Swampoodle

Though it may be nearly impossible to improve upon this station’s inspired nomenclature, we will try... Welcome to Swampoodle! This neighborhood was originally created in the 1840s by Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine. All was good in the ‘Pood until the arrival of Italian immigrants in the 1890s. The Irish felt their neighborhood was being taken from them and this tension, along with the construction of Union Station, brought an end to Swampoodle. Another piece of Swampoodle history: the current site of Union Station was once Swampoodle Grounds, the baseball stadium of the Washington Nationals from 1886-89.