Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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Germantown was originally the Borough of Germantown, a town in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania and is today a neighborhood in Philadelphia, about six miles northwest from the center of the city. The neighborhood has been fully built up as a part of an urban city, but 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 Avenue. 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%.

1 History
2 Education
3 Notable Historic Sites
4 Notable residents
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
8 Resources

[edit] History

Map of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania highlighting Germantown Borough prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854

The town was first settled in 1683 by immigrants from the Rhine Valley, who called it Deitscheschteddel. In 1681, William Penn published a broadside in German to recruit settlers for his new colony. The first group to respond, Mennonites and German Quakers from Krefeld, Germany, arrived in Philadelphia on the Concord in October 1683. Therefore, Germantown can be said to be the wellspring of the Pennsylvania German, or Pennsylvania Dutch, ethnic group in the United States.

A settlement in German Township, which was commenced by Francis Daniel Pastorius, October 21, 1685. 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 German towne, in the county of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania." Pastorius was the first bailiff. Jacob Telner, Dirck Isaacs Opdagraaf, Herman Isaacs Opedegraaf 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 negro 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)

6308 Germantown Avenue, The Concord School (1775)

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.

[edit] Education

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 inhabits the land that formerly housed Germantown Academy, which moved to Fort Washington, Pennsylvania in 1965.

[edit] Notable residents

Louisa May Alcott, (1832-1888), born in Germantown, noted author of the Little Women series of books^[1]
Martin Grove Brumbaugh, Governor of Pennsylvania, 1914-1919
James Barron, naval hero
Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania
Connie Mack, winningest coach in baseball history
Rufus Harley, jazz musician
Bernard Hopkins, professional boxer
James Logan, statesman
Francis Daniel Pastorius, Leader of Germantown settlement
Edmund Randolph, the first United States Attorney General
Gilbert Stuart, painter

[edit] See also

[edit] References

1. ^ (1963) Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who.

[edit] External links

Web pages Describing Historic Germantown
Art by Joseph Ropes (1812-1885), Scene in Germantown, Pa., 1874
Art by Anna Peale Sellers (1824-1905), Belfield Farm (near Germantown)
Art by William Britton, Market Square, Germantown, c. 1820
Greater Germantown Housing Development Corporation
East Germantown Blight Certification, City Planning Commission, 2003
Phillyhistory.org, Historic Photographs of Philadelphia, City Archives

[edit] Resources

Chronology of the Political Subdivisions of the County of Philadelphia, 1683-1854
Information courtesy of ushistory.org
Incorporated District, Boroughs, and Townships in the County of Philadelphia, 1854 By Rudolph J. Walther - excerpted from the book at the ushistory.org website

Neighborhoods of the Northwest Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
	Andorra - Chestnut Hill - East Falls - Germantown - Manayunk - Morton - Mount Airy - Roxborough - Upper Roxborough - Wissahickon - Wister
Philadelphia neighbohoods Center City - North Philadelphia - Northwest Philadelphia - The Northeast - South Philadelphia - Southwest Philadelphia - West Philadelphia