Koreatown,_Philadelphia

Philadelphia Koreatown

Philadelphia Koreatown

Neighborhood of Pennsylvania, United States


The first Philadelphia Koreatown (Korean: 필라델피아 코리아타운) is located around the Olney section of the city of Philadelphia, United States. Since the late 1980s, the Korean community has expanded northward, and it now straddles the border between North Philadelphia in Philadelphia proper and the northern suburb of Cheltenham, although many Korean-American businesses and organizations and some residents remain in Olney and adjoining neighborhoods. Upper Darby Township, bordering West Philadelphia, also has a large Korean-American population;[1] meanwhile, a rapidly growing Korean population and commercial presence has emerged in suburban Cherry Hill, New Jersey since 2010, centered along Marlton Pike, attracted to the Cherry Hill Public Schools.[2][3][4][5] Signage in Hangul is ubiquitous in some neighborhoods in these areas.

Quick Facts Koreatown, Country ...
Upper Darby Township is another area where there are significant pockets of Korean people and commerce, at Fairfield Avenue and Garrett Road.

History

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Koreatown had "moved" from the Logan neighborhood into the Olney section in the early 1980s, attributing the migration from Logan to "too much crime" and the "schools weren't so good" at the time in Logan.[6] In Olney, tensions were high between Koreans and the German community,[6] as well as the black community, who did not want the section of the town to be officially declared "Koreatown", causing much violence and crime to be committed not only against Koreans, but East Asians in general.[7] The original Koreatown existed on North 5th Street in Olney since 1984, with Korean language signs put up to help official recognition of the area; those signs were vandalized in the late 1980s.[1]

Religion

There is a Korean Catholic church, Holy Angels.[8]

See also


References

  1. Jae-Hyup Lee (1998). Dynamics of Ethnic Identity: Three Asian American Communities in Philadelphia. ISBN 9780815331186.
  2. Catherine Laughlin (April 10, 2012). "A sandwich With a Little Bit of Seoul - The Koagie comes to Cherry Hill". New Jersey Monthly. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  3. Richard Manfredi, Demand Media. "Korean Restaurants in Cherry Hill, New Jersey". USA TODAY. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  4. Marc Kaufman (July 13, 1986). "'Koreatown': From Logan Into Olney". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved April 26, 2015.

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Koreatown,_Philadelphia, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.