Philadelphia is still nice and cozy, but, as it turned out, not everywhere. In some places it is so severe that you do not want to get out of the car once again and even sitting inside you do not feel very comfortable. Landscapes around remind us more of the end of the world than about the bright future, and if you suddenly have to go somewhere, then every walk ends with a meeting with an aggressive asshole. It turned out that there are areas in Philadelphia that are no longer in New York and which are described on the Internet as words like ghettos and slums.
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the sixth-most populous city in the United States, with an estimated population of 1,567,872. Philadelphia served as the temporary capital of the United States, 1790–1800, while the Federal City was under construction in the District of Columbia.
Throughout the 19th century, Philadelphia had a variety of industries and businesses, the largest being textiles. Major corporations in the 19th and early 20th centuries included the Baldwin Locomotive Works, William Cramp and Sons Ship and Engine Building Company, and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Immigrants, mostly Irish and German, settled in Philadelphia and the surrounding districts. Between 1880 and 1930, the African-American population of Philadelphia increased from 31,699 to 219,559. Twentieth-century black newcomers were part of the Great Migration out of the rural South to northern and midwestern industrial cities. The population peaked at more than two million residents in 1950, then began to decline with the restructuring of industry, which led to the loss of many middle-class union jobs. In addition, suburbanization had been drawing off many of the wealthier residents to outlying railroad commuting towns and newer housing. Philadelphia struggled through a long period of adjustment to these economic changes. The city in fact approached bankruptcy in the late 1980s.
Built in 1894 after the model of the New York Dakota. It was the first high-rise building in the city and one of the most luxurious at that time. In 1900 it was bought and converted into a chic hotel.
In 1906, Alfred Burke, president and owner of Burke Brothers, the world's largest company that produced chevron (a soft chrome tanned leather made from goatskins, which went for sewing haberdashery, handbags, a purse and model shoes) built for itseld and his family a luxurious three-story mansion in the style of the Italian Renaissance. 27 bedrooms, seven bathrooms, stables and a garage with a gardener's apartment. The architect was told not to save money, but to build so that the house wich will stand for a thousand years. Here it stands!
The building of the National Bank of North Philadelphia which was built in 1926. In 1985 it was entered in the National Register of Historic Places.
Historic houses of the Philly's ghetto.
And these houses are still lucky. A lot of buildings of Philadelphia, from luxurious mansions to factory buildings, just did not survive to our days.
Today, Northern Philadelphia is far from the best years in its history, but not this is not the worst period. Some industry came to life, small business began to work. Many empty houses are demolished, and those that remained are fenced and securely sealed. As a result, the level of crime began to decline and many quarters were subjected to gentrification.
The current population of the Northern Philadelphia is: 49.8% of the population have black skin, 30% Hispanic (they are black and white, but always stand out in a separate group) and only 10.1% is white.
Text by: Cătălin CREȚU
Photography: Samsebeskazal
© The Bunget 2017
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