Boundaries Center City is bounded by
South Street to the south, the
Delaware River to the east, the
Schuylkill River to the west, and Vine Street to the north. The district occupies the old boundaries of the City of Philadelphia before
the city was made coterminous with Philadelphia County in 1854. The Center City District, which has special powers of taxation, has a complicated, irregularly shaped boundary that includes much but not all of this area and also extends beyond it. The
Philadelphia Police Department patrols four districts located within Center City – the 6th, 9th, 3rd, and 17th districts.
Neighborhood features in 2011 at night in December 2012 Among Center City's neighborhoods and districts are
Penn's Landing,
Old City,
Society Hill,
South Street,
Washington Square West,
Market East,
Chinatown,
Logan Square, the
Museum District (located along the
Benjamin Franklin Parkway),
Rittenhouse Square,
Fitler Square, the
Avenue of the Arts (South Broad Street), and
Jewelers' Row. Center City is home to most of Philadelphia's tallest buildings, including
Philadelphia's City Hall, the second-tallest
masonry building in the world and, until 1987, the tallest in Philadelphia, as well as the
tallest building in the world for fourteen years (1894–1908). In March 1987,
One Liberty Place broke the
gentlemen's agreement not to exceed the height of the
statue of William Penn atop City Hall. Upon the completion of One Liberty Place, no Philadelphia major-league sports team won a world championship for the next two decades, a phenomenon known as the "
Curse of Billy Penn". In an effort to reverse the curse, a three-foot statue of Penn was affixed to the top of the
Comcast Center upon its completion as the city's new tallest building in 2007. On October 29, 2008, the
Philadelphia Phillies won the
2008 World Series, ending the "
curse". Seven other
skyscrapers now exceed the height of Penn's statue, including One Liberty Place's little sister,
Two Liberty Place. The Comcast Center, which was completed in 2007, became the
tallest building in Pennsylvania, 30 feet taller than One Liberty Place. In 2018, the
Comcast Technology Center opened, which is now the tallest building in Philadelphia and the tallest building in the United States outside of
Manhattan and Chicago. 1441 Chestnut, which is currently under construction, is also slated to be taller than City Hall. The first publicly accessible vantage point higher than City Hall opened at
One Liberty Observation Deck on the 57th floor of One Liberty Place in 2015. Other Center City skyscrapers include the
BNY Mellon Center and the
Three Logan Square, which houses a traffic camera used by the Philadelphia branch of the
Westwood One MetroNetworks traffic service. Across the street from City Hall is the
Masonic Temple, the headquarters of the
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, a legacy of the
Founding Fathers and signers of the
Declaration of Independence, many of whom were
Freemasons; these include
George Washington and
Benjamin Franklin. While Philadelphia's population declined between 1990 and 2000, Center City's population increased by 10% over that same period. In 2007, the city designated the area bound by 11th Street, Broad Street, Chestnut Street and Pine Street as the
Gayborhood.
Neighborhoods •
Callowhill •
Chinatown •
Fitler Square •
Gayborhood •
French Quarter •
Logan Square •
Market East •
Old City •
Penn Center •
Penn's Landing •
Rittenhouse Square •
Society Hill •
Washington Square West ==Economy==