THE PHILADELPHIA CITY ARCHIVES

The Philadelphia City Archives was established in 1952 in accordance with Section 5-1101d of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter of 1951. Its mission is to preserve all City records not in current use which possess historical, administrative, legal, research, cultural or other important value. Currently, it forms an integral part of the Records Management Division of the Department of Records.

The City Archives is located at:

548 Spring Garden Street

 Record Storage Center is located at:
456 North 5th Street

Telephone: 215-685-9401
Fax: 215-685-9409

Staff:

Ward J. Childs, City Archivist

David Baugh, Archivist I

Finding Aids to the Collections:

General Collections

Genealogical Resources at the City Archives

Naturalizations

Deeds and other architectural research resources

Philadelphia County Subdivisions, 1683-present

Districts, Townships and Boroughs

Exemplification Records

Mayors of Philadelphia, 1691-2000

Mayor's Executive Orders

Placenames & Neighborhoods in Philadelphia

Articles from the Newsletter of the Philadelphia City Archives

Browse Philadelphia government agencies by name

• Use this to view the list of governmental departments, bureaus and agencies, both past and present. A complete list of the City Archives' holdings of the records of each agency may be found under the listing for that agency.

Philadelphia Court Sampling Project

Under a series of grants from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission from 1997 to 1999, the Philadelphia City Archives undertook a project to sample the criminal records of the Quarter Sessions Court from 1940 to 1952. Click on the link above to view the various grants and the results of this project.