The “Black Bottom” archeological excavation site at the Community Education Center near 35th and Lancaster (Photos by Tony West).

The archeological exploration of the oldest urban area in West Philly wrapped up on Nov. 17 at the Community Education Center (CEC). The dig revealed traces of the suburb of Greenville, where highways from Lancaster and Chester met rail lines on flat ground at the Market St. bridge across the Schuylkill River. Parts of Greenville, including the excavation site, became known as the “Black Bottom” after 1915.

The Black Bottom was a mostly African American community situated between 32nd and 40th Streets near Market, a neighborhood between what is now the Penn and Drexel campuses to the south and the Powelton and Mantua neighborhoods to the north that was razed over time to make way for “urban renewal” beginning in the 1960s. The area later became what is now considered University City.

Heritage West: West Philadelphia Community Archeology Project, led by Penn Anthropology Professors Meg Kassabaum and Sarah Linn, has been conducting archaeological digs in area since 2019. The project included close study of historical archives of the area, followed by a ground-penetrating radar survey. The team also collected oral histories of the neighborhood from members of the Black Bottom Tribe organization and the Lancaster Ave. 21st Century Business Association.

The CEC was originally a Quaker Meeting House founded in 1851 to serve Greenville. It is adjacent to modest wooden and brick homes once with with backyard privies – a treasure trove for archeologists, who find amid these pits the rubbish that speaks volumes about the residents’ lives.

Actual excavation was launched last August with a Penn undergraduate class enlisted to learn the ropes of scientific groundwork. Community residents also pitched in. Three digs were opened around the CEC building, revealing cellar foundations as well as privies.

Now it is time for lab work at Penn Museum. Students will make presentations on the dig there throughout Dec. 8-18. Further information on the project can be found at https://www.heritagewestphl.org/.

– Tony West

Penn professor Meg Kassabaum holding an artifact found at the excavation site.