Black Bottom | |
|---|---|
Historical neighborhood | |
 Mosaic depicting Black Bottom at University City High School | |
 | |
| Coordinates: 39°57′27″N75°11′52″W / 39.9574°N 75.1978°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| City | Philadelphia |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern Time) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (Eastern Daylight Time) |
Black Bottom was a predominantly African American and poor neighborhood in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was mostly razed for urban renewal in the 1960s. [1]
Black Bottom sat between 40th and 32nd streets in West Philadelphia. Sources [1] [2] [3] disagree on its northern and southern boundaries, but the neighborhood is generally understood to have been north and separate from the campus of the University of Pennsylvania and south of the Mantua and Powelton Village neighborhoods. At least one source says "Black Bottom" was understood to mean blocks north of Lancaster Avenue, while blocks south of it were referred to as "the Bottom". [4]
Before it was called Black Bottom, the area was once part of or overlapped places called Blockley, Hamilton Village, West Philadelphia Borough, and Greenville. [5] Following the displacement of thousands of residents in the 1960s, the area is now considered to be a part of West Philadelphia's University City. [6]
In the decades preceding Philadelphia's consolidation in 1854, the area was home to taverns and businesses catering largely to the stagecoach and cattle droving trades. After the Civil War, it developed into one of West Philadelphia's affluent streetcar suburbs. The University of Pennsylvania moved there in 1870. After World War I, wealthier residents moved further west into West Philadelphia and its suburbs, leaving neighborhoods in eastern West Philadelphia in decline. The relative availability of cheap housing in the area attracted many African Americans, including migrants from the Southern States, who faced housing discrimination elsewhere in the city.
The University of Pennsylvania had expanded as far north as Walnut Street by 1920, but in 1959, Penn, Drexel University, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, and Presbyterian Hospital sought to create large-scale redevelopment in the area to eradicate blight and develop a "University City" neighborhood of residences and services for students, faculty and staff. Together, they created the West Philadelphia Corporation and acquired large numbers of properties for demolition.
The first major clash between Black Bottom residents and the white institutions came in 1963, over the plans to build a science magnet high school on 7.6 acres of land in Unit 3 between 36th and 38th Streets, along Market Street (Reid et al, 1997). Black residents believed that very few of their children would gain entrance to the magnet school, which was being designed for the children of the faculty, staff, and graduate students of Penn and Drexel. Construction of the magnet school, to be called University City High School, would also displace families and individuals living in that section of Area 3. [7]
Portions of the area were eventually declared blighted by the city, and remaining properties were purchased by eminent domain. The final buildings were demolished by the late 1960s. The number of displaced residents is estimated between 4,496 and 15,000 by various sources.
Former Black Bottom residents celebrate Black Bottom Day on the last Saturday in August in Fairmount Park.
Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area on the western bank of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. The population of Chester was 32,605 at the 2020 census.
Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a home rule township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the township had a total population of 85,681, making it the state's sixth-most populated municipality after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Reading, and Erie. Upper Darby borders Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-most populous city, and constitutes part of the Delaware Valley, also known as the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the nation's seventh-largest metropolitan area.
Powelton Village is a neighborhood of mostly Victorian, mostly twin homes in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a national historic district that is part of University City. Powelton Village extends north from Market Street to Spring Garden Street, east to 32nd Street, west to 40th and Spring Garden Streets, and to 44th and Market Streets.
University City is the easternmost portion of West Philadelphia, encompassing several Philadelphia universities. It is situated directly across the Schuylkill River from Center City.
West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Although there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the northwest, Cobbs Creek to the southwest, and the SEPTA Media/Wawa Line to the south. An alternate definition includes all city land west of the Schuylkill; this would also include Southwest Philadelphia and its neighborhoods. The eastern side of West Philadelphia is also known as University City.
Mantua is a neighborhood in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located north of Spring Garden Street, east of 40th Street, south of Mantua Avenue, and west of 31st Street. The neighborhood's northern and western reaches are predominantly working-class and African American, although its southern border with Powelton Village has seen recent gentrification and an influx of Drexel University and University of Pennsylvania student renters.
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Fitler Square is a 0.5 acre public park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States and a surrounding neighborhood of the same name. The square is bounded on the east by 23rd Street, on the west by 24th Street, on the north by Panama Street, and on the south by Pine Street. The neighborhood encompasses much of southwest Center City west of Rittenhouse Square and east of the Schuylkill River.
Queen Village is a residential neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States that lies along the eastern edge of the city in South Philadelphia. It shares boundaries with Society Hill to the north, Bella Vista to the west and Pennsport to the south. Street boundaries are the south side of Lombard Street to the north side of Washington Avenue, the Delaware River to 6th Street, encompassing two principal commercial corridors, South Street and Fabric Row on 4th Street.
Point Breeze is a multicultural neighborhood in South Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is bounded by 25th Street to the west, Washington Avenue to the north, Broad Street to the east, and Moore Street to the south. Southwest Center City lies to its north. Passyunk Square and East Passyunk Crossing lie to its east. Point Breeze is separated from Grays Ferry to the west by a CSX railway viaduct over 25th Street.
Grays Ferry, also known as Gray's Ferry, is a neighborhood in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, bounded (roughly) by 25th Street on the east, the Schuylkill River on the west, Vare Avenue on the south, and Grays Ferry Avenue on the north. The section of this neighborhood west of 34th Street is also known as Forgotten Bottom.
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The Campus of Drexel University is divided into four sites in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—the University City Campus, the Center City Campus, the Queen Lane Campus, and the Academy of Natural Sciences. An additional location for the College of Medicine is under construction by Tower Health near Reading Hospital in West Reading, Pennsylvania. A branch campus in California—the Drexel University Sacramento Campus–closed in 2015.
Drexel University College of Medicine is the medical school of Drexel University, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The medical school represents the consolidation of two medical schools: Hahnemann Medical College, originally founded as the nation's first college of homeopathy, and the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first U.S. medical school for women, which became the Medical College of Pennsylvania when it admitted men in 1970; these institutions merged in 1993, became affiliated with Drexel University College of Medicine in 1998, and were fully absorbed into the university in 2002. With one of the nation's largest enrollments for a private medical school, Drexel University College of Medicine is the second most applied-to medical school in the United States. It is ranked no. 83 in research by U.S. News & World Report.
The University City Science Center (UCSC) is an urban research park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
Gentrification is the controversial process of affluent people moving into a historically low-income neighborhood. It is often criticized because the current residents have limited options to buy or rent equivalent housing in alternative areas at the same price. If they stay, prices for products, services, and taxes rise and existing social networks are disturbed. Gentrification is a reversal of the process of urban decay and white flight seen in most American cities during the 20th century, where residents voluntarily moved away as urban neighborhoods declined.
University City High School was a public secondary school in the University City section of West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, which operated from 1972 to 2013.
Gentrification in the United States is commonly associated with an influx of higher-income movers into historically divested neighborhoods with existing, working-class residents, often resulting in increases in property prices and investment into new developments. Displacement and gentrification are also linked, with consequences of gentrification including displacement of pre-existing residents and cultural erasure of the historic community. In the United States, discussions surrounding gentrification require critical analysis of race and other demographic data in examining the inequalities and disparities between existing residents, the community, new buyers, and developers caused by gentrification.