Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Northeast, and the Great Northeast, is a section of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 Census, the Northeast has a sizable percentage of the city’s 1.547 million people—a population of between 300,000 and 450,000, depending on how the area is defined. Beginning in the 1980s, many of the Northeast’s middle-class children graduated from college and settled in the suburbs, especially nearby Bucks County. The Northeast is known as being home to a large working-class Irish American population. Still, it is also home to Polish, German, Jewish, Italian, African American, Portuguese, Brazilian, Russian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Ukrainian, Indian, Chinese, and Vietnamese neighborhoods.
History
The first European settlement in the Northeast was by Swedish farmers, who emigrated there when the area was a part of the New Sweden colony. They were followed by English Quakers, including Thomas Holme, who came to begin the settlement of William Penn’s Pennsylvania colony in the late 1680s. In the following years, Northeast Philadelphia developed as a scattering of small towns and farms that were a part of Philadelphia County but not the City of Philadelphia. Before consolidation with the city, the Northeast consisted of the townships of Byberry, Delaware, Lower Dublin, Moreland, and Oxford (largely rural areas); and the boroughs of Bridesburg, Frankford, and White Hall, which were more urbanized.
While most of the land in what is now the Northeast was dedicated to farming, the presence of many creeks that is proximity to suitable industrial development, the Northeast’s first factory was the Rowland Shovel Works on Pennypack Creek. In 1802, it produced the first shovel made in the United States. More mills and factories followed along the Pennypack and Frankford Creeks, and traces of the mill races and dams remain today. The most famous of these factories was the Disston Saw Works in Tacony, founded by English industrialist Henry Disston, whose saw blades were world-renowned. Junk Removal Philadelphia Kings
Economy and Attractions
Northeast Philadelphia is home to Philadelphia Mills, formerly known as Franklin Mills. This shopping mall was built on what was once Liberty Bell Park Racetrack and is one of the most visited attractions in the state. The lower sections of the Northeast still boast pleasant shopping avenues lined by stores and restaurants, such as Castor Avenue. Major shopping centers along Cottman Avenue include the Cottman-Bustleton Center and the Roosevelt Mall, which opened in 1964 at Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard.
Check out other neighborhoods like Old City