Editing Urban Renewal Era (section)

== Society Hill ==

Society Hill, the neighborhood between Independence Hall and the Delaware River waterfront, became urban renewal's showcase in Philadelphia. By the 1950s, the area that had once housed colonial Philadelphia's elite had become a declining residential and commercial district with aging buildings and a decreasing population. Planners saw opportunity: the neighborhood's colonial-era rowhouses, if restored, could attract middle-class residents back to Center City while providing an appropriate setting for Independence National Historical Park. The project would demonstrate that urban decline could be reversed.<ref name="teaford">{{cite book |last=Teaford |first=Jon C. |title=The Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940-1985 |year=1990 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore}}</ref>

The Society Hill project combined preservation, new construction, and selective demolition. Historic rowhouses were sold at low prices to buyers who committed to restoration. Modern high-rise apartment towers, designed by I.M. Pei, provided housing at higher densities. The food distribution market that had occupied part of the area was relocated to South Philadelphia, removing truck traffic and warehouse uses. The results, completed over approximately fifteen years, were widely praised: Society Hill became a desirable residential neighborhood, property values rose dramatically, and the area attracted young professionals who might otherwise have moved to suburbs. Society Hill became a national model for urban revitalization through historic preservation.<ref name="bacon"/>

Critics noted that Society Hill's "success" came partly through displacement of lower-income residents and replacement of an economically diverse neighborhood with an affluent enclave. The original residents—many of them elderly, poor, or African American—were forced to relocate when their homes were demolished or when rising property values made remaining unaffordable. Urban renewal in Society Hill benefited middle-class newcomers while displacing working-class communities. The project demonstrated that renewal could transform neighborhoods but raised questions about whose interests renewal served.<ref name="teaford"/>