Penn Township is a defunct
township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...
that was located in
Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the most populous county in Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, Philadelphia County had a population of 1,603,797. The county is the second smallest county in Pennsy ...
. The township ceased to exist and was incorporated into the
City of Philadelphia following the passage of the
Act of Consolidation, 1854
The Act of Consolidation, more formally known as the act of February 2, 1854 (P.L. 21, No. 16), is legislation of the Pennsylvania General Assembly that created the consolidated City and County of Philadelphia, expanding the city's territory to ...
.
History
Penn Township was formed from the western portion of the
Northern Liberties Township by order of the
Court of Quarter Sessions
The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...
in the year 1807. It was north of Vine Street, bounded on the east by Sixth Street to the intersection of the road to
Germantown Germantown or German Town may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Germantown, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
United States
* Germantown, California, the former name of Artois, a census-designated place in Glenn County
* Ge ...
; thence by the same north by west to the foot of Logan's Hill; southwest to the township line road; along the same to a point a short distance above Manheim Lane; then over in a southwest direction to the
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It f ...
, and down the same to Vine Street. Its greatest length was four miles; its greatest width three miles; area, 7680 acres (31 km²).
The districts of
Spring Garden and
Penn were created out of this township, and it included portions of
Rising Sun and
Nicetown and Fort St. Davids, afterward called Falls Village. It was traversed in a northwestern direction by the Ridge Avenue, from Nine and Vine Streets, and northeastwardly from the Schulykill, between Fairmount and Lemon Hill, by Farmers’ Lane, which ran into the Germantown Road, and by Nicetown Lane, from the Ridge Road below the Falls, and over to Nicetown, Germantown and beyond.
Resources
''Chronology of the Political Subdivisions of the County of Philadelphia, 1683-1854''()
*
courtesy o
ushistory.org'
- excerpted from the book at the ushistory.org website
{{Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Municipalities in Philadelphia County prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854
Populated places established in 1807
1854 disestablishments in Pennsylvania