home to large farm tracts and country estates. John Bartram purchased land from the Swedes in 1728, which became the nation’s first botanical garden and gathering place for friends and visitors such as George Washington, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Bartram’s friend and fellow botanist, Andrew Hamilton, owned another expansive estate a mile to the north called the Woodlands.

Soon the area was populated by other country estates, cemeteries and parks that wealthy Philadelphians invested in to escape the conditions of the city. The Woodlands was transformed into a Victorian cemetery with an arboretum of over 1,000 trees in 1840, and not long after Mt. Moriah was created as a grand garden cemetery in 1855. By the mid-1800s, nurseries and greenhouses also filled the area. Farming continued to take place in Kingsessing until the early 1900s when industry began to take over.

▲ 51st and Grays Avenue, 1927

▲ 46th and Woodland Avenue, 1951

Industry takes off followed by the streetcar

In the 1800s, the industrial revolution took advantage of the neighborhood’s location on the banks of the Schuylkill River with direct access to the Delaware River. It soon became home to heavy industry including oil refining, manufacturing, distribution, and waste management. As the riverfront slowly changed from green to industrial, waves of Irish, German, Lithuanian, Polish, Italian, and Jewish immigrants settled nearby, forming a thriving working-class neighborhood.

Urbanization exploded when the city’s streetcar network expanded to University City and into Southwest Philadelphia, and the electric streetcar was introduced in 1894. Development sprang up along the streetcar routes with rowhouses built to meet the demand for housing, expanding access to living and employment opportunities. Woodland Avenue and Chester Avenue became important retail corridors as the area evolved from a rural community into one of the region’s first streetcar “suburbs.”

The neighborhood continued to flourish as a diverse and vibrant community well into the 20th century. But soon after WWII, industry in the neighborhood bottomed out as it did in many cities across the country. People and businesses started moving away and a slow process of disinvestment began. A TOUCH OF HISTORY:

1644

THE TOWNSHIP OF KINGSESSING IS FOUNDED BY SWEDISH SETTLERS.

1850

LARGE ESTATES ARE DIVIDED AND MASSIVE NUMBER OF A MILLS ARE CLOSED LEADING TO DEVELOPMENT OF MUCH OF THE AREA AS A RESIDENTIAL SUBURB.

1923

THE WOODLAND AVENUE COMMERCIAL CORRIDOR BLOSSOMS INTO A RETAIL DISTRICT.

1963

SEPTA IS ESTABLISHED, COORDINATING TRAVEL BETWEEN THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT AND LARGER REGION.

2010

AFRICAN IMMIGRATION INCREASES POPULATION IN THE LOWER SOUTHWEST DISTRICT.

2013

LOWER SCHUYLKILL MASTER PLAN IS ADOPTED, WITH A VISION OF RENVIGORATING THE AREA AS A MODERN INDUSTRIAL HUB.

1696

KING’S HIGHWAY (WOODLAND AVENUE) IS DESIGNED FROM GRAYS FERRY TO THE BALTIMORE AREA, BECOMING A MAIN ROAD FROM PHILADELPHIA TO SOUTHERN COLONIES.

1894

AS ELECTRIC STREETCARS REPLACE HORSECARS, THE TROLLEY BEGINS TO DEFINE THE CHARACTER OF THE COMMUNITY.

1927

TILDEN MIDDLE SCHOOL OPENS.

1942

BARTRAM VILLAGE IS BUILT TO HOUSE DEFENSE WORKERS.

1970

IMMIGRANTS FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA BEGIN TO SETTLE IN SOUTHWEST PHILADELPHIA.

2012

CONSTRUCTION BEGINS ON 58TH STREET GREENWAY CONNECTING COBBS CREEK TO BARTRAM’S GARDEN.

2018

HUD AWARDS PHA A CHOICE NEIGHBORHOODS PLANNING AND ACTION ACTIVITY GRANT TO DEVELOP AN ASPIRATIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN.