HISTORY

Adjacent to 4th Street’s vibrant Fabric Row, Bainbridge Green is the park located between 3rd and 5th Streets in the middle of Bainbridge Street in Queen Village, Philadelphia. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it served as an open air market, known as Washington Market, for the immediate area’s Russian, Polish, and Jewish immigrants. On the 3rd Street endcap, its historic fountain was installed in 1901 with the inscription, “Drink Gentle Friends.” In 1911, the city closed the market and renamed it “Edward Shippen Plaza,” after one of Philadelphia’s earliest mayors. In the 1980’s, friends Joel Spivak, Dr. Jeffrey Rosenberg, Rick Millan, and Dave Auspitz, organized the original Friends of Bainbridge Green (FOBG)— (and a tribute to the trolley tracks in the neighborhood with its “trolley monument” on the west side of the 4th Street endcap) — to maintain this beloved corridor that serves neighbors, visitors, local businesses, and their customers. 

Photo by Maxine Mayer

PRESENT

Today, Bainbridge Green has an active Indego bike station, and the FOBG continue to care for the park by cleaning, planting, painting and more. The FOBG collaborate with the Queen Village Neighbors Association (QVNA), the South Street Mini Station, and the South Street Headhouse District (SSHD), to hold clean-ups during Parks and Recreations’ Love Your Park days, as well as additional events throughout the year.

CONNECT WITH US

Please contact us if you would like to be added to the volunteer list to learn about upcoming events: FOBGVolunteers@gmail.com