Guides: Urban Renewal : Overview

Welcome

This guide is intended for students who are researching small urban neighborhoods in the context of clearance and renewal projects. Many resources are specifically relevant to Philadelphia, but others are general.

Philadelphia, c. 1895

"Chestnut Street, west from 4th." Photograph. Philadelphia: Free Library - Historical Images of Philadelphia, c. 1885. From PhillyHistory.org http://www.phillyhistory.org/PhotoArchive/Detail.aspx?assetId=97870

Philadelphia Reference Works

Most Philadelphia-related books are at call number F 158.18. Unless otherwise noted, links below lead to Franklin, which will tell you where the book is located. More books can be found by searching in Franklin for Philadelphia History as a Subject.

Philadelphia: A 300-Year History by Russell Weigley
Call Number: F158.3 .P5664 1982

Publication Date: 1982

Modern one-volume history of Philadelphia. Chapters arranged chronologically by subject experts. Not too easy to find material on neighborhoods or city regions.
Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia
Call Number: Available online
Invisible Philadelphia : community through voluntary organizations by Jean Barth Toll and Mildred S. Gillam, eds.
Call Number: Van Pelt and Museum Libraries F158.18 .I58 1995

Publication Date: Atwater Kent Museum, 1995

Surveys the history of voluntary organizations in Philadelphia through organization "biographies". Provides some bibliographic information as well as disposition of archival materials.
Encyclopedia of Philadelphia by Joseph Jackson
Call Number: Van Pelt and other libraries F158.3 .J15

Publication Date: 4 vols. National Historical Association, 1931-1933

Brief entries on persons, places, institutions, and events in Philadelphia history. Some entries have bibliographic references.
History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 by J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott
Call Number: Online : HathiTrust

Publication Date: 3 vols. L.H. Everts, 1884

Also, print : Van Pelt and other locations F158.3 .S4.
The great history of the city. Volume 1 covers the history of the city. Volumes 2 and 3 cover the history of the city's industries, institutions, and personalities.
The Peoples of Philadelphia: A history of ethnic groups and lower class life by Allen F. Davis (Editor); Mark H. Haller (Editor)
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. F158.9.A1 P43

Publication Date: 1998

Draw on census schedules, court records, city directories, and tax records as well as newspaper files and other sources to give a picture of the ways in which less-privileged groups of Philadelphians lived.
Architectural research in Philadelphia : a guide to the resources available throughout Philadelphia by Moak, Jefferson
Call Number: Fine Arts Reference NA2127.P5 M63 2002

Publication Date: 2001
The Planning of Center City Philadelphia by John Andrew Gallery
Call Number: NA735.P5 P58 2007

Publication Date: 2008

Three centuries of the planning history of the city, from William Penn’s original concept to the design of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the renewal efforts that made Philadelphia a national leader in city planning and urban revitalization.
The Buried Past by John L. Cotter; Daniel G. Roberts; Michael Parrington
Publication Date: 1992

The most significant archaeological discoveries, based on more than thirty years of intensive archaeological investigations in the greater Philadelphia area.
WPA Guide to Philadelphia by Federal Writers' Project (Pa.)
Call Number: F158.18 .P46 1988

Publication Date: 1937

One-volume older history of Philadelphia, produced through the Federal Writers' Project, Works Progress Administration. Divided into two parts: "The city and its background" and "Roads and rambles in and around the city".
The Public schools of Philadelphia : historical, biographical, statistical by John Trevor Custis
Call Number: LA357.P55 C8

Publication Date: 1897

Surveys Philadelphia school districts and individual schools through the nineteenth century.

Subject Guide

Nick Okrent

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Van Pelt Library, room 204

215-573-2217

Subjects: Asian-American Studies, History, Philosophy, U.S. History