Dock Creek

Called Cooconocon by the native Lenape people, Dock Creek was near the center of William Penn's initial settlement in Philadelphia.{{sfn|Philadelphia Times 1889}}{{sfn|PLA 1879|p=5}} The area around the mouth of the creek was marshy, and early Philadelphians referred to it as "The Swamp".{{sfn|Philadelphia Times 1889}} The creek's source was near present-day Eleventh Street between Arch and Race.{{sfn|Kite 1895|pp=264–265}} It then flowed through a pond around present-day Fifth and Market streets, after which it flowed south and east.{{sfn|PLA 1879|p=5}} At about Fourth and Chestnut, it was joined by another small stream, Munday's Run.{{sfn|PLA 1879|p=5}} Dock Creek then ran southeast, where it was joined by the Little Dock Creek, and through the swamp to the Delaware River.{{sfn|PLA 1879|p=5}}

Penn thought the mouth of the Dock a good site to dock ships, giving rise to the name. He declared that the area should be a harbor forever, but later inhabitants did not follow his plan.{{sfn|Philadelphia Times 1889}} By 1704, a drawbridge was constructed near the mouth of the creek, the first bridge in the colony of Pennsylvania.{{sfn|Philadelphia Times 1889}} More bridges followed: at Second Street in 1713, Third Street in 1740, and Walnut Street in 1767.{{sfn|Philadelphia Times 1889}} In 1763, the creek's use as an open sewer led residents to describe it as "a Receptacle for the Carcasses of dead Dogs, and other Carrion, and Filth of various kinds, which laying exposed to the Sun and Air putrify and become extremely offensive and injurious to the Health of the Inhabitants."{{sfn|Olton 1974|p=92}} Increased development in the area led settlers to cover the creek above Second Street by 1769.{{sfn|Cotter 1992|p=235}} By 1784, it was covered all the way to its outlet at the Delaware.{{sfn|Cotter 1992|p=235}}

The mouth of the Dock had become known as "a foul place, especially when the tide was out."{{sfn|Kite 1895|pp=264–265}} The stream became completely buried and served as a sewer for the neighborhood. By the 1840s, the sewer had become inadequate and frequently overflowed into the streets above.{{sfn|Topo 1849}} Investigators recommended that Philadelphia City Council build a culvert under the streets to carry the stream, which they did. By the 1870s, the Dock Street Market was the city's primary's wholesale produce distribution center until its closure in 1959.

During urban renewal in the 1960s, new sewer lines were constructed in the area, and archaeologists investigated the former site of the city's main waterfront.{{sfn|Cotter 1992|p=236}} An art project in 2008 through Philadelphia's FringeArts Festival investigated the former course of Dock Creek between Third and Fifth streets, in what is now Independence National Historical Park.{{sfn|Lutz 2008}}

{{reflist|2}}

Books

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book

| year = 1879

| title = Public Ledger Almanac

| publisher = George W. Childs

| location = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb__zMXAAAAYAAJ

| ref = {{sfnRef|PLA 1879}}

}}

• {{cite book

| year = 1992

| last = Cotter

| first = John L.

| title = The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia

| publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press

| location = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=w2jYI8ve7ccC&

| isbn = 0812231422

| ref = {{sfnRef|Cotter 1992}}

}}

{{refend}}

Articles

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal

| date = 1895

| last = Kite

| first= Benjamin

| title = Recollections of Philadelphia near Seventy Years Ago

| journal = The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

| volume = 19

| issue = 2

| pages = 264–266

| jstor = 20083649

| ref = {{sfnRef|Kite 1895}}

}}

• {{cite journal

| date = January 1974

| last = Olton

| first= Charles S.

| title = Philadelphia's First Environmental Crisis

| journal = The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

| volume = 98

| issue = 1

| pages = 90–100

| jstor = 20090816

| ref = {{sfnRef|Olton 1974}}

}}

{{refend}}

Newspaper

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite news

| title = Our Hidden Streams

| date = August 11, 1889

| work = Philadelphia Times

| url = http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/HiddenStreams_1889.htm

| ref = {{sfnRef|Philadelphia Times 1889}}

}}

{{refend}}

Websites

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite web

| url = http://www.phillyh2o.org/backpages/DockCreek_1849.htm

| title = Dock Creek Sewer in 1849: A report on its condition made to City Councils

| publisher = Philly H2O

| last = Topographical Commissioners appointed by the Committee on Public Highways of the City of Philadelphia

| year = 1849

| ref = {{sfnRef|Topo 1849}}

}}

• {{cite web

| url = http://winifredlutz.com/installation_02.html

| title = Drawing Dock Creek

| last = Lutz

| first = Winifred

| year = 2008

| ref = {{sfnRef|Lutz 2008}}

}}

{{refend}}

• {{HABS |survey=PA-1072 |id=pa1191 |title=Dock Street Sewer, Dock and Third Streets vicinity, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA |dwgs=1}}

{{Coord|39.9453|-75.1434|type:landmark_region:US-PA|display=title}}

{{Society Hill}}

Category:Tributaries of the Delaware River

Category:Former rivers

Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia

Category:Subterranean rivers of the United States