West Philadelphia, Born and Raised.

Charles P. Varle's "Idealized Plan for West Philadelphia"

Nathan Suplee's "Survey Map of West Philadelphia"

Both of these maps are of the planning of West Philadelphia. They were drawn up in the 1800s, one earlier in the century and the second mid-century. I chose a very typical mapping of the city; a very typical tool in city planning. The first map, if you're to look at it closely, follows typical city planning: forming the streets of West Philadelphia into a grid; however, unlike any other map i've seen, the drawing foregrounds certain influential Philadelphia family's homes: the Hamiltons, the Penns, the Pratts, the Binghams, the Powells. Taking this foregrounding and placing it up against the second map, drawn mid-1800s, one can see that Varle's "idealized" version of W.Philadelphia was never realized: instead of being an area frequented by the families of rich and important American delegates or businessmen, one can see that many streets were being vacated (possibly rerouted?) to fit some sort of demand; what exactly the annotations say is hard to decipher. The second map in particular reminded me of my commute home from school, during which I ride the Market-Frankfort line and pass many vacated homes between 63 St. and 52 St. The second map may not be indicating city growth in order to accomidate an influx of people who did not meet the socio-economic standard; however, it is true of West Philadelphia's history that in the twentieth century there was a large migration of African-Americans from the south. Since then, many other immigrant and emmigrant populations have moved in to West Philadelphia, including but not limited to Indian and Pakistani peoples, West African populations, and etc. For me it was very interesting to find the old early-nineteenth-century map of W.Philadelphia (and what the map-maker hoped it would be-- a rich suburb for white American politicians and businessmen to summer to) and juxtapose that against the rich center of people and different cultures that W.Philly has become (for me and many others). Terra incognita-- there was no way Varle could have imagined the influx of different populations into Philly. But the assumption that they wouldn't-- or rather the complete acknowledgement of that sort of existance or potentiality-- to me is particularly telling.