1896 Map of Germantown

About this map

Philadelphia and its northern suburban townships are captured in a period of intense transition from rural agricultural land to a dense industrial and commuter network. The landscape is defined by the drainage basins of the Wissahickon Creek and Neshaminy Creek, which provided the topographic foundation for early mills and settlements. Large estate names and small crossroads villages like Hatboro, Ivyland, and Montgomeryville are interspersed with the expanding infrastructure of the Phila. and Reading R. R. and the P. R. R.. Near the Schuylkill River, the grid of the city begins to dissolve into the undulating terrain of Lower Merion and White Marsh. Notable landmarks such as the U. S. Arsenal near the Delaware River and the Jackson School Lane offer specific points of interest for genealogists tracing late 19th-century land use and neighborhood development in the Montgomery and Philadelphia county borderlands.