South Philly Review

Boundaries: Christian Street to Washington Avenue, Fifth to Third streets

Population: 26,300 (combined with Whitman and Queen Village in the 2000 Census)

Demographics: White, 70 percent; black, 17 percent; Asian, 8 percent; Latino, 5 percent. About 40 percent of the population is under 18.

Origin of name: An act was passed in 1762 to create a municipality in the southern suburbs of Philadelphia, later called the district of Southwark. The name is derived from a borough in the county of Surrey, England.

Brief history: One of the oldest communities in Philadelphia, Southwark was first settled in the 1600s by the Swedes, who named the area Wicaco, or "peaceful place." William Penn later changed the name to Southwark. A good portion of the old Southwark district is now known as Queen Village.

Commercial activities were very prominent in this area, and maritime jobs were plentiful. Residents worked as shipbuilders, rope and sail makers, sailors, dock workers, carpenters and craftsmen.

Southwark was officially recognized as a Philadelphia community in 1854.

Spanish-speaking immigrants arrived in Philadelphia in the 19th century, and found housing and work in this neighborhood.

Members of the Cuban Revolutionary Party also lived in Southwark, and a cigar-making industry thrived in the heart of the neighborhood. The Bayuk Brothers Tobacco Company, for example, was the largest cigar producer in Philadelphia in the early 20th century.

One beacon of the nautical era still stands in Southwark. It is the steeple of the 158-year-old Emanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1001 S. Fourth St., which was used to guide ships across the Delaware River. During the late 1950s, the church became an unofficial community center, offering its facilities to neighborhood groups, youth workers and civic-betterment organizations.

"Back then, it was a multicultural congregation," says the Rev. Cornelius Eaddy, the church's pastor.

In 2000, the Courtyard Apartments at Riverview, Fifth Street and Washington Avenue, replaced the two towers at Southwark Plaza. When the old housing development was imploded, neighbors worried about damage to Emanuel Church's steeple, but it survived unscathed.

Another old building, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Fourth and Reed streets, and its surrounding blocks also have undergone a conversion over the last several years. The hospital closed in 1998, and construction on the Jefferson Square housing complex began soon after, spanning mostly neighboring Pennsport but also part of Southwark.

Famous residents: The recently departed Brother Bill McDonald, who worked with the Servants of the Poor to provide food and clothing to the neighborhood needy, was locally well known.

Major landmarks: Emanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church and its steeple; the former Southwark Towers

Architecture: Single-family units, townhouses

Median home sale price: Southwark's official boundaries are mostly comprised of public housing at the Courtyard Apartments at Riverview, Fifth Street and Washington Avenue. However, as the lines separating Southwark and Queen Villlage have become blurred, the communities share a median sale price for private housing: $367,000.

State Senate district: First, Vincent Fumo (D)

State House district: 175th, Marie Lederer (D)