I've gotten a number of conflicting, or partially overlapping, descriptions of the neighborhood known as "The Bottom". Any of you Philly natives want to take a stab at it?

Philadelphia has a few "Bottoms". I assume you are referring to the Black Bottom?

Check out this link: http://www.blackbottom.org/blackbottom

Its fascinating to think what our city did to thousands of residents in the name of urban renewal.

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- George -

http://www.nutter2007.com

Fogotten Bottom?

http://phillyskyline.com/hoods/south/forgottenbottom/


As for Black Bottom... it would have happened now anyways..


The poor would have been bought out or priced out...like they are across the city.

It's one of those things that happen...poor relocated for the growth of the largest private employer.

What's going to benefit the city in the long term?

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There are no official neighborhoods in Philly, so you will get a variety of answers from a variety of sources. Before moving to South Philly, I lived in West Oak Lane or East Mt Airy or Germantown or ... you get the idea.

As the Black Bottom, as such, was largely destroyed by Negro Removal in the 1960s and swallowed up by Penn, it becomes even more difficult to come up with meaningful boundries. As Dr. Carter was a resident himself and a long-time activist in the area (as the lawyer for MOVE, he famously called for Goode to be arrested for murder), I'll defer to his judgement:

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Interesting comments! I had never heard of Blackbottom, but obviously there aren't really any vestiges of that remaining. And it's great to think of 46th to 63rd as the Top. It does occupy the higher ground, after all, so it makes sense. The Bottom I hear people talk about seems to be the area north of Haverford and Girard, west of 63rd, east of Belmont and south of Parkside. Can anyone spot where this guy is?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EazpIM_mBbs

Not that "Hobo Doe" is any kind of authority...

Anyway, Forgotten Bottom is one of my favorite places in Philadelphia and deserves much more attention. I've spent many an hour, over the last few years, fishing from the concrete retaining wall behind the Fed Ex. Unfortunately, the guy who owns the trolleyworks has purchased the piece of land that fronts on the river and has now fenced it off and is preparing to pave it as a parking lot. For the moment, he's leaving the fence open for much of the day, but for some of us early risers, we may have to look elsewhere for convenient Schuykill fishing. It's a real shame since that piece of land could have been a fantastic river-front park and a great picnic destination if the bike path ever made it down that far...

The only vestige of "Black Bottom" remaining are the small block
of houses just north of UC High School.

it may be why he purchased it.

Gray's Ferry has a long way to go before becoming a "destination"

DuPont's location isn't helping that either..

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Well, until recently for me and at least a dozen or so other regular fishermen and women, Forgotten Bottom was a destination. Realistically, it's not part of the rest of Gray's Ferry since it's cut off by 34th St. and Gray's Ferry Ave.

honestly I never knew that 40th St. below Market and as far as Baltimore was considered the bottom. I grew up at 52nd St. and that area was always U-City, but I am still a young lad so the destruction happened before my time. But, being a Philly native (West Philly even), the Bottom especially above Lancastor Ave. and between the river and 52 (Mantua area). Still, anything that is between Lancastor and Market and east of 48 to the river could easily be considered the Bottom. But certain nothing outside of these areas, I would not consider anything across 52 or below Market the Bottom. Never did and never will. Sometimes I get so frustrated with these moving neighborhood boundaries.

That and the anual Black Bottom Reunion Picnic which draws hundreds.

__________________
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