Nicetown-Tioga, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Encyclopedia
Nicetown-Tioga is a neighborhood in the North Philadelphia section of the city of Philadelphia, in the U.S. state
of Pennsylvania
. It comprises two smaller, older neighborhoods, Nicetown and Tioga, although the distinction between the two is rarely emphasized today. The name "Nicetown" is often simply used to refer to any part of Nicetown-Tioga.
This makes Wayne Junction station
the northernmost tip of Nicetown-Tioga.
). Mease notes that Nicetown was named for Hans te Neues, a Mennonite immigrant who purchased the land of present-day Nicetown in 1699. Family legend among the Nice/Nyce family states that Hans threw a bottle of schnaps over his first house to Christen it. This original early 18th century structure burned in 1800. Hans and his brother Jan had immigrated from Amsterdam in 1698, Jan settling in Germantown. Both were ministers in the Mennonite faith, meaning that they could read and write. Hans and his descendants were well known as zimmermen (builders of houses). One descendant was a member of the Carpenter's Society of Philadelphia in the early 1800s. Another, was Captain John Nice of Germantown, who led the charge at the Battle of Germantown during the Revoluntionary War. Other authors have varied suggestions for the origin of Nicetown. Finkel says that it was "[n]amed for de Neus, Dutch Huguenots who settled there about 1700". Other sources seem to agree that the area was named for a family of early settlers whose surname sounded more or less like �$B�(Ba�$B�(B. Other spellings seen for the same surname are Neiss, Neisse, and, of course, the Nice seen in the placename Nicetown. There are 19th-century headstones in nearby Germantown
marked with the surname Nice. (Regarding the orthographical "correctness" of surnames and placenames, it is important to remember that in the surnames and placenames of past centuries, orthography was often second to pronunciation. Witness the names of the nearby Tookany/Tacony Creek
.)
Tioga is a placename used in various places
. According to several sources, "Tioga" is a Mohawk
and Iroquois
word referring to a place where a stream or river current forks or runs swiftly. The name has been used in North Philadelphia since at least the mid-19th century. Perhaps it was inherited from the Lenape Indians of the area (if in fact they used a word tioga that was either a cognate to, or a borrowing of, the Iroquois word), or perhaps it began as the name of the country estate of a Euro-American gentleman farmer inspired by the Tioga placenames of Tioga County, Pennsylvania
and Tioga County, New York
.
Throughout the period of 1700 to 1850, the general Nicetown-Tioga area of Philadelphia county was rural, dotted with villages such as Nicetown. It contained farms that were a mixture of humble family farms as well as country estates for gentleman farmers. Travelers on the Germantown road between Philadelphia (which was then only the area known today as Center City) and Germantown passed through the area. There were woods and swampy places.
Companies with plants in or directly adjacent to Nicetown-Tioga included:
, but immediately after the war, area industry slowly began to melt away. White flight
began in the 1950s and hastened in the 1960s through 1980s. Today there are a number of abandoned structures and a high crime rate in the neighborhood (hence today's North Philadelphia gallows-humor witticism that "there's nothing nice about Nicetown").
The huge turnover population of the 1960s overwhelmed the ability of the city to provide essential services to its constituents �$B�(Bschooling facility and supply shortages, housing shortages, the outsourcing of the fledgling computer to the suburbs and death of the industrial complex in Nicetown led to joblessness and poverty. All of these components led to the degrading of both public and personal life in Nicetown. Once popular traditional events, like the annual Easter parade on Germantown Avenue, summer concerts at the Hunting Park bandstand, the opening of its wooden carousel, patriotic day parades from the American Legion, May Day celebration at Steele School; the lively door to door street trade vanished with the changeover from coal furnaces to gas, electric iceboxes no longer needing the iceman, milk, butter and eggs in abundance at the store leading to the loss of the milkman. All of this led to the disappearance of a lively public life of the neighborhood. The continued change and impoverishment contributed to the flight of tradesman, and blue collar workers seeking work elsewhere. The death of Martin Luther King, Jr.
set off riots that created fear throughout the neighborhood. Certain discrimination practices began to appear in the area as the racial and economic war took place and laid waste to what was known as Nicetown, as it did to many neighborhoods all across the nation as it faced the advent of the suburbs and the oncoming computer and space race. Philadelphia, like other U.S. Rust Belt cities, slowly started its changeover from an industrial city to a postindustrial city.
Nicetown-Tioga saw a brief spurt of urban gentrification
in the early-mid 2000s. At the peak of the housing bubble in 2008, the 19140 ZIP code, which contains roughly Hunting Park and Nicetown-Tioga, had a median home sale price of $42,000. When the bubble burst, those prices declined significantly. In 2010, the average house there sold for $21,250, a 49% decrease in value.
Nicetown is predominately African American
, with a significant Puerto Rican
population.
operates the Nicetown-Tioga Branch at 3720 North Broad Street.
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. It comprises two smaller, older neighborhoods, Nicetown and Tioga, although the distinction between the two is rarely emphasized today. The name "Nicetown" is often simply used to refer to any part of Nicetown-Tioga.
Nicetown-Tioga overall
The boundaries of Philadelphia neighborhoods are often not universally agreed upon. There are no "official" boundaries to the Nicetown-Tioga area, but some possible boundaries are:- Wingohocking Street to the northeast (beyond which lies LoganLogan, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaLogan is a neighborhood in the upper North Philadelphia section of the city of Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Philadelphians usually define Logan as being bounded by Wingohocking Street to the south, Olney Avenue to the north, Broad Street to the east, and to 16th Street to the...
); - Roberts Avenue to the northwest (beyond which lie GermantownGermantown, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaGermantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...
and East Falls); - Allegheny Avenue to the south (beyond which lies Allegheny WestAllegheny West, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaAllegheny West is a neighborhood in the North Philadelphia section of Philadelphia. It is named after an association formed by Pep Boys and Tasty Baking Company, among others, and the community bordering East Falls, Strawberry Mansion and Germantown...
); and - Broad StreetBroad Street (Philadelphia)Broad Street is a major arterial street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is nearly 13 miles long.It is Pennsylvania Route 611 along its entire length with the exception of its northernmost part between Old York Road and Pennsylvania Route 309 and the southernmost part south of Interstate 95...
to the east (beyond which lies Hunting ParkHunting Park, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaHunting Park is a neighborhood in the North Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Like many North Philadelphia neighborhoods, it grew mainly in the 1920s and 1940s. The neighborhood's namesake is large park which is a regular location for recreation for many...
).
This makes Wayne Junction station
Wayne Junction (SEPTA station)
Wayne Junction is a SEPTA Regional Rail station located at 4481 Wayne Avenue, extending along Windrim Avenue to Germantown Avenue, bordering the Nicetown and Germantown neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Station:...
the northernmost tip of Nicetown-Tioga.
PCPC's definition of Nicetown
The Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC) defines Nicetown itself (not Nicetown-Tioga overall) as a much smaller area bounded by Wingohocking Street, Broad Street, Hunting Park Avenue, and Clarissa Street.PCPC's definition of Tioga
The Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC) defines Tioga itself (not Nicetown-Tioga overall) as a smaller area bounded by Broad Street, Hunting Park Avenue, the railroads [exact western boundary unclear], and Allegheny Avenue.1700 to 1850
Nicetown began centuries ago as a small town in what was then rural Philadelphia County, outside the City of Philadelphia (which occupied the area known today as Center CityCenter City, Philadelphia
Center City, or Downtown Philadelphia includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2005, its population of over 88,000 made it the third most populous downtown in the United States, after New York City's and Chicago's...
). Mease notes that Nicetown was named for Hans te Neues, a Mennonite immigrant who purchased the land of present-day Nicetown in 1699. Family legend among the Nice/Nyce family states that Hans threw a bottle of schnaps over his first house to Christen it. This original early 18th century structure burned in 1800. Hans and his brother Jan had immigrated from Amsterdam in 1698, Jan settling in Germantown. Both were ministers in the Mennonite faith, meaning that they could read and write. Hans and his descendants were well known as zimmermen (builders of houses). One descendant was a member of the Carpenter's Society of Philadelphia in the early 1800s. Another, was Captain John Nice of Germantown, who led the charge at the Battle of Germantown during the Revoluntionary War. Other authors have varied suggestions for the origin of Nicetown. Finkel says that it was "[n]amed for de Neus, Dutch Huguenots who settled there about 1700". Other sources seem to agree that the area was named for a family of early settlers whose surname sounded more or less like �$B�(Ba�$B�(B. Other spellings seen for the same surname are Neiss, Neisse, and, of course, the Nice seen in the placename Nicetown. There are 19th-century headstones in nearby Germantown
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...
marked with the surname Nice. (Regarding the orthographical "correctness" of surnames and placenames, it is important to remember that in the surnames and placenames of past centuries, orthography was often second to pronunciation. Witness the names of the nearby Tookany/Tacony Creek
Frankford Creek
Frankford Creek is a minor tributary of the Delaware River in southeast Pennsylvania. The stream originates as Tookany Creek at Hill Crest in Cheltenham Township and meanders eastward, then southeastward, throughout Cheltenham Township, until a sharp bend near the Philadelphia border at Lawncrest,...
.)
Tioga is a placename used in various places
Tioga
-Communities:In the United States:*Tioga, California, former name of Bennettville, California*Tioga, Louisiana*Tioga, New York, a town in Tioga County*Tioga County, New York, a county at the Pennsylvania border*Tioga, North Dakota, a city in Williams County...
. According to several sources, "Tioga" is a Mohawk
Mohawk language
Mohawk is an Iroquoian language spoken by around 2,000 people of the Mohawk nation in the United States and Canada . Mohawk has the largest number of speakers of the Northern Iroquoian languages; today it is the only one with greater than a thousand remaining...
and Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
word referring to a place where a stream or river current forks or runs swiftly. The name has been used in North Philadelphia since at least the mid-19th century. Perhaps it was inherited from the Lenape Indians of the area (if in fact they used a word tioga that was either a cognate to, or a borrowing of, the Iroquois word), or perhaps it began as the name of the country estate of a Euro-American gentleman farmer inspired by the Tioga placenames of Tioga County, Pennsylvania
Tioga County, Pennsylvania
Tioga County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,981. Tioga County was created on March 26, 1804, from part of Lycoming County and named for the Tioga River. Its county seat is Wellsboro....
and Tioga County, New York
Tioga County, New York
As of the census of 2010, there were 51,125 people residing in the county, with 22,203 housing units, of these 20,350 occupied, 1,853 vacant. The population density was 98 people per square mile...
.
Throughout the period of 1700 to 1850, the general Nicetown-Tioga area of Philadelphia county was rural, dotted with villages such as Nicetown. It contained farms that were a mixture of humble family farms as well as country estates for gentleman farmers. Travelers on the Germantown road between Philadelphia (which was then only the area known today as Center City) and Germantown passed through the area. There were woods and swampy places.
1850 to 1950
Like most of North Philadelphia, the Nicetown area experienced periods of explosive industrial growth during this era. The growth spurts waxed and waned with wars and recessions respectively, as did its ethnic diversity: Irish-Catholics from the famine in Ireland, the Polish-Jewish refugees from eastern Europe after World War II, the influx in the 1960s of African Americans escaping poverty and legal discrimination of the south, and surge of Puerto Rican relocation. All of these influxes were people of the blue collar and working class, which the neighborhood has always been, no matter which culture was largest at any particular time.Companies with plants in or directly adjacent to Nicetown-Tioga included:
- Midvale SteelMidvale SteelMidvale Steel was a succession of steel-making corporations whose flagship plant was the Midvale Steel Works at Nicetown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which operated from 1867 until 1976...
- Brown Instrument CompanyBrown Instrument CompanyBrown Instrument Company was a U.S. firm known for high-quality instruments and industrial controls....
- TastykakeTastykakeTastykake is the brandname for a line of snack foods manufactured by the Tasty Baking Company, currently headquartered at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in 1914 by Philip J. Baur and Herbert T...
- Budd CompanyBudd CompanyThe Budd Company is a metal fabricator and major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and was formerly a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars during the 20th century....
1950 to present
The industrial culture of the area peaked during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but immediately after the war, area industry slowly began to melt away. White flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
began in the 1950s and hastened in the 1960s through 1980s. Today there are a number of abandoned structures and a high crime rate in the neighborhood (hence today's North Philadelphia gallows-humor witticism that "there's nothing nice about Nicetown").
The huge turnover population of the 1960s overwhelmed the ability of the city to provide essential services to its constituents �$B�(Bschooling facility and supply shortages, housing shortages, the outsourcing of the fledgling computer to the suburbs and death of the industrial complex in Nicetown led to joblessness and poverty. All of these components led to the degrading of both public and personal life in Nicetown. Once popular traditional events, like the annual Easter parade on Germantown Avenue, summer concerts at the Hunting Park bandstand, the opening of its wooden carousel, patriotic day parades from the American Legion, May Day celebration at Steele School; the lively door to door street trade vanished with the changeover from coal furnaces to gas, electric iceboxes no longer needing the iceman, milk, butter and eggs in abundance at the store leading to the loss of the milkman. All of this led to the disappearance of a lively public life of the neighborhood. The continued change and impoverishment contributed to the flight of tradesman, and blue collar workers seeking work elsewhere. The death of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
set off riots that created fear throughout the neighborhood. Certain discrimination practices began to appear in the area as the racial and economic war took place and laid waste to what was known as Nicetown, as it did to many neighborhoods all across the nation as it faced the advent of the suburbs and the oncoming computer and space race. Philadelphia, like other U.S. Rust Belt cities, slowly started its changeover from an industrial city to a postindustrial city.
Nicetown-Tioga saw a brief spurt of urban gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
in the early-mid 2000s. At the peak of the housing bubble in 2008, the 19140 ZIP code, which contains roughly Hunting Park and Nicetown-Tioga, had a median home sale price of $42,000. When the bubble burst, those prices declined significantly. In 2010, the average house there sold for $21,250, a 49% decrease in value.
Nicetown is predominately African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, with a significant Puerto Rican
Puerto Ricans in the United States
Stateside Puerto Ricans are American citizens of Puerto Rican origin, including those who migrated from Puerto Rico to the United States and those who were born outside of Puerto Rico in the United States...
population.
Nicetown-Tioga in the news
- Trump Entertainment ResortsTrump Entertainment ResortsTrump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. is a holding company that owns and manages two casinos/hotels in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States. Formerly known as Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, it was founded by Donald J. Trump, who was Chairman of the Board of Directors until his resignation in 2009....
in recent years planned to build a casino on a former Budd CompanyBudd CompanyThe Budd Company is a metal fabricator and major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and was formerly a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars during the 20th century....
site on Hunting Park Avenue between Henry Avenue and Fox Street. This site is usually described as being in "Nicetown," although it is sort of at the crossroads of Tioga, East Falls, and Allegheny West. The area between Henry and Wissahickon Avenues forms a line of industrial properties with the former Midvale SteelMidvale SteelMidvale Steel was a succession of steel-making corporations whose flagship plant was the Midvale Steel Works at Nicetown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which operated from 1867 until 1976...
site (now a SEPTA bus depot), which is solidly in Nicetown-Tioga; hence the overlap in neighborhood identities. - In May 2007, Tasty Baking Company (maker of the TastykakeTastykakeTastykake is the brandname for a line of snack foods manufactured by the Tasty Baking Company, currently headquartered at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in 1914 by Philip J. Baur and Herbert T...
brand, and long headquartered in Nicetown) announced that they would move production and office facilities to the former Philadelphia Navy Yard in South Philadelphia.
Public libraries
Free Library of PhiladelphiaFree Library of Philadelphia
The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-History:History of the Free Library of Philadelphia: Initiated by the efforts of Dr...
operates the Nicetown-Tioga Branch at 3720 North Broad Street.