Location
· Northeast of Center City
· Zip Codes: 19125, 19133, 19134
· Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth wards
Demographics
· Current Ethnic Demography
o Irish American
o Polish American
o Italian American
o African American
o Dominican
o Southeast Asian
o Puerto Rican
· Historically
o Dutch
o German
o Scotish-Irish (Catholics)
o Italian Catholics
o Slavs
o Russians Jews
Brief Economic History
Historically, Kensington was a shipbuilding and boatbuilding neighborhood. Many of its oldest inhabitants were fishermen who supplied Philadelphia’s markets. Throughout the 19th century, it was well known for textiles, particularly carpet manufacturing. With industrialization, Kensington became Philadelphia’s primary center for iron, steel, and machine products. Deindustrialization in the 1950s lead to population loss, unemployment, economic decline, and property abandonment, as the previously dominant manufacturers left the neighborhood. [See: ‘Old Kensington’ for a more detailed economic history]
· Industries:
o Luxury goods (i.e. carriages)
o Tools and machinery (i.e. saws)
o Shipbuilders (wood, eventually iron)
o Fishermen
o Textiles
o Carpet manufacturing
o Iron works
o Glass
STORIES:
The following stories/articles were written about or with regards to Kensington, and provides further information regarding the neighborhood . The topic of each is italicized above the title. These are cheifly presented in abstract or truncated form, with links to full content.
[Race / Ethnic Relations]
The Interwar Origins of the White Ethnic: Race, Residence, and German Philadelphia, 1917–1939
RUSSELL A. KAZAL
Journal of Ethnic American History; Summer 2004, Vol. 23 Issue 4, p78-131, 54p
the-interwar-origins-of-the-white-ethnic
[Displacement / Gentrification]
Unemployment and Disposable Workers in Philadelphia: Just How Far Have The Bastards Gone?
Robert T. O’Brien
Ethnos, vol. 71:2, june 2006 (pp. 165–190) © Routledge Journals, Taylor and Francis Group, on behalf of the Museum of Ethnography; issn 0014-1844 print/issn 1469-588x online. doi: 10.1080/00141840600733678
unemployment-and-disposable-workers-in-philadelphia
[Housing / Poverty / Social Interaction]
Finding and Keeping Affordable Housing: Analyzing the Experiences of Single-Mother Families in North Philadelphia
Susan Clampet-Lundquist, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Sociology
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare; Dec 2003, Vol. 30 Issue 4, p123-14
finding-and-keeping-affordable-housing
[ Ethnic History]
Philadelphia: Immigrant City
Fredric M. Miller
philadelphia-immigrant-city
[Ethnic History (anti-Catholic riots)]
Violence: The Riots of 1844
City of Unbrotherly Love: Violence in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia
The Historical Society of Philadelphia
violence-the-riots-of-1844
