Blackbottom

Temple University continued to grow into the early 1900s, as did the community around it. As enrollment at Temple grew, the university administration felt that it needed more land and buildings to be able to recruit and accommodate more students. In the 1940s, Temple University was one of the areas marked for development and renewal. In January of 1948, the City Planning Commission gave permission to have the “Temple Area” redeveloped. The “Temple Area” included nine city blocks to the east from Broad St. and eight blocks south from Susquehanna Avenue.

In 1952, the University requested land within the designated Temple Area for University development. The University asked for six of the eight blocks extending north to south and four and a half of the nine blocks extending east to west. The University’s total acreage at the time of their beginnings was slightly under four acres. The City Planning Commission approved a smaller area of land than the University requested in 1953. The Board of Trustees at Temple University accepted the smaller area that had been designated “Temple University Redevelopment Area,” but did so with the intent to apply for additional land in the near future.

In 1957, the Board of Trustees for the University, members of City Planning, the Redevelopment Authority, and staff from the Urban Renewal Division of the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency met to discuss the need for additional ground and land usage. Within a year of this meeting Temple University’s President, Millard E. Gladfelter, submitted an official statement of future needs to the Philadelphia City Planning Commission that stated:

The progress which the University has made during the past ten years and the speed with which it will accomplish that which is now planned for the next decade, encourage us to study the projected needs with confidence and assurance that they are necessary to cultural and economical advance of Temple University and the City of Philadelphia…In 1948 the Planning Commission made its first significant contribution to larger land areas and added facilities…Today we recognize the necessity for restudying our projections of 1948 because of the acceleration of national trends and local circumstance…(Temple University Archives)

The president of the University also submitted information about the current “local circumstances” in that report. The University based its desire to redevelop the surrounding area on their opinion that it was a blighted, unsafe, and unsanitary area.

This area is characterized by the existence of buildings and structures, used or intended to be used, for living, commercial, industrial or other uses which are unfit or unsafe to occupy for such purposes and are conducive to ill health, transmission of disease, juvenile delinquency and related factors (City Planning Records, May 1958).

The neighborhoods of North Philadelphia began to change slowly. Housing values were declining with the building of several housing projects in the late 1950s. The new housing projects attracted the same working-class tenants that previously rented from local homeowners. Most homeowners bought houses adjacent to their residence and rented out the property. Some homeowners converted their homes into two apartments, living in one half and renting out the other. As housing projects became more popular with their modern look and reasonable rent, homeowners struggled to find tenants. Around the same time, a new law was enacted stating that owners would not receive rent until all repairs were made on the property and it was deemed livable. Without tenants, owners could not receive rent. Without rent, owners could not make repairs and buildings became more dilapidated. These factors forced many homeowners to leave their buildings vacant, vulnerable to vandalism.

The city was reassessing housing market values after they plummeted in North Philadelphia. Homeowners were the ones who lost out. Their houses were now worth much less than what their property taxes implied. Many homeowners became delinquent on taxes and liens. Some properties were taken by the city and their owners abandoned some. The vacant buildings became havens for crime, rodents, and vandals.

In the late 1950s, land use was approximately at 250 non-white families in Temple’s Urban Renewal Area. The Report on Minority Group Considerations found that of these families, 189 would be eligible for low-rent public housing in other areas of the city.

The University continued to seize land in North Philadelphia and for the most part was unchallenged until the late 1960s. In January of 1963 President Gladfelter submitted another application for expansion. The president stated that the original 1955 plan was ahead of schedule. The plan for the 1970 developments went underway for the Temple area. It was found in the Temple University Archives that “In keeping with the ideals and objectives of Temple University and its assumed obligation to provide education opportunities to every qualified student from the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, this development plan for 1970 was necessary and realistic.”

The Historical Context of the 1950s and 1960s
After World War II, several national economic trends began to erode the health and sustainability of North Central Philadelphia, including middle-class out-migration to more distant suburbs, which was facilitated by the federal highway program and new home mortgage policies. Simultaneously, “jobs in manufacturing were in decline nation-wide, while a durable goods economy grew in the suburbs” (www.temple.edu/architecture/research). Despite various urban renewal projects, revitalization fell short of expectations as the North Central Philadelphia community continued to decline. The majority of the factories in the area closed during this period, creating high levels of unemployment. In the 1960s, “gang violence and riots drove many businesses and residents out of the area causing further deterioration” (Philadelphia City Planning Commission). North Central Philadelphia’s economic and political power was greatly diminished by these changes.

As the community tried desperately to rebound, Temple University took the opportunity to expand into large sections of the neighborhood east of Broad Street. For many years, this encroachment met with little resistance from weary residents. In stark contrast, Temple University’s development plans of the late 1960s and early 1970s led to fierce battles between school administration and local community groups, perhaps influenced by civil rights movement community organization and activism. It is a significant chapter in North Philadelphia’s past that provides the foundation for the type of community-based initiatives characteristic of the area today, including charrettes.