Redlining in Hunting Park

This is worth a read. Historic documents clearly showing how our neighborhood was shaped by racially discriminatory lending practices informed by Home Owner's Loan Corporation (HOLC) maps. Tons of info. These people are doing excellent work.

"HOLC made approximately 51,000 loans in Pennsylvania, 15,000 of which were made in Philadelphia and 6,000 in the Philadelphia suburbs. HOLC made a disproportionate number of loans to areas latter colored red on its residential security maps and to African Americans, Jews, and immigrants, at least in Philadelphia. Using local brokers, HOLC resold the 200,000 properties acquired when homeowners defaulted on their HOLC mortgages. Evidence from Detroit and Philadelphia indicate that HOLC practiced racial discrimination in selling off these homes, refusing to sell homes to African Americans in white neighborhoods [Hillier, Journal of Planning History]."

Below is a clip from a document from 1937 describing our neighborhood (section C7 on the 1937 map) as a "fairly desirable" residential section with 5% foreign born Italian, no Negro, and moderate to heavy "relief families."



Here are small versions of the acutal color-coded maps that produced the term "redlining" as we now know it.