Feltonville is a working-class neighborhood in

North Philadelphia North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, United States. It is located east of Logan and Hunting Park, west of Lawncrest and Juniata, south of Olney, and north of Fairhill and Harrowgate. Feltonville is bounded by Erie Avenue to the south, Front Street to the west, Roosevelt Boulevard to the north, Tacony Creek to the northeast, and G Street to the east. It encompasses the extinct neighborhood of Rowlandville.

History

Feltonville was known ''circa'' 1890 as "Wyoming Villa" or "Wyoming Valley." In 1927, the City of Philadelphia set aside a corner of the recreation field at "B" St. and Wyoming Ave. for the building of the Wyoming Branch of the

Free Library of Philadelphia The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the 16th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the ...

. Completed in 1930, this branch has the distinction of being the last Carnegie library built with funds provided by the noted philanthropist

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

.History of the Wyoming Branch
provided by the

. The neighborhood was named after the wealthy Felton family. Early residents noted Feltonville for its high ground, beautiful rolling farms, and many gracious homes. Before 1900, as a suburb of Philadelphia, public transportation was limited to the

Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and freight transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states from 1924 until its acquisition by Conrail in 1976. Commonly called the Reading Railr ...

's train from 3rd and Berks Streets to Newtown. The station was located at 2nd Street and Wyoming Avenue, on the northwest boundary of a farm. A local historian, Edna Walmsley Hookway, described what the scene would have looked like in 1891:Hookway, Edna Walmsley, and Arthur Whitehair (eds.), ''Seventy-five Years'', Diamond Jubilee book of the Wyoming Avenue Baptist Church, 1891-1966. Today the neighborhood has a large Latino population consisting of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Colombians, and Mexicans.

Across from the station, on Wyoming Avenue, stood the Rau mansion built in 1888. Mr. David Titlow, the undertaker, lived in a stately home with a lake in front of it at Wyoming Avenue and "C" Street. Across Wyoming Avenue on the north side stood the large residences of Mr. Edwin P. Frick and Mr. Thomas Harvey, side by side.

On old Second Street Pike, now named Rising Sun Avenue, and Fisher's Lane stood the Feltonville School, having twelve grades, all taught by one teacher. Some of the classes had only five or six pupils. Several branches of the Felton family, for whom the community was named, resided on Fisher's Lane, the present "D" Street, which extended all through the community. It ran north and south, turned westward at what is now the Roosevelt Boulevard, bounding the twenty-eight-acre farm of Mr. John Hoffner. Mr. Hoffner was a relative of the Felton family. Mr. Christopher Simon was also a Felton.

A visitor arriving on the Reading train was greeted by the bright, bold sign "Wyoming" hanging on the station. On old Second Street Pike was a picturcsque property occupied by Mr. James Eckersley. On the lawn, "Wyoming Villa" was written in brilliant red plants.

A newly formed real estate company named "Wyoming Land and Improvement Association," and headed by Mr. Eckersley, employed Mr. John Walmsley to divide the fields into building lots. Mr. Walmsley brought his wife and five children to reside on Second Street Pike in the first new house built by the Wyoming Land Company.

Feltonville School No. 2 was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1988.

Demographics

As of the 2010 Census, Feltonville was 42.8% Hispanic, 29.7% African American, 14.1% white, 9.4% Asian, and 4% mixed and all other. Although a large portion of Feltonville's population is made up of middle class

Puerto Ricans Puerto Ricans (), most commonly known as Puerto Rico#Etymology, Boricuas, but also occasionally referred to as '':es:Anexo:Gentilicios de Puerto Rico#Lista general, Borinqueños'', '':es:Anexo:Gentilicios de Puerto Rico#Lista general, Borincan ...

Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...

, and

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s. Feltonville is a very diverse middle-class neighborhood, with significant populations of

Korean American Korean Americans () are Americans of full or partial Korean ethnic descent. While the broader term Overseas Korean in America () may refer to all ethnic Koreans residing in the United States, the specific designation of Korean American impli ...

s, Cambodian Americans, Trinidadian Americans, Haitian Americans, Jamaican Americans, Colombian Americans,

Salvadoran American Salvadoran Americans ( or ) are Americans of full or partial El Salvador, Salvadoran descent. As of 2021, there are 2,473,947 Salvadoran Americans in the United States, the Hispanic and Latino Americans#National origin, third-largest Hispanic ...

s, Honduran Americans, Guatemalan Americans,

Mexican American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexico, Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the Unite ...

s and other immigrants, including a large concentration of

Palestinian Americans Palestinian Americans () are Americans who are of full or partial Palestinian descent. There are around 160,000 Palestinian American refugees according to the 2023 American Community Survey, making up around 0.05% of the U.S. population. Th ...

References

External links

Historic Photographs of Feltonville
PhillyHistory.org {{Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania Neighborhoods in Philadelphia Olney-Oak Lane, Philadelphia