A diagonal Lenape footpath cut through Penn's grid two centuries before urban planners thought to call it "intentional walkability." A century-and-a-half of South Philly Italian-American life. And one of the densest restaurant corridors in the country still anchored on rowhouse blocks. The Singing Fountain is the address.
Passyunk Avenue runs at a 45-degree angle to Philadelphia's grid because it was here before the grid was. The Lenape used it as a footpath between their settlements at the Schuylkill and the Delaware. Penn's surveyors couldn't talk it out of the ground.
For most of the 1800s, this corner of South Philly was Irish, then German, then by the 1880s — overwhelmingly Italian. The Italian Market on 9th Street, founded in the 1880s, became one of the longest continuously operating outdoor markets in the United States. The streets around it filled with bakeries, cheese shops, butcher shops, and rowhouse blocks where two and three generations of the same family lived next door.
Tasker Street, Morris, Mifflin, McKean, and the diagonal of Passyunk became a tightly woven Italian-American fabric. The civic anchor was — and partly still is — the Catholic parish: Annunciation, Saint Paul's, Saint Nicholas. The food was a reason to live here even before "food scene" was a phrase. Termini Brothers Bakery on Eighth and Tasker has been making cannoli since 1921.
Gentrification arrived in South Philly later than Center City and slower than Fishtown, and that turned out to matter. The East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District, formed in 2002, focused on attracting independent restaurants and small retail to the diagonal corridor between Broad and 11th. By 2010 the corridor had a Best of Philly best-overall-neighborhood title and chefs who'd spent careers in Center City were opening their own places here.
What East Passyunk did differently was preserve the bones. The original residents largely stayed. The Italian-American institutions — the festa, the bakeries, the pork shops — held their ground. The new arrivals integrated rather than displaced. The result is what mature gentrification is supposed to look like: diverse, mixed-income, walkable, and not yet sterile.
The intersection of 11th, Tasker, and Passyunk. The actual fountain plays music. The square around it is the de facto town center — markets in summer, Christmas lights in winter, dog walkers always.
Stargazy (British meat pies, James Beard nominee), Le Virtu (Abruzzese), Brigantessa (wood-fired Neapolitan), Townsend (modern French), Cantina Los Caballitos, P'unk Burger. National food critics make special trips for this corridor.
Eight blocks north on 9th Street. Outdoor butchers, fishmongers, cheese shops, produce. Founded 1880s, still running daily. One of the few authentic ethnic markets left in the country.
Three-generation Italian-American families on the block next to a young couple from Brooklyn. Rare in this kind of neighborhood. It's a real reason the place still has a soul.
Annunciation's Italian Festival every May. Christmas tree lighting at the Singing Fountain. Restaurant Week. Small events run by people who actually live here.
The Broad Street Line runs underground at Tasker-Morris and Snyder. Center City to the avenue in 12 minutes flat. One of the few South Philly walkables with real subway access.
Two- and three-story 14-foot rowhomes, modernized kitchens, often roof decks. The dominant resale product.
Two- and three-story 14-foot rowhomes, modernized kitchens, often roof decks. The dominant resale product.
Two-story originals, often with the original interior intact. Increasingly the reno-flip opportunity. South Philly's last real entry-level price tier.
Three-story builds on infill lots, garages, abated. Less common than in NoLibs or Fishtown — most lots are already occupied — but they exist along Reed and Tasker.
Older duplex and triplex rowhouses scattered through the area. House-hack opportunity for buyers willing to live on a busier block.
Tell us what you're looking for in East Passyunk — renovated rowhouse, reno opportunity, or a multi-unit to house-hack — and we'll send you the listings worth seeing.
This is one of the steadier markets in the city. A good listing here is rarely a bargain, but it's almost always a sound long-term move.
— Prosperity Real Estate & Investment Services