Swampoodle SECOND AND F STREETS NE
THIS IS THE EASTTERN EDGE of what once was the rough, working-class Swampoodle neighborhood. In the early days the marshy Tiber Creek ran between what are now North Capitol and First Streets, NE. Legend has it that lingering rain puddles (“poodles”) led to the neighborhood’s nickname. Swampoodle’s earliest residents, mostly Irish immigrants and free African Americans, helped build this city . eir hands cra ed the White House, Capitol, and other buildings. During the Civil War (1861-1865) more once-enslaved people arrived seeking work. In the 1880s Italian stonecarvers and masons found a ordable lodging here while building the Library of Congress, Union Station, and the National Cathedral. In the early 1900s, C ongress located Union Station in Swampoodle. Hundreds of homes and businesses disappeared as railroad tracks were laid and the station rose. Many of the displaced moved east, settling today’s H Street corridor. Swampoodle’s large Irish immigrant Catholic population drew two institutions honoring Jesuit Saint Aloysius Gonzaga: St. Aloysius Catholic Church, dedicated in 1859, and Gonzaga College High School, founded in 1821 and relocated beside the church on North Capitol Street in 1871. In the early 1950s, Father Horace McKenna revived a shrinking St. Aloysius, refocusing its mission to serving the neediest. Father McKenna founded So Others Might Eat (SOME), Martha’s Table, and other enduring programs providing meals, clothing, child care, and shelter.
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