Franklinville, Philadelphia

Not to be confused with Francisville, Philadelphia.

Franklinville
Neighborhood of Philadelphia
Franklinville
Coordinates:
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
County	Philadelphia
City	Philadelphia
Area code(s)	215, 267, and 445

Franklinville is a neighborhood of North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. According to the City Planning Commission, the boundaries of Franklinville are roughly a triangle bounded by West Sedgley Avenue, North Broad Street, and West Hunting Park Avenue.

Franklinville is a neighborhood that appears to no longer exist in current times, as not many residents in that area use the name to describe where they live. From the description above, one would be defining a possible description of Hunting Park and perhaps its borders with Nicetown-Tioga and Fairhill (to the south of W. Sedgley). It has previously been delineated as the "vicinity of Erie Avenue to Westmoreland Street, between Broad Street and Sedgley Avenue."

Demographics

The neighborhood was predominantly German and Irish into the mid 20th century. Today there is a large Hispanic population – most hailing from Puerto Rico – and African-American and Filipino families as well.

There is reference to a Franklinville schoolhouse in Philadelphia in 1865.

History

Named for the Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin, the original 72-acre tract was farmland that was subdivided, beginning in 1852, into 1,000 lots for townhouses, sold with a minimum 20 foot frontage, for $500 or $600 each. The land was owned by Coleman Fisher, whose large house in the middle of Venango Street was moved in the early 20th century. The Franklin Land Company, John Turner, president, met at Franklin Hall and was one of the first mutual land firms in the city. Turner wanted to "aid those of small means." His mansion, dating to 1750, was taken down to make room for the "industrial classes." An oil works employed many Franklinville men as did a steel nail manufacturer.

Case study

One of "those of small means" was Michael Carolan (1844-1906), an emigrant from Drumbaragh and Balrath Demesne townlands near Kells, County Meath, Ireland (arriving July 27, 1847), who moved here by 1891, from nearby Rowlandville. He came with wife Annie Larner (1852-1901) and six children. They settled home and business at the triangle created by the intersections of North Fifth Street, West Butler, Nicetown Lane (extinct), and the well-traveled Rising Sun Lane (Avenue).

Michael was a blacksmith and horseshoer who apprenticed with Master blacksmith John Spencer, cousin of George Spencer who, with his wife, took the Carolans into their home to live. The Spencers were members of the Society of Friends, and owned the old homestead where the Carolans stayed. It remains about a mile northeast of Willow Grove.

By 1865, Michael, age 21, opened his first shop on a farm in Abington Township, Montgomery County, about a mile and a half due north of Weldon.A decade later, he began what would become a lucrative business on the busy Limekiln Pike at Dreshertown, in the Upper Dublin Township.

Franklinville, Philadelphia-Baist Map, 1895.

In 1882, Michael and family moved about ten miles south of where they resided in Fitzwatertown to the neighborhood that developed around the Rowland Company, near Wyoming Ave. and Tacony Creek. It was called Rowlandville (extinct). Their daughter Martha was born here, in 1882, and died six months later, according to her death certificate located at the Philadelphia City Archives.

Michael established a new location for his business at Franklinville at the aforementioned triangle. By 1893, the family lives in the adjacent block, a townhouse rental at 3817 N. 5th St.

All told, Annie gave birth to 17 children of which six survived. Michael and Annie left Immaculate Conception in Jenkintown and joined nearby St. Veronica's Catholic Church (est. 1872 by Irish people), just south of their home at 6th St. and Tioga Avenue. Annie died in 1901 at the age of 48.

They are interred, with many of their children, at the New Cathedral Cemetery (est. 1861), to the east of Franklinville in Francisville. Their surviving children bought a limestone headstone for the plot.

Upon Michaels's death in 1906, his daughter Helen and son-in-law, who had married another daughter, ran the business under "Nellie Carolan & Geo. Roth, horseshoers," until Roth died in 1910. Roth had been a boarder and an apprentice blacksmith to Michael in 1900 before he fell in love with Michael 's daughter Emma. After Roth's death, Emma married another blacksmith, George Washington Merritt.

Michael and Annie's six children married and lived in the neighborhood surrounding Franklinville such as Feltonville and Olney in North Philadelphia.

There were five daughters: Elizabeth Macdonald, Helen Ann Heidenfelder, Mary Emma Roth Merritt, Anna Mary Carolan and Caroline Veronica McGrath. One son, Matthew William Carolan (1871-1942), survived to bring the surname forward with three children: George, Walter, and Ann, followed by three more generations as of 2025.