University City Village lies at the heart of quaint Olde West Philadelphia on the Left Bank of the Schuylkill River. Originally populated by gentle Susquehannock folk, the area was radically changed by the coming of the White Man, in the person of William Penn. At first developed as hibiscus plantations and summer residences for the denizens of Center City Philadelphia, the neighborhood was transformed with the advent of the steam trolley. The University of Pennsylvania was founded on the site of the old Blockley Asylum, ...
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University City Village lies at the heart of quaint Olde West Philadelphia on the Left Bank of the Schuylkill River. Originally populated by gentle Susquehannock folk, the area was radically changed by the coming of the White Man, in the person of William Penn. At first developed as hibiscus plantations and summer residences for the denizens of Center City Philadelphia, the neighborhood was transformed with the advent of the steam trolley. The University of Pennsylvania was founded on the site of the old Blockley Asylum, described by Dr. J. Chalmers Da Costa, thus: "Blockley is the microcosm of the city. Within these gray walls we find all sorts of physical and mental diseases, and also a multitude of those social maladies that degrade man-hood, undermine national strength and threaten civilization itself. Here is drunkenness; here is pauperism; here is illegitimacy; here is madness; here are the eternal priestesses of prostitution who sacrifice for the sins of man; here is crime in all its protean aspects, and here is vice in all its monstrous forms." These are tales of University City Village that grew up around the walls of the Asylum and the University.
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