# Wingohocking Creek

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Wingohocking_Creek
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Wingohocking_Creek.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingohocking_Creek
> Source revision: 1273836429
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Former creek in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Roberts' Mill, circa 1870. Roberts' Mill (built 1680s, demolished 1873), was on Mill Creek, at Church Lane.

**Wingohocking Creek** was once a major tributary of another [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania](/source/Philadelphia%2C_Pennsylvania) stream, [Frankford Creek](/source/Frankford_Creek), which flows into the [Delaware River](/source/Delaware_River).[1] Frankford Creek was formed by the confluence of Wingohocking Creek and Tacony Creek (sections of which, in [Montgomery County, Pennsylvania](/source/Montgomery_County%2C_Pennsylvania), are also called Tookany Creek). Since Wingohocking Creek is now obliterated, having been piped underground in the late 19th century, it can be confusing to look at a modern map, which shows Tacony Creek suddenly changing names "in the middle of the stream," so to speak, and becoming Frankford Creek. The point at which the name changes is near the present intersection of I and Ramona Streets, where the Wingohocking once joined the Tacony to form the Frankford Creek. What was once a major stream and the site of many mills and factories has been completely wiped off the map—all but the city's sewer maps, that is. The outlet of the Wingohocking Sewer is the largest in the Philadelphia sewer system, about 24 feet (7.3 m) high. It is visible from various points in the [Juniata](/source/Juniata%2C_Philadelphia%2C_Pennsylvania) neighborhood and the adjoining golf course.

The word "Wingohocking" may have originated from the indigenous [Lenni Lenape](/source/Lenni_Lenape) for "favorite land for planting"[2] or, perhaps, "crooked water."[3] By other accounts, the stream was named by [James Logan](/source/James_Logan_(statesman)) in honor of Chief Wingohocking, with whom he traded names in traditional [Native American](/source/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States) fashion as a sign of mutual respect.[4][5][6]

The stream now flows in a combined sewer (carrying both storm water and raw sewage) under Belfield Avenue and close to the route of Wingohocking Street in the [Logan](/source/Logan%2C_Philadelphia%2C_Pennsylvania) neighborhood of Philadelphia. It had two branches, the larger of which, the West Branch, reached as far as the [Mount Airy](/source/Mount_Airy%2C_Philadelphia%2C_Pennsylvania) neighborhood. In the 1860s, when municipal engineers drew up the preliminary drainage maps for Philadelphia's 129 square miles (330 km2), the conversion of many of the city's smaller streams into sewers became an integral part of the plan. The Wingohocking was converted beginning in the 1880s, with the final section of 21 miles (34 km) of streams finally obliterated in 1928.

That mistakes were made in this process is evident in the city's [Logan](/source/Logan%2C_Philadelphia%2C_Pennsylvania) neighborhood, where more than 900 houses have been evacuated and demolished because of the threat of [subsidence](/source/Subsidence) and collapse from weakened foundations caused by the inadequate fill material ([fly ash](/source/Fly_ash)) that was used when the stream was first covered. The city purchased most of the homes in this area (called the **Logan Redevelopment Area**) and demolished them, leaving only a ghostly, rectangular grid of streets as a reminder of the former urban landscape. The area is slated for commercial redevelopment.

The creek formerly ran upstream from its confluence with the Tacony Creek in the vicinity of I Street and Ramona Avenue, west along Ramona two blocks to Cayuga then along Cayuga past G Street, and then Whitaker Avenue, then roughly parallel to Macalester Street and Hunting Park Avenue, staying north of Hunting Park, following the southerly boundary of Greenmount Cemetery near Front Street and Hunting Park Avenue. Sewer manhole pylons are visible in the lowest ground in this area.

As described above, the Wingohocking Creek system was composed of two branches, which converged at a point located under Belfield Avenue west of modern-day [Broad Street](/source/Broad_Street_(Philadelphia)). The southerly branch, **Wingohocking Creek** proper, followed the path taken today by [SEPTA](/source/SEPTA)'s [Chestnut Hill East](/source/Chestnut_Hill_East_Line) rail line (built by the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad in 1833 and extended by the successor [Philadelphia & Reading Railroad](/source/Reading_Company) in the 1850s) between [Sedgwick](/source/Sedgwick_(SEPTA_station)) and [Wister](/source/Wister_(SEPTA_station)) stations. The northerly branch, listed on maps as **Mill Creek**, began in Mt. Airy slightly north of Stenton Avenue and followed the path of Mansfield Avenue which was built on top of Mill Creek when it was arched over.[7]

A small section of Wingohocking Creek has been uncovered, or daylighted, at [Awbury Arboretum](/source/Awbury_Arboretum). This is the only portion of the Wingohocking currently visible above ground.

Although the creek is now extinct, its name lives on in Philadelphia's Wingohocking Street.

## See also

- [Philadelphia portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Philadelphia)

- [List of rivers of Pennsylvania](/source/List_of_rivers_of_Pennsylvania)

## References

- Finkel, Kenneth, ed. *Philadelphia Almanac and Citizen’s Manual*. Philadelphia, PA: Library Company, 1995.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Wingohocking Creek](https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names/1202511)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Chapter 3 - Part II, Vol. II - *Watson's Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania*, 1857

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** *Worthy Women of Our First Century*, by [Agnes Irwin](/source/Agnes_Irwin_(educator)) (1841–1914) and Sarah Butler Wister, published 1975, Ayer Publishing, p. 291, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-8369-8182-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8369-8182-0)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** [Article](http://www.lasalle.edu/commun/history/articles/southcampus.htm) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20151026155348/http://www.lasalle.edu/commun/history/articles/southcampus.htm) 2015-10-26 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) at [La Salle University](/source/La_Salle_University)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** [Article](http://publications.ohiohistory.org/ohstemplate.cfm?action=detail&Page=0031367.html&StartPage=355&EndPage=379&volume=31&newtitle=Volume%2031%20Page%20355) at *Ohio History: the Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society*, Vol. 31, pg. 367

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** [*The Book of Philadelphia*](https://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~jasche45133/chap19.html), by Robert Shackleton. ©1918, The Penn Publishing Company, Philadelphia, p. 292

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["Frankford Creek: The Sad History of an Urban Stream and its Watershed"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110717180921/http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/FrankfordCK_02062004.htm). *www.phillyh2o.org*. Archived from [the original](http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/FrankfordCK_02062004.htm#slide0122.htm) on 2011-07-17.

## External links

- [Aerial perspective from Virtual Earth including northern edge of the Logan Redevelopment Area](http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=40.025177~-75.138596&style=o&lvl=1&scene=1850560)

- [Logan Redevelopment Area Plan](https://web.archive.org/web/20110727173610/http://www.philaplanning.org/plans/areaplans/loganrap.pdf)

- [Tacony Creek Park](https://web.archive.org/web/20070227014006/http://www.fairmountpark.org/TaconyCreekPark.asp)

- [Creek to sewer history](http://www.phillyh2o.org/archives.htm)

- [Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, Inc.](http://www.ttfwatershed.org)

[40°1′0″N 75°6′26″W / 40.01667°N 75.10722°W / 40.01667; -75.10722](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Wingohocking_Creek&params=40_1_0_N_75_6_26_W_region:US-PA_type:river)

v t e Communities of Philadelphia Former municipalities are below. Sections and Neighborhoods Center City Avenue of the Arts Broad Street Chinatown Fitler Square Franklin Square Jewelers' Row Logan Square Old City Penn's Landing Rittenhouse Square Society Hill South Street Washington Square West South Bella Vista Central South Philadelphia Devil's Pocket Dickinson Square West East Passyunk Crossing Fabric Row FDR Park Girard Estate Grays Ferry Greenwich Hawthorne Italian Market Little Saigon Lower Moyamensing Marconi Plaza Moyamensing Newbold Packer Park Passyunk Square Pennsport Point Breeze Queen Village Southwark Southwest Center City Sports Complex West Passyunk Wharton Whitman Wilson Park Southwest Angora Bartram Village Clearview Eastwick Elmwood Park Hog Island Kingsessing Mount Moriah Paschall Southwest Schuylkill West Avenue of Technology Belmont Village Carroll Park Cathedral Park Centennial District Cedar Park Cobbs Creek Dunlap Garden Court Haddington Haverford North Mantua Mill Creek Overbrook Overbrook Farms Overbrook Park Parkside Powelton Village Saunders Park Spruce Hill Squirrel Hill 30th Street Station University City Walnut Hill Woodland Terrace Wynnefield Wynnefield Heights North Lower North Badlands Belfield Brewerytown Callowhill Cecil B. Moore El Centro de Oro / Fairhill Fairmount Francisville Hartranft Ivy Hill Ludlow N3RD Street North Central Northern Liberties North Philadelphia East North Philadelphia West Poplar Sharswood South Lehigh Spring Garden Stanton Strawberry Mansion Yorktown Upper North Allegheny West Badlands Franklinville Glenwood Hunting Park Nicetown–Tioga Olde Kensington Swampoodle West Kensington Olney-Oak Lane East Oak Lane Feltonville Fern Rock Koreatown Logan Ogontz Olney West Oak Lane Northwest Lower Northwest Andorra East Falls Manayunk Parkland Roxborough Wissahickon Upper Northwest Beggarstown Cedarbrook Chestnut Hill Germantown Morton Mount Airy Wister Northeast Near Northeast Burholme Castor Gardens Crescentville Fox Chase Frankford Holme Circle Holmesburg Juniata Lawndale Lexington Park Mayfair Oxford Circle Rhawnhurst Ryers Tacony Wissinoming Far Northeast Academy Gardens Ashton-Woodenbridge Bustleton Byberry Crestmont Farms Millbrook Modena Park Morrell Park Normandy Parkwood Pennypack Somerton Torresdale Upper Holmesburg Winchester Park River Wards Bridesburg Fishtown Harrowgate Kensington Olde Richmond Port Richmond Former Municipalities Cities Philadelphia (Center City) Boroughs Aramingo Bridesburg Frankford Germantown Manayunk West Philadelphia Whitehall Districts Belmont Kensington Moyamensing Northern Liberties Penn Richmond Southwark Spring Garden Townships Blockley Bristol Byberry Delaware Germantown Kingsessing Lower Dublin Moreland Northern Liberties Oxford Passyunk Penn Roxborough Footnotes As a consolidated city-county Philadelphia is its own county seat.

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Wingohocking Creek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingohocking_Creek) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingohocking_Creek?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.