I am looking for historical information on the politics and social aspects of the railroad lines installed in Philly around the turn of the century - particularly in North Philly, where what was then a very good neighborhood became a slum.

To be more specific - I am looking for information on a city councilman named Colmar or Collimer who was opposed to the railroad and was basically "railroaded" out of city government for it.

I've searched online for a while to try to confirm this story, but have not found what I was looking for.

Any help is appreciated!

The City Archives contains city government records.

Several public and academic libraries (starting with the Parkway Central of the Free Library of Philadelphia) carry newspapers in microfilm.

The corporate records of the Penn Central are at the Hagley Museum & Library (http://www.hagley.org/ ).

Your search may require that you leave your computer and go to a library.

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Uh, I think you're way off the mark there.
North Philadeplhia wasn't a slum in the 1900s, nor 1910s or 1920s.
The railroads, and the jobs that accompanies them, are what made the area vibrant.
It was the decline of the railroads that led to the downward path of Norht Philadelphia.

The general wisdom is that the downturn has three big events.
The excavation of Broad Street for the Broad Street Subway.
The decline of the coal based manufacturing businesses post WWII.
The 1960 riots which targeted the remaining jewish businesses.


I think you're about 60 years off, that sounds more like the 1840s fight about the Trenton Railroad.
However, that was nowhere near North Philadelphia, (actually "North Philadelphia as we think of it did not exist at that time)
but was instead in "Old Kensington" but I believe the riots and action extended out towards Frankford, Richmond and Holmesburg areas.

There are two reasons you would not find anything about City Council men. First, there were no City Councilmen as we know it, at that time. Second, at that time, that area was not within the City of Philadelphia.


Hal

Interesting. Since my family once owned a farm at the intersection of Broad and Erie and have always called it "Philadelphia"- I do not know what else it would have been called.

It's family folklore that I'm trying to prove or disprove, and the Colmar/Collimer name is one that has been distorted throughout the years in different records.

Any information like what you have both posted is useful. But I'm pretty sure it has something to do with railroads ruining a once beautiful part of what is now at least part of Philadelphia. Unless Old Uncle Colmar was a lying drunk of course.

;-)

Ok, Broad and Erie makes a litte more sense. That's 1860s, Connecting Railway Company.

Pre-civil war, railroads were not allowed to lay tracks inside the boundaries of the "old" city of Philadelphia- Vine and South, river to river.
The RR from Trenton (modern R7) used to run along Trenton Avenue, and terminate in Kensington near Front.

When the laws were changed, the Pennsy and Reading RR companies immediately started working on routes to competing downtown terminals
Reading Terminal on Market,
Broad Street Station on Broad by City hall.

The Pennsyvania RR didn't want to head straight through the developed area which had caused the Trenton Railroad Riots in the 1940s.
So they took the Trenton Railroad and turned west at Frankford in route that curved around to avoid the developed areas (at that time).
This "Connecting Railroad" makes a sweeping curve, crosses Broad and curves down to cross the Schuylkill near Girard,
then curved around to come in along Market Street on the "chinese wall" viaduct that led to Pennsylvania Station.

I believe the layout of the Connecting RR was being sketched out in the mid1850s, and completed during the Civil War period.
So, you'd bee looking at people who lived in the 1850s or 1860s, not 1900s.
I believe that by the mid 1800s Pennsylvania local politicians no longer had the authority to locate railroads, and authority to route railroads with the State and Federal governments. So the politician you're looking for might not be a City Councilman, but instead may well be a Federal or State representative or senator.


Hal

Thank you! That is interesting, and puts my search a bit earlier than I had thought.

Historical research is far beyond my expertise, but I find the results fascinating.

You're welcome.


FYI these old maps give an idea of what the area looked like when the RR went through...

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/.../~ammem_pEni::

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/.../~ammem_pEni::


If the links don't work, it's the Library of Congress, A.D. Bache Maps of the defense for the Northern Approach to Philadelphia.


Hal