Mill Creek

Carl Greene was executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority from 1998 to 2010. Greene championed the “New Urbanism” design concept that inspired new low-rise, low-density projects like Lucien E. Blackwell Homes. His tenure as the city’s housing czar was clouded by accusations of unethical and unprofessional behavior, for which he was fired in 2010.

On the night of 28 December 2000, seven people died and three were wounded in an abandoned rowhouse on Lex Street in the immediate neighborhood of Mill Creek Homes. News media called it the worst mass murder in Philadelphia’s history. The ill-fated crack house, 816 Lex St., stood about a hundred yards from the Aspen St. entrance to the Martha Washington Elementary School playground. 

This digital map drawn from the 1950 U.S. Census shows the growing presence of blacks west of the Schuylkill River in 1950. The black presence in the Mill Creek neighborhood appears in the 60–80 percent range at mid-century.

This digital map drawn from the 1940 U.S. Census shows the racial/ethnic configuration of the Mill Creek neighborhood before World War II. In 1940, the African-American population of West Philadelphia was concentrated within a few blocks north of Market St. Mill Creek was located at the center of that area.  About 70 percent of the adult African Americans were born in southern states and moved north as part of the Great Migration.

Just under half of Mill Creek was white. Twenty-one percent of the adults were foreign-born. The majority was born in Ireland.  Many of the Irish-born were Catholics, living near Cathedral Park Cemetery.

As shown here, the neighborhood is properly described as racially/ethnically “mixed.” Yet while blacks and whites lived relatively close to one another, Brown Street (visible though unnamed on this map) divided the predominately white—i.e., native-white and Irish-born—blocks above that street from the predominately black blocks below it.  

Lucien E. Blackwell Homes replacement housing on Aspen St., with Parkway West High School (formerly Sulzberger Jr. High/Middle School) in background. Two-storey twins of the kind shown here with redbrick facades, Doric columns, cultivated lawns, and wrought iron or picket fences, contribute to the suburbia-like ambience of the new housing development.  

This map published by the Philadelphia Housing Association in 1960 shows the geographical relationship of three areas that were studied by the Housing Association, a private watchdog organization led by Philadelphia activists for housing improvement. Haddington Leadership Area contained Haddington Homes.

Implosion of the Mill Creek Homes tower apartments in 2003

Viewed from the south, the Mill Creek Homes tower apartments shortly before their demolition in 2003.

This photo shows the boarded-up low-rises on Aspen Street.  Sulzberger Middle School (formerly Junior High School, latterly Parkway West High School) at far left.