From Van Stone: Democrat Candidate For PA State Rep 190th
Legislative District 2020- My Fight For The Neighborhood Of West Park
(Historical Community Site Territory) And The Origins Of West Park For Life
Family Story! Series. Part 5?
Speaking of rivaling
neighbors and neighborhoods that rivaled others in West Philadelphia, West Park
is also a neighborhood that is just shy Northwest of the neighborhood section
called the “Bottom”.
The Bottom is a
neighborhood that is located from 31st Street to 42nd
Street, Market Street to Haverford and Lancaster Avenues. I am not talking
about the Black Bottom neighborhood though.
Although it too is in the
190th state rep. district, and at the same time shares apart of neighborhoods
in the 188th state rep. district, the Black Bottom is an altogether completely
different neighborhood which is located in the Greys Ferry section of Southwest
Philadelphia sharing its own history in Philadelphia.
Now as for anyone growing
up in West Park, a poverty-ridden and crime-ridden neighborhood then and today,
we residents lived in one of the three 19-story towers.
The 3 towers and their
addresses are, starting with the first of them, 4445 Holden Street, 300 North Busti
Street and 400 North Busti Street. I lived in the first of the 3 towers. Each
tower had a front entrance, a rear entrance, 2 elevators and 2 stairwells.
The apartment complex was
built as the first of many beautiful historic high-rise buildings that were developed
throughout sections of West and North Philadelphia in the mid-sixties.
The West Park towers
complex, a sight to behold from as far away as from downtown Philadelphia, would
become more than just an ordinary one hundred and thirteen-acre site.
I am confident that the
high-rise buildings built later throughout the city have their own unique
histories.
The West Park campus site
was built as a neighborhood transformation plan for working, yet still struggling
and at-risk, Black American families during racial segregation
rules and laws.
Discrimination in the sale and rental of housing on
the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status,
disability school systems, businesses, the American military, other civil
services and the government was still the norms if you were a kid about to live
in West Park then.
When the plan was
announced by the City of Philadelphia City Council and Philadelphia Housing
Authority and the Philadelphia School District that the West Park campus site
would be urban development for primarily Black Americans the plan was furiously
met with opposition due to blatant racism, prejudice and discrimination.
In the meantime, the plan
was all worked out between the joint property purchaser, which was the city
council and the housing authority.
To be continued…
