Swampoodle sounds like an area filled with some tough blue-collar dudes. Here’s a little column I found in the Post from January 21st, 1895 about three locals, boozing until the wee hours of the morning.
Two plumbers and a plasterer went outside of “Swampoodle” Saturday night to find trouble. They found quite a large quantity of it about 3 o’clock Sunday morning, and incidentally learned that among the policemen of the First precinct are a number of expert sprinters. At the station the plumbers gave the names of George Ricketts and William McGregor, and the plasterer said that his name was Bernard Downing.
Swampoodle, by the way, was a rough Irish immigrant neighborhood, centered where Union Station is today. Much of the neighborhood was bulldozed to make way for the railroad station, which most law-abiding locals supported. It was a nasty shantytown, rife with crime, rampant prostitution and drunkenness. So, needless to say, these guys lived in a rough part of town.
