Index to Aerial photos of the Philadelphia area taken between 1924 and 1960 held at the Library Company and (some) at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia City Planning Commission site with current plans for Philadelphia neighborhoods.

This index was compiled from the original road records, docket books, jury decisions, and surveys held by the Philadelphia City Archives. From these sources the Philadelphia Department of Streets developed and maintains its comprehensive survey of official road records for the City. Changes to the names of certain streets, alleys, and courts were first effected by an ordinance dated September 1, 1858. A provision of this ordinance was an alphabetical index of former names, together with the location of the street and the new name given to it. By an ordinance of February 23, 1897 names of intermediate streets were indexed by old name, location and new name. Both indexes are held by the Philadelphia City Archives under Record Group 90.47.

The Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project combines two types of information to illuminate conditions and trends in our 9-county region (defined as the central cities of Philadelphia and Camden along with the Pennsylvania counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery, and the New Jersey counties of Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Salem). The first is a set of social, environmental and economic indicators that portray the quality of life in the regions communities. The second type of information comes from an annual household survey conducted by Temples Institute for Survey Research, asking respondents across the region how they assess the quality of life in their communities. Tracking over time the changes in the indicators and in the survey responses, we can better understand how citizens perceptions relate to the changing conditions on the ground.

Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access Center files on Philadelphia. Includes shapefiles from the City of Philadelphia, as well as some state resources.

Housing profiles of Philadelphia neighborhoods.

NeighborhoodBase includes maps and data from a number of city agencies, plus census data. All data is available for aggregation at a range of geographic levels (ie, wards, census tracts, etc). A great source for data and maps about life in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Neighborhoods Planning History Project creates a web presentation of the full content of 86 neighborhood planning surveys prepared and published by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission between 1946 and 1990. These reports contain descriptions of current conditions of housing stock; population trends; property turnover; public transportation; community activity. Recommendations are made for future action. The project will facilitate university and public research on Philadelphia's architectural and social environment by providing access to a body of material whose content is of current and future interest but whose printed format is ephemeral and subject to physical deterioration and loss. The reports are a primary resource for the study of how the problems and aspirations of Philadelphia neighborhoods were described during decades of debate about urban renewal in Philadelphia. School of Design faculty have affirmed the survey's continuing relevance to the curriculum of the school. At the same tiime, the initiative aligns with the University's stated commitment to Philadelphia as an urban environment.

GIS Shapefiles from the City of Philadelphia. Includes building outlines, street centerline files, administrative boundaries, aerial photos, parcels, curbs, and contours.

This is an effort to bring together some resources -- images, documents, tools, and links -- for pursuing historical information about place in the five-county Philadelphia area: Bucks, Chester, Delaware. Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties. The project has been building incrementally, as opportunities have permitted, since 1997. The overarching idea is to use new media to more effectively disseminate information about place, to enhance cross-institutional access to documentary materials of this sort, to better connect people with the history of their environment, and to thus enrich their lives here.