Catholic Parishes within the Historical Boundaries of Kensington

 

[For referencing the historical boundaries of Kensington, see the Baker Map of Kensington that is located in the Kensington Map folder of this website.]

 

The information below is taken from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia website http://www.archdiocese-phl.org/parishes/index.htm,  the “south” vicariate. I give the name of the parish, the address to send for requests for spiritual records, phone numbers, when the parish was founded, and what the boundaries are today.  It could be that Catholics living with the historical boundaries of Kensington went to churches other then the ones listed below, especially if they were newer immigrants and wanted to go to an ethnic church. In neighborhood adjacent to Kensington, such as Port Richmond and the Northern Liberties, there were a number of ethnic churches. The only church listed below as an ethnic church is St. Laurentius, it was Polish. However, churches like St. Michael's and Holy Name were founded by Irish immigrants, and St. Peter's and St. Boniface were founded by Germans. In the future I will try to put up brief histories of all of these churches.

 

The original records of the churches are kept at the local parish level, with microfilm copies of pre-1900 records located at the archives of the Philadelphia Archdiocese Historical Research Center. To find out more about this facility, click here: http://www.rc.net/philadelphia/pahrc/index.html.

 

The records of the church are considered sacramental records and are not open to the public for research. The church will do lookups for you, generally for a small donation. This holds true for the archives as well.

 

 

 

 

 

List of churches with the historical boundaries of Kensington:

 

St. Anne’s

2328 E. Lehigh Avenue

Philadelphia, PA 19125

215-739-4590

 

Founded in July of 1845

 

Boundaries:  William St. from Frankford Ave. to Trenton Ave; to William St; to Tulip St.; to Cambria St.; to Cedar St.; to Cambria St.; to Delaware River to York St. excluding the site of the Chapel of Our Lady of Port Richmond; to Frankford Ave.; to William St.

 

St. Boniface

174 W. Diamond St.

Philadelphia, PA 19122

215-739-6376

 

Founded in January of 1866.

 

Boundaries: Dauphin St. from 3rd St.; to Front St.; to York St.; to Amber St.; to Front St.; to Berks St.; to 6th St.; to Norris St.; to 3rd St.; to Dauphin St.

 

St. Edward the Confessor

Founded in 1865 and closed in 1993.

 

Formerly located at 8th & York Streets, spiritual records are kept at Visitation, B.V.M. Church (Ph #215-634-1133), Boundaries are now included with Visitation, B.V.M.

 

Holy Name of Jesus

701 E. Gaul Street

Philadelphia, PA 19125

215-739-3960

 

Founded in January 1905

Boundaries: Delaware River from York St. to Susquehanna Ave.; to Girard Ave.; to Oxford St.; to Frankford Ave.; to Palmer St.; to Front St.; to Amber St.; to York St.; to the Delaware River.

 

Immaculate Conception

1020 N. Front St.

Philadelphia, PA 19123

215-627-2702

 

Founded in January of 1869.

 

Boundaries: Delaware River from Susquehanna Ave. to Green St.; to 3rd St.; to Girard Ave.; to Susquehanna Ave.; to Delaware River.

 

St. Laurentius (Polish)

1608 E. Berks Street

Philadelphia, PA 19125

215-739-1776, 215-739-2499

 

Founded in January of 1882.

 

Boundaries:  North, Cambria St.; east, Delaware River; west, Broad St.; south, Market St.

 

St. Michael’s

1445 N. 2nd Street

Philadelphia, PA 19122

215-739-2358

 

Founded in April of 1831.

 

Boundaries: Front St. from Berks St. to East Palmer St.; to Frankford Ave.; to East Oxford St.; to Girard Ave.; to 3rd St.; to Master St.; to 6th St.; to Berks St.; to Front St.

 

St. Peter the Apostle

1019 N. 5th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19123

215-627-2386, 215-627-2387

 

Founded in January of 1842.

 

Boundaries: 7th St. from Green St. to Oxford St.; Oxford St. from 7th St. to 6th St.; 6th St. from Oxford St. to Master St.; Master St. from 6th St. to 3rd St.; 3rd St. from Master St. to Green St.; Green St. from 3rd St. to 7th St.

 

Visitation, B.V.M.

2625 B Street

Philadelphia, PA 19125

215-634-1133, 215-425-7387

Founded in January of 1873

 

Boundaries: Indiana Ave.; from 2nd St.; to Orleans St.; to Frankford Ave.; to York St.; to Front St.; to Dauphin St.; to 3rd St.; to Norris st.; to Germantown Ave.; northwesterly along Germantown Ave.; to Lehigh Ave.; to 2nd St.; to Indiana Ave.