The Cohocksink Creek was formerly a stream running between what are now the Philadelphia neighborhoods of Northern Liberties

Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

-Boundaries:Northern Liberties is located north of Center City and is bordered by Girard Avenue to the north; Callowhill Street to the south; North 6th Street to the west; and the Delaware River to the east...

 and Kensington

Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Kensington is a neighborhood in the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is between the Lower Northeast section of Philadelphia and North Philadelphia. Not to be confused with the former Kensington District, now commonly referred to as Fishtown, the area modernly referred to as...

. It was a tributary of the Delaware River

Delaware River

The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...

. Its name, spelled various ways, is said to come from a Lenape

Lenape language

The Delaware languages, also known as the Lenape languages, are Munsee and Unami, two closely related languages of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family...

 word for "pine lands." Alternate names included Stacey's Creek. The creek arose at the confluence of two smaller streams in a pond

Pond

A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...

 around the present-day intersection of Sixth and Thompson Streets. For centuries, Cohocksink Creek has often been confused with Cohoquinoque Creek

Cohoquinoque Creek

The Cohoquinoque Creek was formerly a stream running west to east through the Callowhill neighborhood in Philadelphia, along the southern part of Northern Liberties and immediately north of original northern boundary of Philadelphia...

, a culverted stream about a mile to the south.

Early settlement and industry

The Cohocksink and its marshlands 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

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. As early as 1700, area mills and tanneries

Tanning

Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...

 took advantage of the stream for water power, including one mill built between Fifth and Sixth Streets at the direction of William Penn

William Penn

William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...

, Pennsylvania's founder. The neighborhoods on either side of the Cohocksink were home to much Philadelphia's early industrial development. During the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

, the Cohocksink was line of defense for the British as they occupied Philadelphia. Planting artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 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

Miasma theory of disease

The miasma theory held that diseases such as cholera, chlamydia or the Black Death were caused by a miasma , a noxious form of "bad air"....

 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

Act of Consolidation, 1854

The Act of Consolidation, more formally known as the act of February 2, 1854 , was enacted by General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and approved February 2, 1854 by Governor William Bigler...

 into the city of Philadelphia. Industry had taken its toll on the Cohocksink; when it was finally culvert

Culvert

A culvert is a device used to channel water. It may be used to allow water to pass underneath a road, railway, or embankment. Culverts can be made of many different materials; steel, polyvinyl chloride and concrete are the most common...

ed, the City Board of Health issued a statement describing the project as "one of the most valuable sanitary improvements ever to be undertaken by the corporate authorities.... For years this natural tributary of the Delaware...has been a prolific source of miasma. The entire length of its serpentine bed had become the receptacle of vile refuse and dead animals, while its sides were lined with privies

Outhouse

An outhouse is a small structure separate from a main building which often contained a simple toilet and may possibly also be used for housing animals and storage.- Terminology :...

, emptying their contents upon its filthy surface; added to these, the offal

Offal

Offal , also called, especially in the United States, variety meats or organ meats, refers to the internal organs and entrails of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but includes most internal organs other than...

 from cow-stables, dye

Dye

A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....

 houses, slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse

A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...

s, kitchens, and the impurities from various trades and factories, together with street-sewage

Sewage

Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...

... thus predisposing to and causing the spread of ... disease throughout the entire vicinity."

Modern times

In the first few decades after being buried, the creek often burst out of its tunnels during rainstorms. Since that time, it has been more reliably contained, and many residents are unaware that a former creek runs beneath their streets. The Cohocksink now runs under the streets shown on the map at right.