Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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Map of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania highlighting Germantown Borough prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854
Map of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania highlighting Germantown Borough prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854
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Germantown was originally the Borough of Germantown, a town in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, and is today a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the city of Philadelphia, about six miles northwest from the center of the city. The neighborhood is rich in historic sites and buildings that have been preserved. Many of these are open to the public.

Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim and Roberts Avenues. The boundaries of Germantown borough at the time it was absorbed into the city of Philadelphia were Wissahickon Avenue, Roberts Avenue, Wister Street, Stenton Avenue and Washington Lane. The next neighborhood to the northwest, Mount Airy, starts around Johnson Street, though there is no universally recognized exact boundary.

In 2005, the median home sale price in the 19144 zip code, which contains most of Germantown, was $95,000, an increase of 23% over the median price in 2004. The median home sale price in the 19138 zip code, which contains part of East Germantown, was $82,050. This was an increase of 37%.[citation needed]

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Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. This article has been tagged since October 2007.
Pictures from Old-Germantown. The top two houses are that of the Pastorius family, the on on the left around 1683 on the right around 1715. The center structure is that of the house and printing buiness of the Caurs family, shown around 1735. The bottom structure is the market place show around 1820.
Pictures from Old-Germantown. The top two houses are that of the Pastorius family, the on on the left around 1683 on the right around 1715. The center structure is that of the house and printing buiness of the Caurs family, shown around 1735. The bottom structure is the market place show around 1820.

Although its name indicates otherwise, Germantown was founded not by Germans, but by Dutch settlers[1], augmented with a much smaller number of people from present-day Germany, in 1681. Most were Quakers who came over in response to the appeal of William Penn. (Penn had carefully courted Dutch Quakers for his colony, and his mother was Dutch.[2]) Germantown (whose original name seems to have been lost) remained almost exclusively Dutch until the beginning of the eighteenth century. Only then did German immigration gain momentum, and soon dominated the area.[3]

On August 12, 1689, William Penn at London signed a charter constituting some of the inhabitants a corporation by the name of "the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty of Germantown, in the county of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania." Francis Daniel Pastorius was the first bailiff. Jacob Telner, Dirck Isaacs Opdegraaf, Herman Isaacs Opdegraaf, Reynier Tyson, and Tennis Coender were burgesses, besides six committeemen. They had authority to hold "the general court of the corporation of Germantowne," to make laws for the government of the settlement, and to hold a court of record. This court went into operation in 1690, and continued its services for sixteen years. Sometimes, to distinguish Germantown from the upper portion of German township, outside the borough, the township portion was called Upper Germantown.

In 1688, Pastorius drew up the first written protest against African slavery in American history.

When Philadelphia was occupied by the British during the American Revolutionary War, several units were housed in Germantown. In the Battle of Germantown, in 1777, the Continental Army attacked this garrison. During the battle, a party of citizens fired on the British troops, as they marched up the Avenue, and mortally wounded British Brigadier General Agnew. The Americans withdrew after firing on one another in the confusion of the battle, leading to the determination that the battle resulted in a defeat of the Americans. However, the inspirational battle was considered an important victory by the feisty Americans. The American loss was 673; the British loss was 575. The battle is called a victory by the Americans because along with the Army's success under Brigadier General Horatio Gates at Saratoga on October 17 when Burgoyne surrendered, it led to the official recognition of the Americans by France, which formed an alliance with the Americans afterwards.

For a time after the war, George Washington rented the Deshler-Morris House in Germantown to escape the central city and the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. The first bank of the United States was also located here during his administration.

5442 Germantown Avenue, The Deshler-Morris House (1773)
5442 Germantown Avenue, The Deshler-Morris House (1773)

Louisa May Alcott, the author of the novel Little Women, was born in Germantown in 1832. Germantown proper, and the adjacent German Township, were incorporated into the City of Philadelphia in 1854 by the Act of Consolidation.

Bright April, a 1946 book written and illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli, is illustrated with scenes of Germantown of the 1940s while addressing the divisive issue of racial prejudice experienced by African Americans, a daring topic for a children's book of that time. Selected digital images of this book are available here

Germantown, as with all areas of Philadelphia, is zoned to schools in the School District of Philadelphia. Germantown High School is in Germantown.

Germantown is the location of the private Germantown Friends School as well as Greene Street Friends School. (A third Quaker school, the William Penn Charter School, is in adjacent neighborhood East Falls.) The Pennsylvania School for the Deaf currently occupies the former site of Germantown Academy, which moved to Fort Washington, Pennsylvania in 1965.

Colonial Germantown Historic District
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Built/Founded: 1683
Architect: Multiple
Architectural style(s): Colonial, Georgian, Federal
Added to NRHP: October 15, 1966[4]
NRHP Reference#: 66000678[5]
Governing body: Local

The Colonial Germantown Historic District, which includes the 6500 to 7600 blocks of Germantown Avenue (between Windrim and Upsal Streets), has been designated a National Historic Landmark. It comprises 60 buildings, including:

The Concord School (1775), 6308 Germantown Avenue
The Concord School (1775), 6308 Germantown Avenue

  1. ^ Germantown is now generally thought to be of German origin (logically enough), but ...
  2. ^ Penn, whose mother was Dutch, had(...).
  3. ^ Essay on Dutch Americans and their founding of Germantown.
  4. ^ Listing at the National Park Service
  5. ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
  6. ^ (1963) Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 

v • d • e
Neighborhoods of the Northwest Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
v • d • e
Incorporated District, Boroughs, and Townships in the County of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854

Coordinates: 40°02′37″N, 75°10′55″W

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germantown%2C_Philadelphia%2C_Pennsylvania"
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