| Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
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Germantown was originally the Borough of Germantown, a town in Philadelphia County , Pennsylvania , and is today a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the city of Philadelphia , about six miles northwest from the center of the city. The neighborhood is rich in historic sites and buildings that have been preserved. Many of these are open to the public. Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim and Roberts Avenues. The boundaries of Germantown borough at the time it was Absorbed Into The City Of Philadelphia were Wissahickon Avenue, Roberts Avenue, Wister Street, Stenton Avenue and Washington Lane. The next neighborhood to the northwest, Mount Airy , starts around Johnson Street, though there is no universally recognized exact boundary. In 2005, the median home sale price in the 19144 zip code, which contains most of Germantown, was $95,000, an increase of 23% over the median price in 2004. The median home sale price in the 19138 zip code, which contains part of East Germantown, was $82,050. This was an increase of 37%. HISTORY highlighting Germantown Borough prior to the Act Of Consolidation, 1854 ]] The town was first settled in 1683 by about 200 immigrants from the German Rhine Valley . In 1681, William Penn published a broadside in German to recruit settlers for his new colony. The first group to respond, thirteen Mennonite and Quaker families from Krefeld , Germany , arrived in Philadelphia on the '' Concord '' on 6 October 1683 . Germantown can be said to be the wellspring of the Pennsylvania German , or Pennsylvania Dutch , ethnic group in the United States. A settlement in German Township , which was commenced by Francis Daniel Pastorius , October 21 , 1685 . On August 12 , 1689 , William Penn at London signed a charter constituting some of the inhabitants a corporation by the name of "the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty of German towne, in the county of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania." Pastorius was the first bailiff. Jacob Telner, Dirck Isaacs Opdagraaf, Herman Isaacs Opedegraaf, Reynier Tyson , and Tennis Coender were burgesses, besides six committeemen. They had authority to hold "the general court of the corporation of Germantowne," to make laws for the government of the settlement, and to hold a court of record. This court went into operation in 1690, and continued its services for sixteen years. Sometimes, to distinguish Germantown from the upper portion of German township, outside the borough, the township portion was called Upper Germantown. In 1688, Pastorius drew up the first written protest against African slavery in American history. When Philadelphia was occupied by the British during the American Revolutionary War , several units were housed in Germantown. In the Battle Of Germantown , in 1777, the Continental Army attacked this garrison. During the battle, a party of citizens fired on the British troops, as they marched up the Avenue, and mortally wounded British Brigadier General Agnew . The Americans withdrew after firing on one another in the confusion of the battle, leading to the determination that the battle resulted in a defeat of the Americans. However, the inspirational battle was considered an important victory by the feisty Americans. The American loss was 673; the British loss was 575. The battle is called a victory by the Americans because along with the Army's success under Brigadier General Horatio Gates at Saratoga on October 17 when Burgoyne surrendered, it led to the official recognition of the Americans by France , which formed an alliance with the Americans afterwards. For a time after the war, George Washington rented the Deshler-Morris House in Germantown to escape the central city and the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793. The first bank of the United States was also located here during his administration. |
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