Just wondering...

How did Queen Village get its name? Anyone know?

It's a refernce to Queen Christina of Sweeden, and that area's early history of Sweedish settlement in the 1650s or so, under Queen Christina

Queen Street is on the north side of Old Sweede's Church.
Christina Street is on the south side of Old Sweede's Church.

Over the years "Christina Street" was transposed to "Christian Street"

Hal

How do you know so much really neat stuff, Hal?

Simple - to quote Grouch Marx-

"I have found Television to be very educational...
when someone turns the blasted thing on, I go in the next room and read a good book...."

Hal

But isn't it also true, Hal, that the term "Queen Village" itself is of fairly recent vintage? An invention of realtors or others to "brand" the neighborhood a bit?

I don't mean to be a stickle for details but being someone who was raised in that are I just have two things:

1) I don't doubt the whole Queen Christina story, but both Queen and Christian are North of Old Swedes Church. As a matter of fact Christian is the first street north of Old Swedes, then Queen. I heard a smiliar story with Queen and Catherine Streets (the street directly north of Queen).

2) Queen Village is a rather recent term given to that neighborhood (last 75 years?). The people who have lived there their whole lives (like my Grandmother) still call it South Philly and even to refer to the area as Southwark, which has a whole bunch of history behind it.

My point is Queen Village is in South Philly and form what I understand it was given the name Queen Village as a measn to "seperate" it from South Philly. I wonder who would do something like that? Probably a realtor.

How is Southwark pronounced? Phonetically? Does anyone pronounce it like the Southwark district in London (that is, "southerk" with the same vowel sound as "southern")?

Since this is the Delaware Valley and not Massachusetts, I suspect it's phonetic.

Right, it's "South-wark," I believe.

The Queen Village area was originally Weccaccoe (the Lenni Lenape name for it). I'd kind of like to see that name brought back somehow, since it's kind of interesting.

This is from a piece on neighborhoods that the South Philly Review did a few months ago:

Origin of name: William Penn called it Southwark because it reminded him of a similarly laid-out neighborhood on the south bank of the Thames River in London. In the late 1970s, it was renamed Queen Village after Queen Christina of Sweden to recognize her role in promoting the original settlements. Although some say Queen Village now encompasses Southwark, the old name is still used to refer to an adjacent South Philly neighborhood.

http://www.southphillyreview.com/vie...le.php?id=2574

I also heard (can't remember where) that part of the motivation for changing the name in 1970s was to disassociate the neighborhood from the Southwark housing projects. I guess that would bolster the realtor theory...

Great reference athomas. No matter how much you think you know about an area you can never know enough.