From the Fifth Ward to Society Hill: A Changing Philadelphia Neighborhood

The neighborhoods around Independence National Historical Park are among the oldest in Philadelphia. With the creation of the park, amid the broader urban renewal movements of the 1950s and 1960s, city, state and federal governments set out to make the surrounding blocks feel connected to it — to "clean up" what many considered a slum and give visitors a neighborhood to explore. The changes transformed the area: its buildings, its businesses and the people who live there.

One of those neighborhoods was the Fifth Ward, which borders the park. It historically stretched from Chestnut Street to South Street and from 7th Street to the Delaware River; most of it is now known as Society Hill.

Goods landed at the docks passed through crowded markets to the rest of the city, while shipments were readied to leave the Delaware River ports (public domain).

A working waterfront

Close to the Delaware River, the ward's people and businesses served the busy docks. Immigrants and both free and enslaved Black Philadelphians lived there, working in the packed markets, warehouses and factories of the city's large shipping and manufacturing trade in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Politics and violence

Because its residents were busy and relatively poor, some Philadelphia politicians saw the ward as ripe for corrupt manipulation. In the 1800s, a mix of new immigrants and free Black residents, combined with crooked politics, led to race riots and nativist riots.

Octavius Catto, who fought for desegregation and Black rights in Philadelphia (Smithsonian).

• 1871: tensions over the 15th Amendment, which gave Black men the vote, boiled over at election time. Octavius Catto, a prominent Black rights activist, was murdered in the Fifth Ward during election-day violence.
• 1917: in a race for Select Council between James Carey and Isaac Deutsch, Deutsch paid New York gang members to attack Carey, and the chaos ended with a police officer's murder. Mayor Thomas B. Smith was indicted for election interference over his role.

Political violence waned after World War I as the city's economy and population changed.

Becoming Society Hill

By the time the national park was founded in 1948, industry was moving west, and the neighborhood's businesses and residents were struggling. Russian Jewish immigrants and Black Philadelphians still lived there as the mills and docks where they had worked shut down.

City planner Edmund Bacon, Mayor Richardson Dilworth and federal officials saw the new park as the spark for redevelopment. With federal urban renewal money, they set out to remake the neighborhood's homes, businesses and offices — starting with its name. To shed the Fifth Ward's reputation, developers revived the area's historic name: Society Hill.

The terms were strict:

• Residents could keep their homes only if they could prove they could pay for costly repairs; the city reissued their deeds with detailed restoration agreements attached.
• Renters, and owners who could not accept the agreements, had their properties condemned.
• City officials interviewed prospective buyers to be sure they could meet the repair schedules and costs.

More than a third of the neighborhood's residents were displaced. The city courted investors and architects to build modern housing — such as I. M. Pei's Society Hill Towers, on the site of the old Dock Street Market.

By the 1970s, many historic houses had been restored, and new housing and businesses filled the gaps left by condemned and demolished buildings. Groups such as the Society Hill Civic Association and the Philadelphia Historical Commission still work with the city to protect the neighborhood's historic designation and appearance. Society Hill is now one of Philadelphia's most affluent neighborhoods.

Sources

• National Park Service, Independence National Historical Park: "A Changing Neighborhood." The source's "Issac Deutsch" is corrected here to Isaac. Its photograph of the Society Hill Towers belongs to Temple University Libraries and is not reproduced.