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Philadelphia County

Reference: Descriptions and maps provided by Wikipedia.

Note: See Philadelphia Manufacturing for more information.

When first established, Philadelphia County comprised mainly the area from the Delaware River west between the Schuylkill River to the south and the border with Bucks County to the north, the western boundary was undefined.   Two counties would be formed out of Philadelphia County, Berks County which was formed in 1752 (from parts of Chester, Lancaster, and Philadelphia counties), and Montgomery County established in 1784.   From these separations, as well as other border moves, came the present day boundaries of the county.   All the boroughs, townships and districts in Philadelphia County were consolidated by the 1854 Act of Consolidation, which made it coterminous with the City of Philadelphia.   The original county offices were abolished.   These consolidated areas are described below:

The original city of Philadelphia (now Center City), founded by William Penn, was bounded by South Street to the south, the Delaware River to the east, the Schuylkill River to the west and Vine Street to the north.

Aramingo borough was created out of the original Northern Liberties township and was incorporated on April 11, 1850.   It is bounded on the northeast by a portion of the Bridesburg and Frankford Creek, which divided it from a portion of Oxford township and Frankford borough, on the northwest the latter (reduced) Northern Liberties township, and the Richmond district on the southeast and southwest.   The name is an abbreviation and alteration from the Native American name of the adjacent stream, called by the Swedes and English, Gunner’s Run.   The original name was Tumanaraming, meaning "Wolf Walk."   By cutting off a portion of the beginning, and omitting two letters in the center and adding an o, the word "Aramingo" was coined.

Belmont district was created by act of the Assembly on April 14, 1853.   It contains the part of Blockley township which lay along the west side of the Schuylkill River from the northern boundary-line of West Philadelphia to the Montgomery county line.   The name was derived from Belmont, the county seat of the Peters family, which is now portion of Fairmount Park.

Blockley township was located on the west side of the Schuylkill River, north of Kingsessing township.   It is bounded on the east by the Schuylkill River extending south from the county line, opposite to, but a little below, the mouth of Wissahickon Creek, down to the Nanganesy or Mill Creek, below the Woodlands, then by the same creek up to Chadd’s Ford Turnpike, known in later years as the Baltimore Pike, then along the same to Cobb’s Creek, then by the courses of the same to the county line adjoining Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County.   It was traversed by the Darby Road, Chadd’s Ford, or Baltimore Pike, the road to West Chester, to Haverford and to Lancaster.   Within its boundaries were the villages of Hamilton, Mantua, West Philadelphia, Hestonville and Haddington.   The boundaries and area changed on February 17, 1844 when the area encompassing Mantua and Hamilton were incorporated into the borough of West Philadelphia, almost creating two unconnected sections of the township.   The name is supposed to have been derived from Blockley, a parish in England in Worcestershire.   In Philadelphia, "Blockley" was synonymous with the Blockley Almshouse that opened here in 1832.

Bridesburg borough, was an early 19th century tract of land taking its name from Joseph Kirkbride, who for many years was landowner there and proprietor of a ferry over Frankford Creek, and to whom Legislature gave a right to build a bridge and receive toll for passage over the same by act of March 20, 1811.   On April 1, 1833, the County of Philadelphia bought the Kirkbride bridge and two and a half acres of land.   Kirkbridesburg was considered too long a name for convenient use, and the shorter one was adopted.   Bridesburg was incorporated as a borough on April 1, 1848. and six years later became part of Philadelphia County.

Bristol township was located at the north end of Philadelphia County at the intersection of the angle which runs down from the extreme point of the between Philadelphia and Montgomery counties.   It was of irregular form, and was bounded on the northwest by a portion of Springfield Township, Montgomery County, and on the northeast by Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, to Oxford township, but was bounded mainly on the east by Tacony Creek, on the south partly by the Wingohocking and the Northern Liberties township, and on the west and southwest by Germantown township.   Old York Road ran through it to Branchtown and Milestown (now Oak Lane), and then to Bucks County.

Byberry township in the extreme northeastern part of the Philadelphia County.   It is bounded on the east and northeast by Poquessing Creek and Bucks County, on the northwest by Montgomery County, and on the west and southwest by Moreland township.   It was settled by a few Swedes previous to the year 1675, and in that year by four brothers: Nathaniel, Thomas, Daniel and William Walton, who were all young and single men.   They had arrived at Newcastle from England early in that year, and, having prospected the land in the neighborhood of the Delaware River, chose the country near Poquessing Creek, and settled there.   They gave to it the name Byberry, in honor of their native town, near Bristol, in England.   They were joined after the arrival of the ship Welcome in 1682, by Giles and Joseph Knight, John Carver, John Hart, Richard Collett and their families, and others.   The township was established at a very early date after the coming of William Penn.   It contained very few villages at the time of consolidation, and was the most rural of all the townships of Philadelphia County.   Byberry Crossroads, once called Plumbsock, and Knightsville, were the principal villages.   The name "Byberry" was often used to refer to the former Philadelphia State Hospital, a mental institution off Roosevelt Boulevard in Byberry that was shut down in 1990, and now is being developed into residential and commercial properties.

Delaware township was formed out of portion of Lower Dublin township in 1853, when it was split nearly in half, north-south.   It is bounded by Moreland and Byberry townships on the north, Lower Dublin township on the west, Oxford township on the south, and the Delaware River on the east.   It contains what are now the Torresdale and Holmesburg neighborhoods.

Frankford is a neighborhood in the Northeast section of Philadelphia, situated about six miles northeast of Center City.   Although its borders are ill-defined, the neighborhood is bounded roughly by the original bed of the Frankford Creek, Roosevelt Boulevard, and Cheltenham Avenue.   Founded in the middle to late 1600s by German settlers, the village very likely took its name from the title of the Franckfort Company, which took up ground there, along what is now known as Frankford Creek, then known as Tacony Creek, in the lower part of Oxford township.   It was an early suburb of the town of Philadelphia.   William Penn forged a trail through the village that ran from the original town (now Center City) to New York City, passing through Bucks County near the site of his home, Pennsbury Manor.   That trail came to be known as "Frankford Pike" (later Frankford Avenue) and was the town's main street.   The village was incorporated into a borough March 2, 1800.   By act of April 4, 1831, the boundaries of the borough were extended.   In 1922, the Frankford Elevated Line opened, which connected to the Market Street Elevated, offering rapid-transit access to Center City and West Philadelphia.

Germantown borough is located about six miles northwest from the center of the city.   Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim Avenue.   The next neighborhood to the northwest, Mount Airy, starts around Johnson Street, though there is no universally recognized exact boundary.   The town was first settled in 1683 by about 200 immigrants from the Rhine Valley.   In 1681, William Penn published a broadside in German to recruit settlers for his new colony.   The first group to respond, Mennonites and Quakers from Krefeld, Germany, arrived in Philadelphia on the Concord in October 1683.   Germantown can be said to be the wellspring of the Pennsylvania German, or Pennsylvania Dutch, ethnic group in the United States.

Germantown township, was laid out by three warrants: October 12, 1683, for 6,000 acres to Francis Daniel Pastorius, for the German and Dutch purchasers, February 13, 1683, to Francis Daniel Pastorius for 200 acres, April 25, 1684, to Jurian Hartsfelder, for 150 acres.   The first purchasers of land in the township were from Frankfurt, Germany, they were Jacobus van der Walle, Johann Jacob Schutz, Johann Wilhelm Ueberfeld, Daniel Behagel, George Strauss, Jan Leureiss, and Abram Hasevoet.   Among them were divided 2,675 acres of land.   The same quantity was divided among the first purchasers from Crevelt, Germany, namely, Jacob Felner, Jan Strepers, Dirk Sipman, Ganert Reniks, Lenard Artes, Jacob Isaacs.   The township was divided into settlements, called Germantown, Cresheim, Sommerhausen and Crevelt.   These Germans were from the palatinates of Cresheim and Crevelt, many of them having become Friends through the preaching of William Penn in Germany.   The township was bounded on the northwest and northeast by Springfield Township, Montgomery County, on the northeast partly by Bristol township, on the southeast by Penn township and Roxborough township.   Within Germantown township were the settlements known as Germantown, Cresheim (afterwards Mount Airy), Sommerhausen (later called Chestnut Hill) and Crevelt, a rural section north of Chestnut Hill.

The Kensington district was roughly bound by Lehigh Avenue to the north, Germantown Avenue and 6th Street to the west, Cohocksihk Creek to the south, York Street, Norris Street, and Frankford Avenue to the west.   Anthony Palmer originally laid it out Kensington as town in the 1730s.   Palmer, a merchant from Barbados, had come to colonial Pennsylvania about 1704, invested in land while continuing his mercantile business interests.   He laid out his town of Kensington, selling lots to a number of shipbuilders in nearby Philadelphia who were looking to expand or enlarge their businesses.   The town of Kensington started around this shipbuilding industry.   Kensington was named for the residence of the monarch in England, Kensington Palace.   The early street names of Kensington also mimicked the titles of the crown: King Street (now Beach), Queen Street (now Richmond), Prince Street (now Girard Avenue), Duke Street (now Thompson), etc.   Originally, Kensington was a ship- and boat-building district, and many of its old time inhabitants were fishermen engaged in supplying the Philadelphia markets.   By 1820, Kensington started to become a manufacturing center and with it began to acquire men of wealth who petitioned the state to become a self-governing district within Philadelphia County, as the time it was a part of the original Northern Liberties township.   It was granted self rule, and incorporated on March 6, 1820.   Over the years Kensington became quite successful and quite well known as the heart of Philadelphia's industrial heyday.   When Philadelphians referred to things being "Made in Philadelphia", most of what they referred to was manufactured in Kensington.   There was another saying: "If you can't get it at K & A (Kensington & Allegheny Avenues) you can't get."   Kensington was the place where a number of notable industries were founded, such as William Cramp Shipyard, John B. Stetson Hat Company, Schoenhut Toy Factory, Bromley Mills, and Disston’s Keystone Saw Works. Before the Great Depression of the 1930s, Kensington at one time had 35,000 textile jobs.   Present day Kensington comprises a much larger area in Northeast Philadelphia.

Kingsessing township was in the extreme southwestern portion of the county, roughly encompassed all of what is now known today as Southwest Philadelphia, bounded on the north by Blockley township, on the east by Mill Creek and Schuylkill River, on the south by Delaware River and Bow Creek, and on the west by Darby Creek and Cobbs Creek.   It includes the site of the old village of Kingsessing.   The township contained no other settlements of any size except Maylandville.   It was traversed principally by the Darby Road and the road to Lazaretto.   This was the oldest settled portion of the county of Philadelphia.   Kingsessing became the name of the township in which the original Indian and Swedish village stood.   The Kingsessing settlement was called a town by the Swedes, and was the first village entitled to that name made by Europeans within the territory of Philadelphia.   The township of Kingsessing was created not long after control of the colony was transferred to William Penn.

The original Lower Dublin was a township in the upper part of the county, adjoining Moreland and Byberry townships on the north, Oxford township on the south, Montgomery County on the west, and the Delaware River on the east.   Bustleton, Fox Chase and Holmesburg were in this township.   It was bisected by the Pennypack Creek, known in those days as the Dublin Creek.   This township was formerly called Lower Dublin to distinguish it from another Dublin township, formerly in Philadelphia County, but now in Montgomery County, and there called Upper Dublin.   This township was one of the first created in the county, but the date is not known.   In 1853, about half the area of the new Lower Dublin township was separated out into Delaware township, which comprised what are now the Torresdale and Holmesburg sections of the city of Philadelphia.

Manayunk borough in the northwestern section of Philadelphia.   The name comes from the language of the Lenape (Delaware) Indians; it is their name for the Schuylkill River, which literally translates to "our place for drinking".   Manayunk was originally a community in Roxborough township.   The land that became Manayunk was first bought from William Penn in 1685-1686 and transferred by several parties to the family of William Levering.   A large part of that land was then sold to his son, Jacob Levering, in 1716.   Jacob built the first house in Manayunk, on the west side of Green lane, below Silverwood street.   The growing town was known as Flat Rock in 1810, the name coming from a peculiar flat rock lying on the lower side of the bridge, which was subsequently called Flat Rock Bridge.   The Bridge was part of the Flat Rock Turnpike connecting Roxborough township with Merion Township in Montgomery County.   The settlement's name came from the construction of the dam, canal and locks there by the Schuylkill Navigation Company.   These works were finished about the end of the year 1818, and the water power being extensive, the Navigation Company sought lessees of the power for use in mills and factories.   Purchases of water power and the erection of mills and factories increased greatly, and the place became important as a manufacturing village.   After a time the inhabitants became dissatisfied with the name Flat Rock, so in 1824 it was resolved to adopt for the place one of the names of the Schuylkill River, and from that time the village was known as Manayunk.   The borough of Manayunk was incorporated June 11, 1840, but it would last only 14 years when it was incorportated into Phiadelphia.   It would continue as one of the manufacturing centers of the city for the next 100 years.

Moreland township was established on the main branches of the Poquessing and Pennypack Creeks, north of Dublin township and was southwest of Byberry township.   Originally, it was a part of was is now Montgomery County, each called Moreland.   The principal village was Smithfield or Pleasantville, afterwards called Somerton, which was partly in Moreland and partly in Byberry township.

Moyamensing township was created by act of March 24, 1812.   By act of April 4, 1831, the township was divided into East and West Moyamensing.   Its northern boundary was South Street and below the existing parts of Southwark, its eastern boundary was the Delaware River, and its western boundary was the Schuylkill River.   It is one of the oldest townships in Pennsylvania: The tract was granted by the Dutch governor Alexander d'Hinoyossa, to Martin Clensmith, William Stille and Lawrence Andries.   In 1684, when the land was turned over from the Dutch to the English, the title was given by William Penn to Stille, Lassey Andrews, Andrew Bankson and John Matson.

"The Liberties":   This was a word used by William Penn to certain tracts of land lying north and west of the city.   It contained what was called "the liberty land or free lots" because the proprietaries gave to the first purchaser of ground in the colony, according to the extent of their purchase, a portion of the land within those limits free of price.   The original idea of Penn was to lay out a town of 10,000 acres, but when the commissioners came to survey this space of ground it was found somewhat difficult, so when Penn arrived in 1682 he divided the town into two parts, one to be called the City and the other the Liberties.   The city contained about 1,820 acres.   The Liberties extended north of Vine Street to the mouth of Cohocksink Creek (Pegg’s Run) and up this river around the lands of Jurian Hartsfelder, which had already been granted away before Penn came to the colony.   There were Swedish, Dutch and English grants of land made before Penn came to be proprietor that had to be respected, so that the Liberty lands were very irregular in their boundaries, and ran by various courses along the Cohocksink, Wissinoming, Tacony, Wingohocking and other streams, and Germantown and Bristol townships, to the Schuylkill River, and over the same and out to Cobbs Creek, and down the same and along the west side of the Schuylkill to a point opposite Vine Street, at the north city line, and along the same to the place of beginning.   This survey was made in 1682, and the Liberties contained on the east side of the Schuylkill, 9,161 acres, and on the west side, 7,074 acres, for a total of 16,235 acres.   These liberty lands on the east side of the Schuylkill became a township nearly from the time of survey, and were called the Northern Liberties, while the western Liberties beyond the Schuylkill became a portion of Blockley township.   The Northern Liberties was subsequently divided: the western part was called Penn township and the eastern part was sometimes called the Unincorporated Northern Liberties, which was divided into the Northern Liberties township and the districts of Northern Liberties, Spring Garden, Kensington, Penn, and Richmond, Penn township, and the boroughs of Aramingo and Bridesburg.

Northern Liberties district was located north of the original Philadelphia along the Delaware River.   It was bordered by Girard Avenue to the north, Callowhill Street to the south, North 6th Street to the west, and the Delaware River to the east (from Callowhill Street to Laurel Street, then from Laurel Street to Girard Avenue, the eastern boundary is North Front Street).   Before Girard Avenue, the northern boundary was the Cohocksink Creek, which now flows as a storm sewer under Canal, Laurel, Bodine, Cambridge, & Orkney Streets.   From its origin, the district was a populous urban area owing to its connection to Delaware River trade.   had its great cordwood wharves and yards along the river front and extensive lumberyards.   The woodyards eventually were replace by large markets for farm produce, commercial warehouses, railroad landings, depots and shipping wharves.   This district also featured, particularly along Second Street, farmers' markets for the wholesale trade in butter, eggs, poultry, meats, vegetables and other products of the farms of the adjacent country.   Accompanying these businesses were fine old market taverns.   Second Street was famous for its fine retail shops and Third Street was the site of a large wholesale trade in groceries and leather.   Second Street was lined by a double row of retail stores along nearly its entire length, not only in the old Northern Liberties, but for miles below and above.   Pegg's Run and Cohocksink Creek, which flowed through the Northern Liberties were the sites of numerous extensive tanyards.   One of the pioneer mills in Philadelphia's great industries, the Old Globe Mill, was near the line of the Northern Liberties, at Germantown Avenue below Girard Avenue.

In 1854, the Northern Liberties township was the space of land north of Kensington, west of Richmond and Aramingo, and a portion of Frankford, south of a portion of Oxford and Bristol townships, and east of Penn township.   A part of it was west of the Frankford Road, and all it was east of Germantown Road.

Oxford township ran from the Montgomery County line in southeast direction to the Delaware River, and along the river southwest to Frankford Creek, and up the creek northwestwardly to Tacony Creek, which it followed until it reached the Montgomery County line near were the northwestern boundary joined it.   Frankford, White Hall, Fox Chase, Cedar Grove and Volunteer Town were in this township, and it also took in the former township of Tacony.   It was one of the earliest townships established in Pennsylvania.   The township was surrounded by the waters of the Delaware and Frankford Creek on two sides, and was traversed by the Little Tacony and Sissamocksink (Wissinoming) or Little Wahauk Creeks.

Passayunk township bordered the Schuylkill River on the west and southwest, Moyamensing township on the north, and the Delaware River on the east and southeast.   It is a very old district:   It was originally given by Queen Christina, August 20, 1653, to Lt. Swen Schute in consideration of important services rendered to the King of Sweden.   On January 1, 1668, Governor Richard Nichols of New York granted Passyunk to Robert Ashman, John Ashman, Thomas Jacob, Dunkin Williams, Francis Walker, and others at a quit-rent of ten bushels of wheat per year.

Penn district, was a portion of Penn township, which was north of the north boundary line of Spring Garden between Delaware, Sixth Street and the Schuylkill River and between a line parallel with Hickory Lane (formerly Coates Street, now Fairmont Avenue), west of Sixth Street as far as Broad Street, and then due west to the Schuylkill River, and along the river to a line parallel with, and at a distance of one hundred feet north of Susquehanna Avenue, and then to the middle of the Sixth Street.   It was created a district by Act of the Assembly on February 26, 1844.

The original Penn township was formed from the western portion of the Northern Liberties township by order of the Court of the Quarter Sessions in the year 1807.   It was north of Vine Street, bounded on the east by Sixth Street to the intersection of the road to Germantown, then to the foot of Logan’s Hill, then southwest to the township line road to a point a short distance above Manheim Lane, then over in a southwest direction to the Schuylkill River, and down the same to Vine Street.   The districts of Spring Garden and Penn were created out of this township, leaving the present Penn township.

Originally Richmond was the name of a tract of land in Northern Liberties township adjoining the Delaware River north of Ball Town and south of Point-No-Point.   It was incorporated as a district on February 27, 1847.   It extended along the Delaware River to a point some distance northwest of the upper end of Petty’s Island, then northwest nearly to the point where Frankford Creek makes its most southerly bend, then southwest to Westmoreland Street, then northwest along the same to Emerald Street, then southwest along this street to a lane running from Frankford Turnpike to Nicetown Lane, then along Frankford Turnpike to the north boundary of Kensington district, and down this line to Gunners’ Run, and along that stream to the Delaware River. Port Richmond was prominent as the tidewater terminus of the Reading Railroad for its immense coal traffic by sea.   This improved the unproductive land in the vicinity for shipping piers, coal depots, engine houses, workshops, offices, etc., followed by a large increase of population, and the erection of dwellings, and great activity in general.   The coal trade was replaced by a world reknown manufacturing trade.

The Native American trail called the Manatawny, now Ridge Avenue, was central to the development of farms and plantations within the area then known as Manatawna.   The Court of Upland in England appointed local Swedish settler Peter Rambo to be the maintainer of the Manatawny road.   In 1690, the road was renamed Ridge Road, and the area, Roxburgh.   By 1707, the name had been changed to Roxborough.   Roxborough is first mentioned as a township in 1706.   In 1840, Manayunk was erected as a borough within the township, and on March 31, 1847, Manayunk was declared separate from the township.

Southwark district was the oldest suburb of what is now Philadelphia.   It was populated originally by Swedish settlements of Wicaco and Moyamensing.   On May 14, 1762, an Act was passed to create a municipality in the southern suburbs to be called the district of Southwark.   Its limits started on Cedar (South) Street and the River Delaware, and proceeded west to Passyunk Road to Moyamensing Road, then by Keeler’s Lane to Greenwich Road, then to the Delaware River.   Because of location south of Philadelphia, the name was adopted as an allusion to the borough named Southwark in the county of Surrey, England, immediately south of the city of London.   From its origin, the district was a populous urban area owing to its connection to Delaware River trade.   There were great woodyards for supplying fuel before the days of anthracite coal, sheds and yards of boat builders and mastmakers near the shipbuilding yards down to the site of the present United States Navy Yard.   Many of the Southwark dwellings were inhabited by sea captains and sailors and many of its inhabitants were the families of seagoing people and "watermen."   These places were later occupied by commercial warehouses, sugar refineries, wharves and depots of the sugar, molasses and West Indies trade, the great grain warehouses, elevators and shipping piers of the Pennsylvania Railroad, wharves and depots of the American and Red Star lines of ocean steamships.   The district was also characterized by the extensive machine shops and ironworks of Merricks, Morris & Tasker, Savery and others, as well as by the mechanical work promoted by the navy yard, which was situated at the foot of Federal Street, previous to removing to League Island.

The district of Spring Garden was incorporated on March 22, 1813.   Its original boundaries were Vine Street on the south, the middle of Hickory Lane (afterwards Coates Street, now Fairmount Avenue) on the north, Broad Street on the west, and the middle of Sixth Street on the east.   On March 21, 1827, the district was enlarged by adding that part of Penn township beginning at the middle of Sixth Street to a point 210 feet north of the north side of Popular Lane, then northwest and parallel to the lane at a distance of 200 feet from the latter to the middle of Broad Street, then parallel with Vine Street to the Schuylkill River.   Spring Garden contained the famous Fairmont Water Works, designed and built by Benjamin Latrobe, and the Baldwin Locomotive Works, at one time the largest and most famous company of its kind in the world.   The Powers & Weightman's Chemical Laboratory was another important business.

West Philadelphia borough was separated from the original Blockley township, west of the Schuylkill River.   It was created a borough on February 17, 1844, and embraced Hamilton and Mantua villages and the ground between.   On April 3, 1853, its title was changed to the district of West Philadelphia with boundaries considerably enlarged.

Whitehall borough is northwest of Bridesburg borough, extending from the United States Arsenal (Frankford Arsenal) westward, contained in the bend made by Frankford Creek and Little Tacony, and adjoining Frankford borough.   It was situated in the old township of Tacony and the later Northern Liberties township.   It was incorporated into a borough on April 9, 1849.


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