The
Cohocksink Creek was formerly a stream running between what are now the
Philadelphia neighborhoods of Northern Liberties and Kensington. It was a tributary of the
Delaware River. Its name, spelled various ways, is said to come from a
Lenape language word for "pine lands".
Alternate names included
Stacey's Creek.
The creek arose at the confluence of two smaller streams in a
pond around the present-day intersection of Sixth and Thompson streets. For centuries, Cohocksink Creek has often been confused with Cohoquinoque Creek, a culverted stream about a mile to the south.
Early settlement and industry
The Cohocksink and its
divided the District of Kensington from the city of Philadelphia and its Northern Liberties.
The first settlers were Swedish, predating the founding of the colony of
Pennsylvania.
As early as 1700, area mills and tanneries took advantage of the stream for water power, including one mill built between Fifth and Sixth streets at the direction of
William Penn, Pennsylvania's founder.
[ Northern Liberties, accessed 2007-01-19] The neighborhoods on either side of the Cohocksink were home to much Philadelphia's early industrial development. During the American Revolution, the Cohocksink was line of defense for the British as they occupied Philadelphia. Planting
artillery on the south side, the British dammed the stream to create a broad marshland, forming a barrier against attacks from the north.
[
]
Conversion to sewer
By the mid-eighteenth century, area factories became less dependent on water for the source of their power. In order to promote drainage in the developing neighborhoods, and to discourage the miasma said to originate from the creek, the Cohocksink was converted to a storm sewer in the 1850s, around the time Northern Liberties and Kensington were consolidated into the city of Philadelphia.[
]
Modern times
In the first few decades after being buried, the creek often burst out of its tunnels during rainstorms.[ Hidden Streams, article from 1889] Since that time, it has been more reliably contained, and many residents are unaware that a former creek runs beneath their streets.
See also
-
List of rivers of Pennsylvania
-
Harry Kyriakodis, Northern Liberties: The Story of a Philadelphia River Ward (The History Press, 2012), at 26–30.
