Kensington District, Pennsylvania

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Kensington District, Pennsylvania" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Kensington District
EDT)
Area codes	215, 267 and 445

Kensington District, or The Kensington District of the Northern Liberties, was one of the twenty-nine municipalities that formed

. The District of Kensington was a self-governing district between the years 1820 and 1854.

History

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1820	7,118		—
1830	13,394		88.2%
1840	22,314		66.6%
1850	46,774		109.6%

Captain Anthony Palmer originally laid out Kensington as a town in the 1730s. Palmer, an English merchant by way of

in 1748-49, due to the absence of the governor who went back to England for health reasons. According to the research of Ken Milano, it was during Palmer's brief reign as acting governor that Kensington, for one day, was the working capital of the colony" the Council met there because Palmer, being old and infirm, was not able to travel into Philadelphia.

By 1820, Kensington started to acquire men of wealth, who petitioned the state to become a self-governing district within Philadelphia County, as at the time it was a part of the

that occurred in Philadelphia County in May & July 1844).

Over the years the town of Kensington became quite successful and quite well known as the heart of Philadelphia's industrial heyday. When Philadelphians referred to things being "Made in Philadelphia", most of what they referred to was manufactured in Kensington. There was another saying that "If you can't get it at K & A (Kensington & Allegheny Avenues) you can't get." Kensington was the place where a number of notable industries were founded such as William Cramp Shipyard, John B. Stetson Hat Company, Schoenhut Toy Factory, Bromley Mills, and Disston’s

of the 1930s, Kensington at one time had 35,000 textile jobs alone.

Presidents of the Board of Commissioners

	Name	Took office	Left office	Party
1	John C. Brown	May, 1820	August 10, 1832
2	Henry Remmey, Jr.	October, 1832	October, 1834
3	Mahlon Dungan	October, 1834	October, 1835
	Henry Remmey, Jr. (2nd time)	October, 1835	June, 1836
4	Abraham R. Eyre	June, 1836	May, 1840
5	Peter Rambo	May, 1840	May, 1841
6	Thomas H. Brittain	May, 1841	June, 1842
7	John Robbins, Jr.	June, 1842	October, 1845
8	Samuel T. Bodine	October, 1845	1847
9	John P. Verree	1852	1854