Colonial Gentry and Milltown
In the 18th century, a mill and ferry village developed along the west bank of the Schuylkill River, and along Mill Creek (now 43rd street) as far as the present Springfield Avenue. Called Maylandsville, it contained Mill workers’ houses as well as inns and taverns for travelers on Gray’s Ferry. Destined to become the industrial section of Southwest Philadelphia, the area around Woodland Avenue has remained essentially a workers’ residential area since this early period.
Fashionable estates were scattered throughout the countryside where wealthy Philadelphians, in the manner of the English gentry, escaped the heat of summer along the picturesque Schuylkill. The grandest of these was the Woodlands, the late 18th century home which was built by William Hamilton and lived in by his descendants who became important land developers in the area. Its spacious grounds were once filled with rare plants and unusual animals. The Twaddell Mansion, another of the area’s estates, stood at what is now 44th and Baltimore Avenue. The tradition of genteel grandeur represented by these late 18th century homes inspired the architectural styles that made this area a successful suburb for the upper middle classes in the latter half of the 19th century.
Hospitals of Southwest Philadelphia
Southwest Schuylkill has been identified with hospital care since the 1830s when the Blockley Almhouse, the city’s home and hospital for poor people was moved from center city to the area. Philadelphia General Hospital was later located on the site.
During the Civil War, Philadelphia’s strategic location at the hub of rail and water transportation routes made it a logical choice for temporary medical facilities. Satterlee Army Hospital, the largest of its kind in the world, was located at 45th street and Baltimore Avenue. Maintaining its own steamboat landing at 42nd street, this 4,500-bed compound was mostly housed in tents on the 15-acre site.
In 1877, the city’s Home for Incurables was built in a Victorian cluster of buildings at the convergence of 48th street, Darby Road (Woodland Avenue), and the Philadelphia and West Chester Railroad.
These first hospitals were not looked upon with favor by the residents. Fear of contagion was only one of the many fears that the image of hospitals provoked, but as hospitals became associated with universities and medicine became more sophisticated, public acceptance grew. Today there are a number of other medical institutions in the area including the institutes of Pennsylvania Hospital, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Children’s Hospital, Veterans Hospital, and the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. These institutions exert a major influence on the residential character of the community.
An Affluent Suburb 1850-1890
The first railroads to pass through Southwest Schuylkill did little to improve the accessibility of the area. They were designed to connect distant areas to the city’s center and made few stops in the neighborhood. The greatest impact was made by the Philadelphia and West Chester Railroad which in 1854, was tracks were laid, established new physical, cultural, and socials boundaries separating the area from its neighbors to the south and southwest.
The street railroads did make a difference, through. These horse drawn ancestors of the modern trolley attracted the upper middle classes to the area. As residents, this new elite not only built suburban homes but also bought portions of the region for future speculative development. The Philadelphia and Darby Passenger Railroad started a line along Woodland Avenue in 1857. Slowly, a suburb of fine, large houses spread outward from Center City along this and later trolley arteries.
Between 1850 and 1880, the population increased from several dozen to 1,800. The style and design of the houses illustrated the way these people viewed themselves and their age. The houses were large, multi-floor structures with all manner of architectural ornamentation. These homes reflected the wealth of their owners. Particularly fine examples are to be found at 49th street and Springfield Avenue (1889) and 46th street and Chester Avenue (1890).
Population Explosion 1890-1930
Between 1890 and 1930, thousand of white collar jobs became available in center city business, commerce, and recreation. Access to them from Southwest Schuylkill was possible with the advent of the inexpensive electric trolley and the transfer system. Baltimore Avenue saw the first line, then Chester and Springfield Avenue. As a result, Southwest Schuylkill grew, providing the residences for those who worked in Center City. The local population increased from 1,800 in 1880 to 18,000 in 1920.
The trolley lines created a demand for housing which encouraged the construction of a number of apartment buildings. Some Victorian houses were split into multiple family dwellings. As construction of streetcar lines move further west, new single and two-family workers’ housing was created along the new tracks. More than half of the housing that now stands east of 45th street was built by 1900, but only 15% of the housing west of 50th street was built by 1900.
The area below Woodland Avenue developed as a transportation and industrial section. An immense rail yard attracted Gulf, Tidewater, and Atlantic Richfield Oil Companies, Willys Overland Motor Company, Mack Truck and eventually Breyer’s Ice Cream. Housing for workers in these industries appeared on both sides of Woodland Avenue around the turn of the century. The red brick row houses are the earliest, while the tan and buff brick rows with porch fronts are a later development.
19th Century Church and Community
Few immigrants were attracted to Southwest Schuylkill. The first residents were generally white Protestants whose families had been in this country for some time. However, descendants of Irish immigrants began moving into the area during the 1880s. Their presence was reflected by the establishment of St. Francis de Sales in 1890. In the 20th century that congregation has included members of many ethnic groups, most recently the new arrivals from Southeast Asia.
Protestants, the first to arrive, established a large number of variety of churches, and though the congregations have changed, several of these churches still exist. Of the early ones, Woodland Presbyterian (1865) at 42nd and Pine Streets; Calvary Methodist (1895) at 48th and Baltimore Avenue; and St. John’s Latvian Lutheran, formerly incarnation Lutheran (1889) at 47th street and Cedar Avenue, remain. Most of the Protestant churches established schools, youth projects, Ladies Aid Societies, and sports activities that paralleled those of St. Francis de Sales, but in most cases the activities were contained within each church community.
Blacks were residents of the area from the early 19th century. The church that many attended was the Mt. Pisgah African Methodist Church (1836), which is now located in Powelton Village. In 1891, the Chester Avenue Baptist Church also began serving the community.
Urban Community 1920-1960
The Southwest Schuylkill area today compromises two quite different neighborhoods. East of 45th street the population is young, unmarried, and tends to be linked to a transient lifestyle associated with the population of universities and hospitals. West of 45th street the population is affected by the proximity of the university, but it is also characterized by older, long-term residents employed in blue-collar jobs. Both areas are racially mixed, and have felt the impact of the recent influx of Southeast Asians.
The evolution of Southwest Schuylkill from a middle-class commuter suburb to a high density urban residential area began in the 1920s and accelerated during the 1930s; by 1940 only one dwelling in four was owner-occupied. From an area of homeowners, Southwest Schuylkill became an area of renters with frequent population turnover. These demographic factors destabilized the area, paving the way for the massive population changes of the 1950s and 1960s when increasing numbers of Blacks moved into the area. Blacks now compromise 54% of the population of Southwest Schuylkill.
The stores, theaters, and taverns along Baltimore and Woodland Avenues also felt the impact of these population shifts. Between 1940 and 1960, the buying power of local residents decreased. Many local businesses began to fail as shopping centers grew and the automobile changed shopping patters. The area became dotted with abandoned buildings, many of which are old Victorian homes and without expensive rehabilitation had reached the end of their usefulness. Residents, unable to maintain their homes, sold them to speculators who contributed to the declining market value.
Southwest Schuylkill Renaissance: 1960 -1980
Renewal and revitalization of Southwest Schuylkill began in the early 1960s as part of the University City redevelopment effort. Through the West Philadelphia Corporation, five major educational and medical institutions in the area received a series of redevelopment grants to reclaim blighted sections of the community. Although the major portion of renewal activity was concentrated north of Baltimore Avenue and east of 45th street, some projects were begun in the Southwest Schuylkill neighborhoods. These included a new art gallery at 48th and Chester Avenue and the Clark Park Gardens, an apartments complex at 45th and Springfield Avenue designed for “university oriented” tenants. The mid-60s brought greater community involvement in Southwest Schuylkill neighborhood conservation planning with Cedar Park Neighbors Community Association’s success in opening a demonstration home at 47th and Windsor Avenue.
Revitalization efforts in Southwest Schuylkill, especially west of 45th street, accelerated in the 1970s with a shift in leadership from major institutions to neighborhood organizations and from individual to collaborative efforts among the areas churches. Through local initiative, the Cedar Park Community Development Project bought a number of vacant homes with community funds and government loans; these homes were rebuilt and sold to families from the neighborhood. The project was so successful that private investors have become involved. A recent example of the combined effort of churches has been the West Philadelphia Community Credit Union.
The University of the Sciences of Philadelphia: A Brief History
In 1998, the University of the Sciences of Philadelphia (USP) celebrated 175 years of excellence, as the nation’s oldest college of pharmacy. In 1821, sixty-eight apothecaries met in Carpenters’ Hall to develop scientific standards to train more competent apprentices and students. It was not until 1822 when Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, the original name of USP (until 1998), was organized and incorporated (www.usip.edu, 1/22/01).
The first lectures were held at the Philadelphia’s German Society Building in Center City_ It’s main quarters were on 10th Street and as the school began to rapidly expand between 1868 and 1881, new facilities, particularly pharmacy and chemistry laboratories, were built. Over time that still did not prove to be sufficient space. By 1921, USP had made major improvements in the curriculum and as a result the academic programs were expanding. Unfortunately for them, the 10th Street location became too limiting and so they were faced with the decision of staying in the area in which they had so much history, or relocating to a more spacious community in order to build more
sophisticated facilities (A Sesquicentennial of Service, 1821-1971).
On March 17, 1927 ground was broken for the construction of their new home. SP moved to a triangular site in West Philadelphia. It was bounded by 43rd Street, Kingsessing and Woodland Avenues. It was also less than a mile west of the University of Pennsylvania (A Sesquicentennial of Service, 1821-1971).
Between 1957 and 1958, the College added more than six new buildings. Both sides of Kingsessing Avenue and Woodland Avenue, between 42″d and 43rd Streets now belonged and were occupied by the College. In 1969, the City of Philadelphia gave the College the rights to Kingsessing Avenue, between 42″d and 43Td Streets. That same year the street was closed, the roadbed removed, and the area was transformed into a mall (A Sesquicentennial of Service, 1821-1971).
In 1986, The University of the Sciences of Philadelphia expanded dormitory space with a 340-bed residence hall, and then added a student center in 1991, Their enrollment currently stands at 2,100 students in four colleges: The Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, College of Arts, and College of Graduate Studies (Philadelphia, July 1, 1998).
