Resolution 161081

..Title Also naming South Third Street between West Oregon Avenue southerly to its terminus as "Stone House Lane". ..Body WHEREAS, Third Street South of Oregon Avenue was originally known as Stone House Lane; and WHEREAS, Stone House Lane was the only entrance and egress to a neighborhood known as "The Neck"; and WHEREAS, Legend has it that "The Neck" was settled by Hessian soldiers that were stranded when the British, who paid them to fight the colonialist, surrendered in 1781; and WHEREAS, This area was so named because it lay east of the Philadelphia Naval Base at the bend in the Delaware River that resembled a goose neck. Residents of this area considered themselves homesteaders. As such they did not own the land that they tended and raised farm animals on, especially pigs. Most if not all of these homesteaders never gained title to this land thereby allowing the City to eventually have them evicted for redevelopment; and WHEREAS, In the early twentieth century City planners had grand visions of transforming this swampy and marshy area of South Philadelphia in to an oasis of row homes with tree lined streets in order to accommodate the waves of immigrants that were flooding into Philadelphia; and WHEREAS, The City in order to remove these homesteaders and redevelop this area claimed that pig manure produced harmful gases that caused disease. Pigs were outlawed within city limits in 1911 essentially taking away these homesteaders livelihoods; and WHEREAS, In the 1950s the City with designs for the Walt Whitman Bridge approach and the Schuylkill Expressway removed the remaining homesteaders after a tragic fire that claimed the lives of a family of 5. In that same year a dike failed that flooded the area and made many of the homes uninhabitable. Some Neckers claim that the flooding was deliberate and done to chase them out once and for all; and WHEREAS, Most of the inhabitants of "The Neck" moved to other parts of South Philadelphia, most not too far north of Oregon Avenue, where some of their descendants still reside; and WHEREAS, Many Neckers attended the New Greenwich Light Baptist Church located at 121 W. Oregon Avenue; and WHEREAS, To this day, the slant of the Oregon Diner's western wall traces the edge of Stone House Lane; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That South Third Street between West Oregon Avenue and its southerly terminus also be known as "Stone House Lane". ..End