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Philadelphia County is a county located in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania. It is coterminous with the city of Philadelphia which also serves as its seat. As of 2006, the United States Census Bureau estimates the population at 1,448,394. Philadelphia County is one of the three original counties, along with Chester, and Bucks counties, created by William Penn in November 1682.
History
Tribes of Delaware Indians were the original occupants in the area, which would become Philadelphia County. The first European settlers would be groups of Swedes and Finns who arrived in 1638. The Dutch then seized the area in 1655, but permanently lost control to England in 1674. William Penn’s charter for Pennsylvania was received from Charles II of England in 1681, and was followed by Penn’s November 1682 division of Pennsylvania into three counties. In the same year Philadelphia was laid out, it was also made the county seat and the capital of the Province of Pennsylvania. Penn wanted Philadelphia, meaning "brotherly love," to be a place where religious tolerance and the freedom to worship were ensured. These principles of American culture were unique in the world at the time of Philadelphia's founding. Philadelphia's name is shared with the ancient Asia Minor city spared in the Book of Revelation in the Quaker Bible. It was William Penn's prayer that his "Holy Experiment" would be found blameless at The Last Judgment. When established, Philadelphia County comprised mainly of the area from the Delaware River west between the Schuylkill River to the south and the border with Bucks County to the north, the western boundary was undefined. Two counties would be formed out of Philadelphia County, Berks County which was formed in 1752 (from parts of Chester, Lancaster, and Philadelphia counties), and Montgomery County established in 1784. From these separations, as well as other border moves, come the present day boundaries of the county. City of Philadelphia, as laid out by Penn, comprised only that portion of the present day city situated between South and Vine Streets and Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. Other settlements were made outside of the boundaries of the city, and in the course of time they became separately incorporated and had separate governments. Several of these settlements were situated immediately contiguous to the "city proper" of Philadelphia such as Southwark and Moyamensing in the south, the Northern Liberties District, Kensington, Spring Garden and Penn District to the north, and West Philadelphia and Blockley to the west — which combined with the City of Philadelphia formed practically one town continuously built up, the whole group being known abroad simply as Philadelphia. Besides these, there were a number of other outlying townships, villages and settlements throughout the county. Over time though, as the population expanded out from the City of Philadelphia, those closer to the City of Philadelphia became absorbed in the congeries of towns of which greater Philadelphia was composed. While those further away from the city often joined with other townships, villages and settlements to form the newer counties of Berks and Montgomery. During this period, the city government of Philadelphia and the county government of Philadelphia acted separately. By the mid-19th century, it was clear that a more structured government bureaucracy was needed. A reform charter, on February 2, 1854, brought all the boroughs, townships and districts of the County of Philadelphia within the City of Philadelphia, thus abolishing the patchwork of cities, boroughs, and townships that made up Philadelphia County since its founding. The city-county consolidation was a result of the inability of a colonial-type government by committees to adapt to the needs of a growing city for new public services, e.g., better streets, police, transportation, sanitation, and schools. The newly integrated districts had marked characteristics between them, but over time, after the consolidation, these characteristics generally integrated into the City of Philadelphia know today. Today though the names of some of these districts are synonymous with neighborhoods in city, with the boundaries of which roughly matching their historic boundaries. In 1951, a new initiative called the Home Rule Charter fully merged city and county offices. This new charter provided the city with a common structure and outlined the "strong mayor" form of government that is still used today. The county offices were merged with the city government in 1952, effectively eliminating the county as a governmental structure in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Even though the county no longer has a government structure by law, in both the Unconsolidated Pennsylvania Statutes and The Philadelphia Code and Charter, the County of Philadelphia is still an entity within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is thus subject to the provisions and laws of the Commonwealth concerning counties. Exceptions include restrictions stated in the Home Rule Charter of Philadelphia, Act of Consolidation, 1854, and subsequent legislation. The county also is the only First Class County, meaning it had a population of 1.5 million or above as of the last census, in the Commonwealth. Philadelphia County has become very diverse over the years, and continues to become even more. Since 1990(the year that began increasing immigration), thousands and thousands of immigrants from Latin America, Asia, and Europe poured into the county. Today the city has one of the largest Puerto Rican, Italian, Vietnamese, Russian, Ukrainian, Jamaican, Chinese, Arab, Irish, Thai, and Cambodian populations in America. Also the county has the fourth largest concentration of African Americans in North America, in addition to the populations of Liberians, Nigerians, and Sudanese. The Northeast section of the city, and more significantly the suburbs of Philadelphia contain vast numbers of Indians and Mexicans. Timeline
Population History
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