Community Center

Baseball and Brewerytown have an illustrious history: the famed Oakland A’s baseball team originally hailed from this section of North Philadelphia. Known as the Philadelphia Athletics, the team was based in the neighborhood in the late 1800s. When they departed out-of-state, the Athletic Recreation Center was founded at the team’s former site. With a rich tradition of community-based sports and recreation, the Athletic Recreation Center has been a central feature of the Brewerytown neighborhood for over a century.

The Houston Community Center carries on a long and illustrious tradition of social service in this ethnically diverse South Philadelphia neighborhood. Founded in 1901 as St. Martha’s House, the organization functioned as a settlement house serving the predominantly Italian and Eastern European immigrant communities of the area. St. Martha’s provided education and health services and emphasized “integration and assimilation” programs for immigrants intended to ease their transition into an unfamiliar city and culture.

Kensington may be Philadelphia's quintessential post-industrial neighborhood. Once a teeming textile hub of the city and indeed the region, Kensington's wealth and quality of life declined in the 1950s and 1960s as factories moved elsewhere. While the neighborhood has developed a reputation as one of Philadelphia's most neglected areas, residents tell of a different Kensington. Recently, the neighborhood has also been experiencing something of a rebirth. The Cardinal Bevilacqua Community Center epitomizes this trend.