[5] Originally the southern border of William Penn's 1682 city plan and officially named Cedar Street until 1854,[6] eastern South Street had been originally the center of local Swedish and Dutch populations, then Irish in the early to mid 1800s, and, many decades later, Jewish and Italian immigrant culture as well as a vibrant African-American neighborhood.

Until the 1950s, South Street was known mainly as a multiethnic entertainment and garment district, with an abundance of stores for men's suits and other clothing.

[11] By the late 1950s and early 1960s, and especially following the Crosstown Expressway proposal and the resulting drop in rent and property prices, South Street served as an artists' haven and a hub of Beat subculture and, later, 1960s counterculture, bohemianism, and the hippie movement in Philadelphia, establishing a lasting association of South Street with avant-garde and alternative subcultures.

Starting mainly in the early 1960s to the 1970s, South Street was filled with clubs and bars that fostered a live local music community.

This community of fans helped attract recording contracts for many artists, including Kenn Kweder, the bard of South Street, George Thorogood, and Robert Hazard.

Tourists flocked to the nightlife that South Street had accumulated over the years, and the "neighborhood" community aspect was gradually stripped from it.

South Street and Cedar Avenue are discontinuous with each other due to Woodland Cemetery, the University of Pennsylvania (the former Blockley Township), and the Schuylkill River.

The historic district spans the following areas:[1] The neighborhood significantly overlaps with Queen Village, Washington Square West, Bella Vista, and Society Hill.