Although Olney is primarily a quiet residential neighborhood, portions do serve as major commercial centers for many surrounding groups.

Olney is named after the estate of Alexander Wilson (not the ornithologist), who resided on Rising Sun Avenue, near Tacony Creek.

The population grew even more after the construction of the Broad Street subway, whose original terminal was at the Olney Transportation Center.

It promised to get riders from Olney to Philadelphia City Hall in less than twenty minutes for fifteen cents.

In addition to trolley lines that traveled east and west, this made Olney Philadelphia's northern transportation hub and gave Olneyites easy access to the entire city and beyond.

Olney High School's alumni include Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Del Ennis (1942), comedy writer Barry S. Waronker (1965), local news reporter Sheila Washington (1982), and former Feltonville historian Dennis Dalbey (1994).

Olneyites lobbied the city intensely for the constructions of playgrounds and the library at 5th Street and Tabor Road.

In 1987, the area boasted a Portuguese Businesses Association, five Portuguese travel agencies, three grocery stores, including Caravela and Girassol, two real estate offices, an insurance office, an electric-appliance store, a gift shop, a furniture store, bars, a bakery, cafe, and two major restaurants,Berlengas Island Restaurant, Cafe Portugal, Not far from Rua Cinco was also the Philadelphia Portuguese Club, founded in 1935 that at the time had an estimated 700 members.

Between the 1960s and 1980s, Olney began experiencing demographic change, as European-American residents moved out of the neighborhood in a process sometimes described as "white flight".

[citation needed] The receding population was quickly supplemented by a new wave of residents, including African Americans from elsewhere in the city, and immigrants from Asia (Korea, mainly, as well as Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos) and Latin America (Puerto Rico, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba and Dominican Republic).

As of the census[5] of 2010, the racial makeup of Olney was 49.5% African American, 26.3% Hispanic or Latino, 13.9% Asian, 6.9% White, and roughly 3% Multiracial.