Franklinville | |
|---|---|
  Franklinville | |
| Coordinates:40°00′36″N75°08′06″W / 40.01°N 75.135°W /40.01; -75.135 | |
| Country |  United States |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| County | Philadelphia |
| City | Philadelphia |
| Area codes | 215, 267, and 445 |
Franklinville is aneighborhood ofNorth Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. According to theCity PlanningCommission, theboundaries of Franklinville are roughly atriangle bounded by West SedgleyAvenue, North BroadStreet, and West Hunting Park Avenue.[1]
Franklinville or "Franklin" appears on maps though not many residents in the area use the name to describe where they live. It is defined byHunting Park andFeltonville to the north,Nicetown-Tioga-Rising Sun andGlenwood to the west,Upper Kensington andFeltonville to the east andFairhill to the south (south of W. Sedgley).[2]
The neighborhood was originally predominantlyGerman andIrish, with many first and second generation emigrants fromSouthern andEastern Europe, among other regions. Today there is a largeBlack population, 51 percent, andHispanic population, 42 percent – many hailing fromPuerto Rico – andFilipino families as well. The population was 22,230 in 2022.[3] Its primary zip code is 19140.
The community remains robustly active through a social media page, "Tioga-Nicetown-Franklinville (Philly neighborhood Philadelphia)" as of January 2025.
Named for the PhiladelphianBenjamin Franklin, the original 72-acre tract was farmland in theNorthern Liberties Township that was subdivided, beginning in 1852; Potter & Carmichael, oilcloth manufacturers, erected a sign with the name "Franklin-ville" on their factory before this year, in perhaps 1848.
The farmland was divided into 1,000 lots for townhouses, sold with a minimum 20 foot frontage, for $400 or $500 each, about $21,000 today.[4] The land was owned by Coleman Fisher, whose large house in the middle of Venango Street was moved in the early 20th century.[5]
The Franklin Land Company, John Turner, president, met at Franklin Hall and was one of the first mutual land firms in the city. Turner wanted to "aid those of small means."
His mansion, dating to 1750, was taken down to make room for the "industrial classes."
Lots were taken rapidly with the price to stockholders set at $37.50 per lot; $40 if fenced with posts and rails. The center of the village was considered to be at the intersection of Nicetown Lane with Rising Sun Lane (called Avenue today).[6][7]
Rising Sun, or Sunville, was an area to the immediate southeast of Franklinville where the colonial-eraRising Sun Tavern (built in 1746) at Germantown Road andOld York Road was run by A. Nice. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society was founded at the tavern in 1775. Dinah Nevill was "a black woman whose insistence that she was free-born helped fuel" the abolitionist movement.[8] "It is said that the Lenapes used to watch the sun there," according to a history. "Rising Sun lane (Woodpecker lane) extended northeast from this fork to Stock Yards station at 2d and Bristol streets, from which point Old 2d street pike led northeast to Fox Chase and Huntingdon Valley, and New 2d street north to Olney, McCartersville and Jenkintown."[9]
Franklinville was called "Franklin" on maps in 1860 and 1868, withNicetown to the northeast,Feltonville to the north, Rising Sun to the southwest, Coopersville to the east-southeast.[10] One of the first appearances of "Franklinville" in cartography was in 1862, which was located in the 25th ward of the city.[11] In 1888, it was narrowly delineated as the "vicinity of Erie Avenue to Westmoreland Street, between Broad Street and Sedgley Avenue."[12]
TheNorth Pennsylvania Railroad was the first to lay track through the area in 1854 to Jenkintown, opening the line the following year. The North Pennsylvania Junction station was erected on the east side of 5th Street at Tioga Street, which serviced Franklinville. A new station was erected in 1889. To the east was the North Penn freight station, on the north side of the tracks, west of 2nd Street.The Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company line from the south joined the North Pennsylvania Railroad here and a waiting shed allowed trains heading north and south to back up and take up passengers, next to theS. L. Allen & Company factory. ThePennsylvania Railroad Company tracks also joined here from points east.[13]
Heading north from the Junction station on the North Pennsylvania Railroad line, there was the Erie Avenue Station (passenger) on the south side of Erie Avenue on the east side of the tracks. There was a freight station on West Erie Avenue at North Lawrence Street, near a rail and coal yard to the immediate north. The Drove Yard Station served the North Philadelphia Butchers & Drovers Association Stock Yard. Next was Greenmount, near the intersection of West Bristol Street and Rising Sun Avenue, which served Greenmount Cemetery to the east and the North Philadelphia Stock Yard to the southwest. Next was Lindley, on the south side of Lindley Avenue at North 7th which serviced the northwestern edge ofFeltonville.[13]
Industries including livestock yards, oil cloth works, nail manufacturers, dye works[14] and ice companies began operating in the mid-19th century. In about 1848, Thomas Potter and James Carmichael established the Franklinville Oilcloth Works. In the 1895 city directory, the Franklinville Carriage and Wagon Works, the Franklinville Steam Coffee Roasting Establishment, the Franklinville Dye Works, the Franklinville Ice Manufacturing Company and the FranklinvilleMaennerchor Hall, a German social club, are listed.
Between about 1891 and 1900,The Franklinville Times was published on Saturdays, at four pages on an 18 x 24 sheet. It was also published out of Ashbourne, Fox Chase, Jenkintown, Oak Lane, Olgontz and Olney. E. H. Rosenberger was the editor and publisher with its offices at 642 Tioga St. Irish emigrant Michael Carolan moved to Franklinville with Irish-born wife Annie May Larner and their children (most born nearWillow Grove andFitzwatertown inMontgomery County) in about 1890 where he set up a blacksmith and horseshoeing shop at 530 Rising Sun Avenue.[15] He arrived inNew York City in 1847 aboard thePatrick Henry, which brought refugees of theGreat Hunger fromIreland via theClarence Dock inLiverpool.[16]
In 1908, the following business establishments appear in the city directory: Franklinville Carriage and Wagon Works, 3806 N. 5th (until 1920); Franklinville Dye Works Company, 3961 N. 5th; Franklinville Ice & Storage Company, 3423 N. 6th; Franklinville Livery & Boarding Stables, 3615 N. Randolph.
The Franklinville Consolidated School was organized in 1856 at the Franklin Baptist Church on Rising Sun Lane and the North Pennsylvania Railroad. The first principal was Henrietta Woodruff. In 1869, it moved above Venango Street and was called the Enterprise Consolidated School; it became Bayard Taylor Consolidated in 1872, and reorganized into a combined secondary and primary in 1891.[17]
There emerged many churches in the area over the years. Among the first religious services were held in the 18th century at neighboringNicetown, which served Catholics living in nearbyFrankford,Germantown,Nicetown and what would become Franklinville. Services were held by priests fromOld St. Joseph's and those traveling to and from Philadelphia at the home of John Michael Browne (1703-1750), ofTuam, Ireland, who came from theWest Indies in 1742 and purchased acreage in what would become Franklinville.
After Browne's death, services were held, until 1780, at the home of Paul Miller, a sexton atOld St. Joseph's, near today's Eighth St. and W. Hunting Park Ave.[18]
TheNew Cathedral Cemetery, today with about 38 acres, opened in 1868 on land originally owned by Browne that he wanted to become a burial ground. The first service ofSt. Veronica Parish was held in a frame chapel in the Cemetery on September 22, 1872. A Norman-Romanesque chapel and school was erected on the northeast corner of Sixth and Tioga Streets between 1892 and 1894. A new parish church opened next door in 1909.
A small stone Protestant Episcopal church, the Church of the Resurrection, was erected in 1853 on North Broad and Tioga streets, in the center of what was then known as Rising Sun Village but later was absorbed intoFranklinville.[19]
The Methodist Episcopal Church at 5th and Erie Street, was founded in 1857.
The Christ Church (Episcopal) cornerstone was laid at the northwest corner of Sixth and Venango on April 17, 1876.[20]
Bethel Lutheran Church opened at 5th and Sedgley in 1910. An Italian parish formed and erected a church, Our Lady of Pompeii, on the southern edge of Franklinville in 1914.
