Caribe Development Zone—a modern-day housing enterprise—is sited in a neighborhood that historically gave meaning to Philadelphia’s moniker: Workshop of the World. The Allegheny Avenue–Erie Avenue district in eastern North Philadelphia possessed all the right ingredients for 19th-century, industrial-age success: extra-wide streets lined with big, multistory factory buildings; a railroad freight line with numerous sidings; and thousands of workers and their families living on nearby rowhouse blocks. During its early-20th century economic peak, the area was home to the Philco Radio and Television Corporation Plant (at C Street and Ontario Avenue), which manufactured one-third of all the radios produced in the United States. Other firms included S.K.F. Industries (manufacturer of ball bearings), Sloane-Blabon (producer of inlaid and printed linoleum), and Cuneo Eastern Press (printing press for national magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and House Beautiful.

The area's defining characteristics ceased to be competitive advantages in the new economy that emerged in the second half of the 20th century: (1) Because of developments in technology and communications and improved systems for delivery, radios could be assembled and distributed from a number of locations. Having one very large factory was no longer essential. (2) Trucking became the dominant transportation mode, rather than rail, and this area did not have easy access to the interstate highway system. (3) The building stock tended be multistory factories. Developers and businesses favored cleared sites, where they could construct modern, single-story facilities that would have adequate space for loading and parking.

As businesses closed or moved out in the 1960s and 1970s, and white families departed, this area experienced a shift in demographics. Although there was a major, overall decline in the number of people, the newly arrived Latino population increased dramatically—by nearly 32 percent (from 35,680 to 47,057) in the 1980s alone. Today, along the once prosperous corridors of Allegheny and Erie avenues, decades of economic disinvestment are visible. However, many of the surrounding residential blocks are relatively intact.
Demolition has been more limited in this area than in other sections of North Philadelphia, and many stable, well-maintained neighborhood streets survive.

Senior officers enrolled in the Industrial College of the Armed Forces sample ball bearings at the SKF Industries plant. April 28, 1947.

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