Southwark District

Southwark is a waterfront district along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, containing about 600 eighteenth and nineteenth century commercial, residential and religious buildings. Its houses are mostly handmade brick with Flemish bond facades, steep or broken gable roofs, and wood trim matching those of Society Hill to the north. Gloria Dei, also called Old Swedes Church, was begun in 1700 and is the oldest church in Philadelphia. The Sparks' Shot Tower, built in 1808, was among the first of its kind in the United States and supplied shot for the government during the War of 1812. Because the area stayed residential and its buildings were seldom remodeled, it keeps much of its eighteenth century character. Its mariners, shipwrights and ropemakers link it closely to the river trade that shaped the city's early growth.