According to historical maps, much of what is South Philadelphia, including Point Breeze, was still not yet developed and integrated into the rectilinear grid system by 1843 or later.

In 1930s numerous African Americans settled here, some of whom had come North in the Great Migration, escaping Jim Crow in the South and looking for work in industrial cities.

At this time the African-American center of Philadelphia was shifting from near Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church at 6th and Lombard, to west of Broad.

Rising racial tensions, fear of race riots and white flight in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in many businesses moving away, and the neighborhood becoming majority African American.

Also at this time, people who could afford it often moved to newer suburban housing, aided by greater ease in commuting by public transit and highways.

and Universal Companies, owned by Kenny Gamble, have helped build low-income housing and schools in the area.

Real estate investors such as John Longacre and Ori Feibush have begun developing property here, especially along the Broad Street and Washington Avenue corridors.

One man said existing residents were harassed by increased police scrutiny; a woman said that her brother was killed here long ago.

Point Breeze Avenue then became the road that cut southwest to provide access to the spot from what was at the time Philadelphia proper.

[24] The United States Postal Service operates the Point Breeze Post Office at 2500 Snyder Avenue.

The Philadelphia Police Department's 17th District station is at the northern terminus of Point Breeze Avenue where it intersects 20th and Federal.

[27] On May 9, 2016 the $45.2 million, 96,000-square foot, LEED-certified South Philadelphia Community Health and Literacy Center officially opened at Broad and Morris Streets in Point Breeze.