The borders of Fishtown is debated. The newest resident suggest that the borders are defined by a triangle created by the Delaware River, Frankfor Avenue, and York Street. Newer residents believe the area to expand to Lehigh Avenue while traditional working class Irish Catholic families shrink its borders to Norris Street.
Below is a link to see the borders of Fishtown, Pennsylvania.
The neighborhood is a mix of “Row Housing,” small Fishtown convenient stores, Irish pubs, and music venue. In addition, many people rent spaces that were originally Warehouses that were converted into living spaces. These areas have provided excellent spaces for musicians to practice. A lot of people who play music try to find housing in warehouses because they are big enough to support a full band practicing but they are cheap. Local musicians and artists who occupy warehouses in the neighborhood typically work entry level positions at local businesses on Frankford Avenue. Frankford Avenue is a long street of Cafes’s, Art Venues, Bars, Musical Venues and Restaurants. Frankford Avenue’s local Art and and Music scene has been crucial to the neighborhood’s radical transformation into a Philadelphia hotspot. Many attribute the the success to an Architect named Roland Kassis.
“Roland Kassis is the reigning developer. Over 25 years, Kassis estimates, his company, Domani Developers, has collected a million square feet of property, mainly in old manufacturing buildings along Frankford Avenue, the neighborhood’s commercial spine. That’s almost as much space as the Comcast Tower holds.
Kassis, 44, who was born in Lebanon, raised in Liberia, and speaks French, exhibits the same manic energy and insatiable appetite for abandoned factories as the other neighborhood titans, but he has a sensibility more in tune with Fishtown’s arty, DIY, tattoo-and-vintage-loving culture. He not only nurtured a yoga studio on Frankford Avenue, he practices there and eschews meat. It’s hard to imagine many other Philadelphia developers chanting “Om.”
Having already populated Frankford Avenue’s eclectic buildings with a beer garden, La Colombe super-cafe, vintage clothing stores, an edgy hair salon, Web designers, and upscale BBQ and cheesesteak restaurants, Kassis is attempting his first new construction project, a boutique hotel a half-block north of Girard Avenue next to Frankford Hall. Its inspiration comes from the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section. Kassis has even hired the Wythe’s New York architect, Morris Adjmi.”-http://articles.philly.com/2015-03-07/entertainment/59848685_1_boutique-hotel-beer-garden-frankford-hall
While I have a great deal more to learn about Fishtown’s architecture, I believe that the Row houses, local shops, and Frankford’s Brooklyn infused “nouveau industrial” styles are the primary basis for the aesthetic.