Heritage West

Heritage West is a community archaeology project dedicated to exploring stories of the now-destroyed Black Bottom neighborhood. The first Black community in West Philadelphia, the Black Bottom existed as early as the 1840s and was demolished in the 1960s when the West Philadelphia Corporation, a consortium of Philly-area educational and medical institutions, used a variety of political and legal mechanisms, especially the Housing Act of 1949, to push the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority to deem the Black Bottom “blighted” and seize, demolish, and develop it for the benefit of those educational institutions. Under the guise of “urban renewal,” somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people were displaced.

In 2019 a group of Penn archaeologists began working with local community organizations like HopePHL and the Community Education Center (CEC), and descendant individuals and groups like the Black Bottom Tribe Association. These early and ongoing conversations determined both the geographic focus for the project and identified interest in research questions relating to the early history of the area and the everyday lives of those living in the neighborhood. Following a series of public history events and workshops that helped refined the goals of the project, a location was chosen and in fall 2023 excavations began in the gravel parking lot of the CEC.

Seven homes, some dating to before the neighborhood was part of the city of Philadelphia, once stood at the intersection of Warren St. and 35th St. and these were the focus of the excavations. Units explored the basement of one of the 1840s wooden twin homes and its associated privy, as well as the rubble remains of the brick rowhomes that lined Warren St. and were likely destroyed by bulldozers in the 1960s razing of the neighborhood. Importantly, these excavations were conducted as part of an undergraduate course at Penn and students worked alongside community members every Friday for a semester. Community members and students have continued working with the project to wash, sort, count, and weigh the objects discovered and will contribute to analysis and publication. Decisions about next steps for the project will be made alongside a group of eleven Advisory Board members including of residents, descendants, and community leaders.