Germantown (German:Deutschstadt[ˈdɔʏtʃˌʃtat]) is an area inNorthwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded byPalatine,Quaker, andMennonite families in 1683 as an independentborough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854. The area, which is about six miles northwest from the city center, now consists of two neighborhoods: Germantown and East Germantown.[4]
Germantown has played a significant role inAmerican history; it was the birthplace of theAmerican antislavery movement, the site of aRevolutionary War battle, the temporary residence ofGeorge Washington, the location of the first bank of the United States, and the residence of many notable politicians, scholars, artists, and social activists.
Today, the area remains rich in historic sites and buildings from the colonial era, some of which are open to the public.
Plan of lots in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1689, showing lot owners in 1689 and 1714
Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim and Roberts Avenues. Germantown has been consistently bounded on the southwest by Wissahickon Avenue, on the southeast by Roberts Avenue, and on the east by Wister Street and Stenton Avenue,[5] but its northwest border has expanded and contracted over the years. When first incorporated as a borough in 1689, Germantown was separated from the rural Germantown Township by Washington Lane;[6] later, the border was expanded to Carpenter and East Gorgas Lanes;[7] it was then rolled back to Washington Lane in 1846,[5] and remained there until the borough wasabsorbed into Philadelphia in 1854.
Today, the western part of the former borough is the neighborhood known simply as "Germantown", though it is sometimes called "West Germantown", and the eastern part is the neighborhood of 'East Germantown'. While the boundary between the two neighborhoods is not well-defined and has varied over time,[8] currently 'Germantown' usually refers to the part of the former borough that lies west of Germantown Avenue, up through West Johnson Street, and 'East Germantown' to the part that lies east of Germantown Avenue, up through East Upsal Street.[9][10][11]
Although the arrival by ship of the Original 13, the later founders of Germantown inPhiladelphia on October 6, 1683, was later to provide the date forGerman-American Day, aholiday in the United States, historical research has shown that nearly all of the first thirteenQuaker andMennonite families were in factDutch rather thanGermans. These families, which were mainly Dutch but also included some Swiss, had relocated toKrefeld (near the Dutch border) andMonsheim (inRhineland-Palatinate) some years prior to their emigration to America to avoid persecution of their Mennonite beliefs in theDutch Republic andSwiss Confederacy. The town was named Germantown by the group's leaderFranz Pastorius, a German preacher fromSommerhausen.
The town's population remained largely Dutch-speaking until 1709, after which a number of the Dutch families set out west and a series of major German emigrations reached Germantown and Pennsylvania as a whole. Their initial leader, Pastorius, later aligned himself with newer German arrivals and as the only university-trained and legal and literary man among the early settlers, chronicled and stressed the town's German origins.[12][13] Adding to the assimilating of Dutch culture was the fact that the direct vicinity of the settlement was already inhabited by fifty-four German families who had accompaniedJohan Printz to theSwedish settlement on the Delaware several years before 1683 and had resettled themselves.[14] Pastorius was the first bailiff. Jacob Telner,Derick Isacks op den Graeff and his brotherAbraham Isacks op den Graeff, Reynier Tyson, and Tennis Coender (Thones Kunders) 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.
In 1688, five years after its founding, Germantown became the birthplace of the anti-slavery movement in America.[15] Pastorius, Gerret Hendericks and the brothers Derick and Abraham op den Graeff gathered at Thones Kunders's house and wrote a two-page condemnation of slavery and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church, theSociety of Friends. The petition was mainly based upon the Bible'sGolden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Though the Quaker establishment took no immediate action, the1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was a clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the process of banning slavery in the Society of Friends (1776) and Pennsylvania (1780).
In 1723, Germantown became the site of the first congregation ofSchwarzenau Brethren in the New World. TheChurch of the Brethren - among other churches - have their roots in the Schwarzenau Brethren.[16]
During his presidency,George Washington and his family lodged at theDeshler-Morris House in Germantown to escape the city and theyellow fever epidemic of 1793. The first bank of the United States was also located here during his administration.
The significant changes that occurred in Philadelphia's demographics at the start of the 20th century caused major shifts in Germantown's ethnic makeup as well. When the first wave of theGreat Migration brought more than 140,000 African Americans to the city from the South, long-established Philadelphians started to move to the outskirts. During this time, many German, Scots-Irish, and Irish families moved to Germantown.[18]
During the 1940s, a second mass migration of African Americans from the south to Philadelphia occurred. While the majority of middle-class African American newcomers first settled in North Philadelphia, the housing shortages in this area that followed the end of World War II caused later arrivals to move instead to the Northwest. This led to a wave of new housing construction. To meet the housing needs of the growing numbers of African American families moving into southern Germantown, the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority allocated $10.6 million for the creation of public housing.[18]
Between 1954 and 1956, Germantown experienced an influx of lower-income African Americans, resulting in a decline in property values and triggering a "white flight" of the majority of white residents to the suburbs.[19] The demographic shift caused a slow but steady decline in central Germantown's upscale shopping district, with the last department store, aJ. C. Penney branch, closing in the early 1980s.[20]
As of the 2010 US Census, Germantown proper is 77% black, 15% white, 3% Latino, and 2% Asian,[3] and East Germantown is 92% black, 3% white, 2% Latino, and 2% Asian.[3]
Eugene Stackhouse, a retired former president of the Germantown Historical Society says that the demographic transition of Germantown into a predominantly black neighborhood was the result of the now illegal practice ofblockbusting. "It was a great disgrace. Cheap houses would be sold to a black family, then the realtors would go around and tell the neighbors that the blacks are invading", said Stackhouse.[21] The practice was used to triggerpanic selling.[20]
Germantown is zoned to theSchool District of Philadelphia. Public schools located in Germantown include the Anna L. Lingelbach School (K–8), the John B. Kelly School (K–6), the John Wister Elementary School (K–6), the Hill Freedman Middle School (6–8), the Theodore Roosevelt Middle School (7–8), the Fitler Academics Plus School (1–8), and the Martin Luther King High School (9–12). The Robert Fulton Elementary School andGermantown High School, a regional public high school located in Germantown, were both closed in 2013.
Mastery Charter Schools operates the Mastery Charter Pickett Campus (7–12, MCPC) in Germantown.[22] The school opened in August 2007.[23] The charter system headquarters is located at Pickett.[23][24] Germantown Settlement Charter School (5–8), Imani Education Circle Charter school (pre-K to 8), and the Wissahickon Charter School's Awbury Campus (6th–8th) is located in the neighborhood . ThePennsylvania School for the Deaf, a private state-chartered school, occupies the former site ofGermantown Academy, which moved toFort Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1965.
Germantown's private schools include the DePaul Catholic School (K–8), Waldorf School of Philadelphia (PreK-8), the High Street Christian Academy (K–4), the Germantown Islamic School, the Green Tree School (special education, ages 6–21), and two Quaker schools:Germantown Friends School andGreene Street Friends School.
Nearby private schools includeMount Airy's Revival Hill Christian High School (9–12), Blair Christian Academy (PreK–12), Islamic Day School of Philadelphia (PreK–5), Project Learn School (K–8), Classroom on Carpenter Lane (K-2), and Holy Cross School (K–8), as well asChestnut Hill'sSpringside School (PreK–12),Chestnut Hill Academy (K–12), andCrefeld School (7–12). TheWilliam Penn Charter School (commonly known as Penn Charter), the oldest Quaker school in the world, is located in nearbyEast Falls.
Free Library of Philadelphia operates public libraries. The Joseph E. Coleman Northwest Regional Library is located in Germantown. The library was given its current name in 2002, after Joseph E. Coleman, a member of thePhiladelphia City Council.[27]
The 1946 book,Bright April, written and illustrated byMarguerite de Angeli, features scenes of 1940s Germantown while addressing the divisive issue of racial prejudice experienced byAfrican Americans.
Abraham op den Graeff, one of the first settlers from Crevelt, Germany who established Germantown and its surrounding Township six miles northwest of Philadelphia, merchant, politician
^N. Van der Sijs: Cookies, Coleslaw, and Stoops: The Influence of Dutch on the North American Languages (2019) page 223.
^William I. Hull: William Penn and the Dutch Quaker Migration to Pennsylvania (2018)
^H. Naaman: History of Old Germantown (1907) page 20.
^Young, David W. (December 22, 2009)."Historic Germantown: New Knowledge in a Very Old Neighborhood". Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. RetrievedSeptember 28, 2013.considered to be the earliest antislavery document made public by whites in North America.
United States
Pennsylvania
.jpg)
