Powelton Village, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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Houses in Powelton Village

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Powelton Village is a neighborhood of mostly Victorian, mostly twin homes in the West Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a national historic district which is part of University City. It extends north from Market Street to Spring Garden Street, east to 32nd Street, west to 40th and Spring Garden Streets, and to 44th and Market Streets.

[edit] History

Powelton Village takes its name from the Powel Family, 17th century Welsh colonialists who held extensive estates in the area. Like other parts of West Philadelphia, in the late 1800s trolley lines opened the area up to urbanization. Powelton soon became a choice residential spot for Philadelphia industrial tycoons. Powelton's luster began to wane by the 1920s, and by the 1940s the neighborhood was populated by low income families and infested with "bottom" gangs, so called because members lived in the "Bottom," a stretch paralleling Market St. to the south of the Village. This began to change with the emergence of the 1960s counter-culture movement, and Powelton today enjoys a strong political activism and anarchist tradition, as well as a healthy multiethnic pluralism.

Powelton Village was home to the organization known as MOVE during the 1970s until neighbors complained of their unclean habits. In August of 1978, a stand-off between MOVE and police ended in gunshots and violence and forced MOVE to leave the neighborhood. The MOVE house in Powelton Village was demolished the next day. Powelton Village was also the home to counter-culture guru Ira Einhorn, whose live-in girlfriend Holly Maddux's mummified body was found stuffed in a steamer trunk in the second-floor bedroom closet. Einhorn was arrested, but fled the United States before he went to trial. He was found living in France with his wife, extradicted (after Pennsylvania state legislators passed a law overturning his 1989 absentee conviction) to Philadelphia, and later found guilty by another jury in 2003.

The southern end of Powelton Village includes property owned by Drexel University. Many students from Drexel live off-campus in Powelton's urban-structured rowhouse apartments because it is walking distance to and from the college campus. The Powelton community has had a love-hate relationship with Drexel University. The Powelton Village Civic Association voices the neighborhood's concerns to local authorities. One of the residents' concerns included losing their view of Center City, prompting Drexel University to limit the height of their new buildings. The PVCA has also argued against Drexel building a large dormitory on the nearby "Consolidated Laundry Lot", which is named after a laundry processing facility that formerly stood on the property and was operated by the National Linen Service before the company sold the land to Drexel in June of 1997. The PVCA was instrumental in helping Drexel acquire the land and its zoning for academic purposes^{[citation needed]}. Drexel University at the time made a gentlemen's agreement with the PVCA that it would not construct a large dormitory on that site.

Many local businesses benefit not only from local Powelton residents, but college students as well. Mad Greeks, Lou's Restaurant, Powelton Pizza, Village Pizza, California Pizza, and Ed's are all popular eating places. Lancaster Ave., near 36th St., also became home to upscale Mexican and Thai restaurants.

[edit] External links

Neighborhoods of the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
	Belmont - Carroll Park - Cathedral Park - Cedar Park - Cobbs Creek - Dunlap - Garden Court - Haddington - Haverford North - Mantua - Mill Creek - Overbrook - Overbrook Park - Overbrook Farms - Parkside - Powelton Village - Saunders Park - Spruce Hill - Squirrel Hill - University City - Walnut Hill - Woodland Terrace - Wynnefield - Wynnefield Heights
Philadelphia neighbohoods Center City - North Philadelphia - Northwest Philadelphia - The Northeast - South Philadelphia - Southwest Philadelphia - West Philadelphia