Browsing Topic

Swampoodle

Swampoodle Grounds (near present day Union Station), also known as Capitol Park, was the home of the Washington Nationals baseball team of the National League from 1886 to 1889.

Check Out the Nationals of the 1880s

This fascinating old photograph shows the Washington Nationals playing at Swampoodle Grounds in the 1880s. Click on it for some amazing details. Source: Architect of the Capitol
Swampoodle Houses

Irish Thief and Family Arrested in Swampoodle for Assaulting Officers

This is a colorful story for the lost neighborhood of Swampoodle. We came across the article in The Washington Post, printed on October 20th, 1879. Morris Connors, a notorious Swampoodle thief and rough, tumbled out of a restaurant on G near...
View from the Capitol Roof

View from the Roof of the Capitol … in 1861

Not many of us get to see Washington, DC from the roof of the Capitol. None of us ever got to see the view in 1861, but here’s the next best thing. Taken in 1861, this is looking north. The...
Photograph shows view of Washington, D.C., taken from U.S. Capitol, showing Douglas Hospital, Old Douglas House, Railway Station, The Washington, or Wilkes House, St. Aloysius, Government Printing Office, Glenwood Cemetery, Swampoodle, Old Mill.

View of Swampoodle from Capitol Building in 1861

Here’s a good one to study. This is a view from the Capitol Building looking north, very early during the Civil War.
1903 map of Swampoodle

Map of Swampoodle and Proposed Union Depot

Here’s another map of Swampoodle from 1903. Make sure you check out the 1888 one and compare them. This has the proposed Union Station superimposed over the neighborhood and you’ll see some familiar street names which appear to have been...

1888 Map of Swampoodle

GoDCers love maps … and they love Swampoodle. If you’re unfamiliar with Swampoodle, it was a rough and tumble, working-class Irish neighborhood which was destroyed to make way for Union Station in the early 1900s (stay tuned for another map of...
New Gonzaga College advertisement in the Washington Times - August 31st, 1913

The New Gonzaga College in 1913

Along the same lines as the earlier post today with the St. Albans advertisement, here is another prominent (and old) local school. Gonzaga had just built their Main Building in 1912, now named Dooley Hall. Read their Wikipedia page for...

Two Plumbers and a Plasterer Go Looking for Trouble and Find It (1895)

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...