Mill Creek is a neighborhood in the

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...

section of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, United States. It sits between 44th and 52nd Streets, north of Market Street and south of Girard Avenue. It was named for Philadelphia's Mill Creek, which was buried during 19th-century sewer system improvements. In 1961, the sewer collapsed, taking homes with it.

History and architectural features

During the early 1800s, Mill Creek was used as a water and power supply source by area lumber companies and gristmills. Sometime after the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, as Philadelphia's population continued to grow, business and civic leader determined that upgrades were needed to the city's sewer system. One of the projects involved diverting a section of Mill Creek through an underground brick-covered sewer culvert, which was then covered over by landfill. This decision ultimately created "a submerged floodplain" that resulted in sewer collapses during the 20th century. The neighborhood was formerly home to the Mill Creek Apartments, a

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

project that was designed by

Louis Kahn Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whi ...

during the early 1950s. Its three 17-story highrise project towers were demolished in 2002 and replaced with suburban-style low-rise houses, a development named Lucien Blackwell Homes after the congressman. Mill Creek was the site of the 2000 "

Lex Street Massacre The Lex Street massacre is the name, given by a '' Philadelphia Daily News'' reporter, to a mass murder that took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States on December 28, 2000. It was the deadliest mass murder in Philadelphia history. ...

," in which four men killed seven others and wounded three in retaliation for damage to a car, Philadelphia's worst killing spree in modern history. The

Rudolph Blankenburg School The Rudolph Blankenburg School is an historic, American school that is located in the Mill Creek neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is part of the School District of Philadelphia, and was named in honor of Rudolph Blankenburg, who wa ...

, the

Mayer Sulzberger Junior High School Parkway West High School is a public magnet high school located in the Mill Creek, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mill Creek neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It shares a site with the Middle Years Alternative School for the Humanities (MYA ...

, and

Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, also known as Kirkbride's Hospital or the Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases, was a psychiatric hospital located at 48th and Haverford Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It oper ...

are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

References

External links

PHA's Lucien Blackwell Homes

Restoring Mill Creek: Landscape Literacy, Environmental Justice, City Planning and Design
Anne Whiston Spirn

New York Times {{West Philadelphia Neighborhoods in Philadelphia West Philadelphia