NoMa’s first park reveals new name

A new park is born. Since November 2017, the public has been able to vote on the name of NoMa’s first park, located at 3rd and L streets NE. At the time, there were three names up for consideration after a total of 123 submissions: Swampoodle Park, Old City Corner, and 3rd and L Park.

Finally, a name has been chosen, and that name is Swampoodle Park. Once construction is complete in January 2018, the 8,000-square-foot park will feature a space for dogs with a dog agility ramp as well as a vertical play structure for children ages 5 and up.

For those who may be scratching their heads at the name—is it a reference to the land being partially a dog park and how D.C. is thought to be built on a swamp?—it’s actually a reference to a small, relatively unknown neighborhood in Washington, D.C., called Swampoodle.

North of Union Station and south of NoMa, Swampoodle was once a shanty town filled with working-class Irish, but is now dense with city and federal government buildings, car commuters, and landmarks like the National Guard Memorial Museum and Library and National Postal Museum.

The name of the neighborhood was a reference to the many puddles that would fill the area, due to it being constructed atop the Tiber River. According to the Historic DC blog, the name was supposedly coined by a reporter covering the construction of St. Aloysius Catholic Church in 1857.

Reactions to the new name have been a little mixed.

What are your thoughts on the name? Like it? Love it? Let Curbed DC know.

• Vote for the name of NoMa’s new park [Curbed DC]

• Swampoodle, D.C.'s hidden neighborhood [Curbed DC]