Pennsport is home to a large working-class Irish American population, many of them descendants of immigrants from the mid to late 19th century.

The state and city had conducted some negotiations with the Mashantucket Pequot, whose reservation is based in Connecticut, to establish Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia in this neighborhood, but the proposal never gained approval.

[5] According to the Genealogy of Philadelphia County Subdivisions, Pennsport was originally part of Moyamensing Township.

Most of the area north of present-day Mifflin Street was included in the Southwark District from 1794 until the consolidation of Philadelphia in 1854.

The First and Second wards ran east of Passyunk Avenue and were divided by Wharton Street (First to the south, Second to the north).

The southern boundary of the First Ward initially spanned south to the river, but it was stopped at Mifflin Street in 1898.

[11] The Historic rowhouse synagogue, Congregation Shivtei Yeshuron-Ezras Israel, was featured in the Hidden City Philadelphia 2013 Festival.

[18] Bronze statues of William “Wild Bill” Guarnere and Edward “Babe” Heffron have been installed at a park on 2nd and Reed Streets.

It portrays the pair as young men, as they looked just before leaving Pennsport to fight in Europe during World War II.