Franklinville is a neighborhood of North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. According to the City Planning Commission, the boundaries of Franklinville are roughly a triangle bounded by West Sedgley Avenue, North Broad Street, and West Hunting Park Avenue.[1]
Franklinville | |
|---|---|
  Franklinville | |
| Coordinates: 40°00′36″N 75°08′06″W / 40.01°N 75.135°W | |
| Country |  United States |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| County | Philadelphia |
| City | Philadelphia |
| Area code(s) | 215, 267, and 445 |
Franklinville is a neighborhood that appears to no longer exist in current times, as not many residents in that area use the name to describe where they live. From the description above one would be defining a possible description of Hunting Park and perhaps its borders with Nicetown-Tioga and Fairhill (to the south of W. Sedgley).
Named for the Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin, the original 72-acre tract was subdivided in the mid 19th century into 1,000 lots, sold with a minimum 20 foot frontage. The land was owned by Coleman Fisher, whose large house in the middle of Venango Street was moved in the early 20th century. The Franklin Land Company, John Turner, president, met at Franklin Hall and was one of the first mutual land firms in the city.[2][3]
Michael Carolan, an immigrant from Kells, County Meath, Ireland, opened a blacksmith and horseshoeing shop in Franklinville at the intersection of North Fifth Street, West Butler and the well-traveled Rising Sun Lane (Avenue) by 1887.[4] As an apprentice, he lived in the household of George and Mary Spencer in 1860 in Willow Grove, Montgomery County. He married Irish-American Annie Larner at Immaculate Conception in Jenkintown in 1869 and they raised one son and six daughters into adulthood in Franklinville. Annie gave birth to 17 children. Michael and Annie were members of St. Veronica's Catholic Church and are interred at the New Cathedral Cemetery.
The neighborhood was predominantly German and Irish into the mid 20th century.
There is reference to a Franklinville School House in Philadelphia in 1865.[5]
References
edit- ^ "Philadelphia Neighborhoods".
- ^ Pennsylvania (1871). Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
- ^ Hotchkin, Samuel Fitch (1892). The York Road, Old and New. Binder & Kelly.
- ^ Gopsill's Directory of Philadelphia, 1887.
- ^ Journal of the Common Council, of the City of Philadelphia, for ... J. Van Court, Printer. 1865.