North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, “North Philadelphia” is regarded as everything north of either Vine Street or Spring Garden Street, between Northwest Philadelphia and Northeast Philadelphia. It is bordered to the north by Cheltenham Township along Cheltenham Avenue, Spring Garden Street to the south, 35th Street to the west, and Adams Avenue to the east. The Philadelphia Police Department patrols five districts located within North Philadelphia: the 22nd, 25th, 26th, 35th, and 39th districts. There are fifteen ZIP codes for North Philadelphia: 19120, 19121, 19122, 19123, 19125, 19126, 19130, 19132, 19133, 19134, 19137, 19138, 19140, 19141, and 19150.
The city government views this sprawling chunk of Philadelphia more precisely as three smaller districts drawn up by the Redevelopment Authority in 1964. These regions are (from north to south) Olney-Oak Lane, Upper North Philadelphia, and Lower North Philadelphia. Other sections of North Philadelphia include Brewerytown, Fairhill, Fairmount, Fishtown, Francisville, Franklinville, Glenwood, Hartranft, Koreatown, Northern Liberties, Poplar (roughly bound by Girard Avenue, Broad Street, Spring Garden Street, and 5th Street), Sharswood, Strawberry Mansion, and Yorktown. Pest Control Kings
History
Before its incorporation into the city proper, North Philadelphia was little more than a collection of primarily agricultural townships above the original City of Philadelphia. In the 18th century, as Philadelphia grew in importance and population, pastoral North Philadelphia became an attractive alternative to the burgeoning city. The mansions of wealthy Philadelphians began to dot the landscape, and by the late 18th and early 19th century, several small town centers had developed to anchor the growing population. However, this suburban landscape was to be interrupted around the middle of the 19th century, as rapid urban expansion led to The Consolidation Act of 1854. This state law annexed all the townships within Philadelphia County to the City of Philadelphia. With new territory now under the aegis of Philadelphia’s city planners, a rising influx of European immigrants led to the end of North as a suburb of Philadelphia, PA. North Philadelphia’s decentralized towns gradually meshed into a sprawling network of the ubiquitous Philadelphia rowhomes. Many newly created neighborhoods retained the name of their ancestral villages and townships; for example, Northern Liberties was formerly Northern Liberties Township.
Today
Like many other sections of Philadelphia, North Philadelphia is highly racially and socially segregated, block by block. A noticeable pattern in the area is that, in the southern part of North Philadelphia (south of about Erie Avenue), Germantown Avenue (which later becomes North 6th Street) is the dividing point between the areas that are predominantly Black (to the west), and the areas that are predominantly Hispanic (to the east). However, this is slowly changing, with a small yet growing population of Hispanics living west of Germantown Avenue and an already significant population of Blacks living east of that street.
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