Germantown, Philadelphia
Germantown is an area in Northwest Philadelphia. Founded by German Quaker and Mennonite families in 1683 as an independent borough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854. The area, which is about six miles northwest from the city center, now consists of two neighborhoods: 'Germantown' and 'East Germantown'.
Germantown (Quincy, Massachusetts)
Palmer Street, the main thoroughfare of the neighborhood, was named for General Joseph Palmer. In 1752, Palmer and Richard Cranch, brother-in-law of John Adams and father of American jurist William Cranch, were held by tenure of lease by a company interested in German immigration to create a planned manufacturing community. The land was to be settled in the 1750s by a group of glassmakers and weavers from Germany. The planned community had failed by 1760, but the name has remained. Many of the Germans who originally settled in Germantown eventually left. Some went to Waldoboro, Maine as indentured servants.