Swampoodle is an older neighborhood in

North Philadelphia North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, United States. Swampoodle was defined as the vicinity of the junction of three railroad lines near Lehigh Avenue and 22nd Streets. The neighborhood was the home of Connie Mack Stadium, long known as

Shibe Park Shibe Park ( , rhymes with "vibe"), known later as Connie Mack Stadium, was a ballpark located in Philadelphia. It was the home of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League (AL) from 1909 to 1954 and the Philadelphia Phillies of the Natio ...

. The stadium was located at 21st Street and Lehigh Avenue. Connie Mack Stadium was once the home of the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, they became the Oakland ...

of the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

(AL) and the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

of the

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. Owners of homes bordering the stadium would make money parking cars or renting porch and roof space. Formerly an Irish neighborhood, as of 2012 it had been absorbed into Allegheny West, a poor African-American enclave that had suffered post-industrial decline and

disinvestment Disinvestment refers to the use of a concerted economic boycott to pressure a government, industry, or company towards a change in policy, or in the case of governments, even regime change. The term was first used in the 1980s, most commonly in ...

. There are several accounts of how the neighborhood came to be named Swampoodle. One source says that the name refers to the swampiness and frequent formation of puddles near 22nd Street and Lehigh Avenue . The term is also slang for low-lying land and may have been used because Cohocksink Creek ran through the area. Others have countered that the area is actually elevated.

Location

Finkel defines Swampoodle as "Junction of three railroad lines, vic. icinityLehigh Avenue and 22nd Streets." He gives "(before 1926)" as the time period during which the name is attested in the sources that he and his contributors consulted.* The Philadelphia Information Locator Service list, augmented from the Finkel 1995 list, repeats the same definition. However, the junction of three railroads to which they refer would apparently be the junction at North Philadelphia station, which clearly has been well east of 22nd Street since the 1890s or earlier.

Proposed SEPTA Swampoodle Connection

SEPTA's proposed Swampoodle Connection was named for the old neighborhood as recently as the 1980s.

References

Neighborhoods in Philadelphia Upper North Philadelphia Irish-American culture in Philadelphia {{Philadelphia-stub