Parkside. The name says it all — it’s the neighborhood beside West Fairmount Park. Similarly to Strawberry Mansion on the other side of the Schuylkill, Parkside is where the city grid meets the greenspace, buffered by a boulevard of grand homes facing the park. Much of the Parkside neighborhood was built during the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. Originally populated by German-Americans and Jewish immigrants of Russian descent, after World War II, the Great Migration coupled with ‘white flight’ transformed Parkside into a predominantly African-American neighborhood, which it remains to this day. In 1983, community organizers got the neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its cultural legacy and many fine examples of Victorian architecture.

Tour highlights include:
– Parkside Apartments. (when built it was one of the tallest apartment buildings in the city)
– School of the Future
– Christ Community Baptist Church (built from an Old synagogue)
– Lansdowne Apartment Building built in 1897
– Centennial Commons
– An INSIDE tour of a historic Parkside apartment building where you can experience the view of the park from the perspective of Parkside
– Philadelphia Stars Negro League Memorial Park and mural