Why you should experience 37th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
37th Street is an enterprising corridor where University City's academic distinction, scientific innovation, architectural craftsmanship, and enduring institutional character define one of West Philadelphia's most influential north-south streets.
Running through University City between Powelton Village and Spruce Hill, the corridor connects internationally recognized universities, research facilities, historic residential blocks, and neighborhood commercial centers that collectively reflect Philadelphia's evolution through higher education, medical discovery, transportation, and sustained urban investment. Successive blocks reveal how streetcar expansion, university growth, and architectural ambition established an avenue whose historic fabric continues shaping West Philadelphia. Collegiate buildings, Victorian residences, masonry storefronts, and tree-lined streets document more than a century of urban development. The result is an experience defined by intellectual energy, continuity, and one of Philadelphia's most distinguished historic corridors.
What you should know about 37th Street.
37th Street is best known for developing during Philadelphia's westward expansion following the Act of Consolidation of 1854, when improved transportation and institutional investment transformed former farmland into one of the nation's foremost academic districts. Electric streetcars operated by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company and later the Philadelphia Transportation Company connected the corridor directly with Center City, encouraging sustained residential construction while supporting rapid expansion of nearby universities, hospitals, laboratories, and neighborhood commerce. Growth surrounding the University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1740, and its nationally recognized schools of medicine, engineering, business, and veterinary medicine attracted research institutes, professional offices, bookstores, restaurants, and scientific organizations that reinforced the avenue's institutional importance. Builders introduced distinguished collections of Collegiate Gothic, Georgian Revival, Colonial Revival, and Queen Anne architecture characterized by red brick masonry, Wissahickon schist, Indiana limestone, slate roofs, carved stone ornamentation, decorative terra-cotta, projecting bays, and finely crafted wood interiors that reflected Philadelphia's exceptional late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century building traditions. Together, transportation investment, university expansion, architectural craftsmanship, scientific research, and sustained commercial development established 37th Street as one of University City's defining corridors.
Completion of the Pennovation Works campus in 2016 transformed 23 acres of the former DuPont Marshall Laboratory property into a research and business innovation campus supporting startup companies, laboratories, collaborative workspaces, and technology commercialization associated with the University of Pennsylvania. Creation of the University City District in 1997 established a coordinated neighborhood management organization serving 2.4 square miles through public safety, sanitation, landscaping, economic development, transportation initiatives, and public-space programming that strengthened the surrounding urban environment. Continued rehabilitation of historic university buildings and residential architecture has preserved original Wissahickon schist walls, limestone detailing, slate roofs, ornamental masonry, decorative cornices, and historic streetscapes that continue expressing the craftsmanship established during the corridor's principal era of growth. Together, innovation-driven redevelopment, coordinated district stewardship, and long-term architectural preservation demonstrate how 37th Street continues expressing the academic and scientific evolution that has distinguished University City for more than a century.
How to fold 37th Street into your trip.
37th Street works as an exploration of University City's academic legacy, architectural heritage, and scientific culture.
Begin at Penn Museum, where globally significant archaeological collections and the museum's landmark 1899 Beaux-Arts building introduce the scholarly traditions that have shaped University City for generations. Continue to Franklin Field, where one of the nation's oldest operating collegiate stadiums expands the experience through the University of Pennsylvania's athletic and institutional history before naturally leading farther through campus. Conclude at Institute of Contemporary Art, where one of the country's leading university-affiliated contemporary art museums provides the cultural payoff through groundbreaking exhibitions and a longstanding commitment to emerging artists. Together, the sequence moves from archaeological scholarship to collegiate tradition before culminating in contemporary artistic innovation.
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