Greater Philadelphia
Essay
Civic boosters in the late nineteenth century adopted “Greater Philadelphia” as a phrase denoting aspirations for progress as well as way of describing the region including Philadelphia and extending beyond its boundaries. For more than a century since, numerous businesses and other organizations, including The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, have signaled their regional scope by adopting this phrase. This layer of the Encyclopedia emphasizes topics that cross the region of Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and Delaware, including governance, geography and settlement patterns, infrastructure, transportation, and social issues.
Related Topics: Regional Connections and Impact
Locations
- Bucks County, Pennsylvania
- Chester County, Pennsylvania
- Delaware County, Pennsylvania
- Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
- Camden County, New Jersey
- Cumberland County, New Jersey
- Salem County, New Jersey
- Gloucester County, New Jersey
- Burlington County, New Jersey
- New Castle County, Delaware
Essays
- Greater Philadelphia Region
- Courthouses (County)
- Polish Settlement and Poland
- Main Line of Public Works
- Aeronautics and Aerospace Industry
- Colonial Revival
- Great Wagon Road
- Moravians
- Turnpikes
- Dinosaurs and Paleontology (Study of Fossils and Prehistoric Life)
- Trenton, New Jersey
- Reading Terminal Market
- Ceramics
- Seventh-day Adventists
- Lawnside, New Jersey
- Wilmington, Delaware
- Philadelphia Contributionship
- Train Derailments and Collisions
- Glassmakers and Glass Manufacturing
- Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- Railroad Suburbs
- Historic Preservation
- Orchard Window (The)
- Bakeries and Bakers
- Grocery Stores and Supermarkets
- Horticulture
- Garment Work and Workers
- Shrines
- Saws and Saw Making
- Community Colleges
- Philadelphia Folk Festival
- Silver Linings Playbook
- Paper and Papermaking
- Underground Railroad
- Silk and Silk Makers
- Delaware Bay
- Soccer
- Bridgeton, New Jersey
- Plays and Playwrights
- Mennonites
- Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul
- Environmental Movement
- Irish (The) and Ireland
- Mexican-American War
- Independence Seaport Museum
- Machining and Machinists
- Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
- Historic Districts
- Prisons and Jails
- Zoning (Philadelphia)
- Hospitals (Economic Development)
- Doylestown, Pennsylvania
- Mount Holly Township, New Jersey
- Jewelers Row
- South Asians
- Dogfighting
- Dogs
- Gas Stations
- Cold War
- Dispensaries
- Brickmaking and Brickmakers
- Nuclear Power
- Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
- Pacific World (Connections and Impact)
- Armories
- Scots Irish (Scotch Irish)
- Dutch (The) and The Netherlands
- Chester County, Pennsylvania
- Woman Suffrage
- Women’s Clubs
- Freedom Train
- Opera and Opera Houses
- Thrift
- Boarding and Lodging Houses
- Bicycles
- Bartram’s Garden
- Police Athletic League
- Nursing
- Newspapers (Suburban)
- Red Arrow Lines
- Lehigh Valley
- West Chester, Pennsylvania
- Genealogy
- Mexicans and Mexico
- Woodbury, New Jersey
- Eugenics
- Edge Cities
- ENIAC
- Roman Catholic Parishes
- Inner Suburbs
- Hotels and Motels
- Smoking and Smoking Regulations
- Convents
- Delaware River Basin Commission
- Crowds (Colonial and Revolution Eras)
- Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Television Shows (About Philadelphia)
- Militia
- Lotteries
- Philadelphia Ten
- Horses
- Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans
- Spanish-American War
- Automobile Racing
- Cycling (Sport)
- Historical Societies
- Iron Production
- Norristown, Pennsylvania
- Public Media
- Cricket
- Mansions
- New Year’s Traditions
- Tomato Pie
- United States Colored Troops
- National Guard
- Deindustrialization
- Civil Defense
- Shoemakers and Shoemaking
- Helicopters
- High School Sports
- Hinterlands
- Big 5
- Nigerians and Nigeria
- Tobacco
- City Beautiful Movement
- Vietnam War
- Infectious Diseases and Epidemics
- Boxing and Boxers
- Mummers
- Mighty Macs
- Korean War
- Community Development Corporations (CDCs)
- Chemical Industry
- Meteorology (Study of the Atmosphere)
- Ornithology (Study of Birds)
- Radio DJs
- Presidents of the United States (Presence in Region)
- Landfills
- Veterans and Veterans’ Organizations
- Manufacturing Suburbs
- Coffeehouses
- Loyalists
- Public Markets
- New Sweden
- Barbershops and Barbers
- Coal
- Arts of Wharton Esherick
- Diners
- Surveying (Colonial)
- Pennsylvania (Founding)
- Radio (Commercial)
- Country Clubs
- Blue Route
- Camden, New Jersey
- Garbage Barge (Khian Sea)
- King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
- Entomology (Study of Insects)
- Bank of the United States (First)
- Lafayette’s Tour
- Tourism
- Typhoid Fever and Filtered Water
- Trails (Indian)
- Smith’s and Windmill Islands
- Puerto Rican Migration
- Model Cities
- Prehistoric Native Peoples and Archaeology
- First Purchasers of Pennsylvania
- Buses
- Bank War
- Lower Delaware Colonies (1609-1704)
- Abscam
- Admiral Wilson Boulevard
- Co-Working Spaces
- Atlantic City, New Jersey
- Educational Reform
- Railroad Stations
- Brownfields Redevelopment
- Sprawl
- Vigilance Committees
- Automobiles
- Automotive Manufacturing
- Garies (The) and Their Friends
- Native American-Pennsylvania Relations 1681-1753
- Schuylkill Navigation Company
- I-95
- Street Vendors
- Art Colonies
- Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission
- Philadelphia (Warship)
- Films (Feature)
- Monopoly
- Point Breeze (Bonaparte Estate)
- Levittowns (Pennsylvania and New Jersey)
- Ferries
- Pipelines
- Radio (High School and College)
- Streetcar Suburbs
- Roosevelt Boulevard
- Vine Street Expressway
- Printmaking
- Bootlegging
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Media, Pennsylvania
- Plantations
- Prohibition
- Pennsylvania Hall
- Fries Rebellion
- Maps and Mapmaking
- National Parks
- Lewis and Clark Expedition
- Chester, Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania Impressionism
- Native and Colonial Go-Betweens
- Private (Independent) Schools
- Football (Professional)
- Proclamation Line of 1763
- Canals
- Native American-Pennsylvania Relations, 1754-89
- Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens
- Airports
- Railroads
- Duffy’s Cut
- Forts and Fortifications
- Casinos
- Tastykake
- Schuylkill Expressway
- Walking Purchase
- Murder of Octavius Catto
- Seven Years’ War
- Colonization Movement (Africa)
- Trenton and Princeton Campaign (Washington’s Crossing)
- PATCO
- SEPTA
- Television
- Mason-Dixon Line
- Scrapple
- Hog Island
- Crime
- U.S. Congress (1790-1800)
- Columbus Day
- Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC)
- Immigration and Migration (Colonial Era)
- Lynching
- Cemeteries
- Baseball (Professional)
- World War I
- Pontiac’s War and the Paxton Boys
- Valley Forge
- Immigration (1870-1930)
- Higher Education: Private (Religious)
- Baseball: Negro Leagues
- Education and Opportunity
- March of the Mill Children
- Trees
- Public Education: Suburbs
- African American Migration
- Insurance
- Recording Industry
- Byberry (Philadelphia State Hospital)
- Immigration (1790-1860)
- Streetcars
- Great Depression
- Immigration (1930-Present)
- Paints and Varnishes
- Printing and Publishing
- Public Transportation
-
Roman Catholic Education
(Elementary and Secondary) - Shopping Centers
- Fox Hunting
- Delaware Avenue (Columbus Boulevard)
- Public Education: High Schools
- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
- Consolidation Act of 1854
- Delaware River Port Authority
- Shipbuilding and Shipyards
- Flaxseed and Linen
- Industrial Workers of the World
- Banking
- Commuter Trains
-
Philadelphia and Its People in Maps:
The 1790s - Omnibuses
- Public Housing
- AIDS and AIDS Activism
- World War II
- Yellow Fever
- Influenza (“Spanish Flu” Pandemic, 1918-19)
- Department Stores
- Cholera
- Lazaretto
- Trails (Recreational)
- West New Jersey
- Earthquakes
- Almanacs
- Salem (City), New Jersey
- Pollution
- Bridges
- War in Afghanistan
- Schuylkill River
- Child Labor
- Brandywine Valley
- Blues Music
- Automobile Suburbs
- Percent for Art Programs
- Lenape People (Continuing Presence)
- Candy and Candymakers
- Civil Rights (Women)
- Lancaster Avenue
- Buddhism
Map
Timeline
Related Reading
Adams, Carolyn, et. al. Philadelphia: Neighborhoods, Division, and Conflict in a Postindustrial City. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.
Adams, Carolyn, et. al. Restructuring the Philadelphia Region: Metropolitan Divisions and Inequality. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008.
Black, Brian C., and Michael J. Chiarappa. Nature’s Entrepot: Philadelphia’s Urban Sphere and Its Environmental Thresholds. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012.
Cammarota, Ann Marie T. Pavements in the Garden: The Suburbanization of Southern New Jersey, Adjacent to the City of Philadelphia, 1769 to the Present. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001.
Conn, Steven. Metropolitan Philadelphia: Living With the Presence of the Past. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
Landsman, Ned C. Crossroads of Empire: The Middle Colonies in British North America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
Lanier, Gabrielle M. The Delaware Valley in the Early Republic: Architecture, Landscape, and Regional Identity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.
Lindstrom, Diane. Economic Development in the Philadelphia Region, 1810-1850. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978.
Related Collections
Philadelphia
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia.
Philadelphia City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia.
Urban Archives, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, 1900 N. Thirteenth Street, Philadelphia.
Southeastern Pennsylvania
Bucks County Historical Society, 84 S. Pine Street, Doylestown, Pa.
Chester County Archives, 601 Westtown Road, West Chester, Pa.
Chester County Historical Society, 225 N. High Street, West Chester, Pa.
Delaware County Archives, 340 N. Middletown Road, Lima, Pa.
Delaware County Historical Society, 408 Avenue of the States, Chester, Pa.
Montgomery County Archival Records, 2000 Old Arch Road, Norristown, Pa.
Historical Society of Montgomery County, 1654 DeKalb Street, Norristown, Pa.
South Jersey
Burlington County Historical Society, 451 High Street, Burlington, N.J.
Camden County Historical Society, 1900 Park Boulevard, Camden, N.J.
Gloucester County Historical Society, 17 Hunter Street, Woodbury, N.J.
Salem County Historical Society, 83 Market Street, Salem, N.J.
Delaware
Delaware Public Archives, 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard North, Dover, Del.