Do you know of West Philadelphia ???

This page is an orphan - a placeholder until we can discover more about West Philadelphia. When we encounter a name that is new to us, we add it to our Gazetteer with the hope that we'll discover more information in the future. Such is the case with West Philadelphia.

Our sources for West Philadelphia (see Mentions and References below) indicate that it was a community with a post office by the same name. Unfortunately our sources aren't clear about the location of West Philadelphia other than they indicate that West Philadelphia would be found somewhere in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

From the Blevins / Hellbock List: The post office opened  in 1829 and closed  in 1855.

This entry could have originated in error. It might be that a source had a misprint, was simply wrong or we made a transcription error while referencing it. Many of the documents we reference are from the 1800s and the early 1900s, with some easier to read than others.

Part of the difficulty in identifying whether a name is a post office or a community lies with how Post Offices were named. We've prepared an article with our understanding of how post offices were named: Naming of Post Offices.

Communities Also Named West Philadelphia ...

We found two communities that share the name West Philadelphia.

Within Pennsylvania, the name West Philadelphia is unique.

Beyond Pennsylvania, we know of another two communities that are located throughout in the United States.

• Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
  • Missouri
    • Scott County
    • Please visit our profile page for the Missouri community of West Philadelphia [Scott County].
  • North Carolina
    • Moore County
    • Please visit our profile page for the North Carolina community of West Philadelphia [Moore County].

Miscellaneous References and Mentions for West Philadelphia ...

We've created the following list to keep track of the sources that proved useful in adding to our knowledge about West Philadelphia:

Found in a comprehensive list of Post Offices that was created by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<1>

Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.

A note taken from the Shipper's Guide for West Philadelphia - Services available: had a Post Office, Express Office, no Railroad mentioned

Table of U.S. Post Offices in the United States (Jan. 1851)
Published by W. & J.C. Greer, Printers

U.S. Post Offices (Oct. 1846)
Published by John T. Towers

The FIPS database contains an entry for West Philadelphia.

Referenced FIPS Records ...

FIPS Code: 42/83816   (Place Name: West Philadelphia)

County: Philadelphia     (FIPS State/County: 42/101)

Class: U4

Identifies a populated place (ie- West Philadelphia) which is wholly or substantially located within the boundaries of an incorporated place with a different name. The Part of Code identifies the incorporated place.

More Orphans in  Philadelphia County ...

Can you help?

As we explained above, when we encounter a name that might be a community or a post office we add it to our Gazetteer. If we have little information to go with the name, we call them Orphans. Below are Orphans that we believe to be located in Philadelphia County.