Our Roots
Southwark Queen Village Community Garden is a
volunteer-run, communal effort. In addition to tending their own plots, members are collectively responsible for maintaining the common spaces of the garden, including a small orchard, a pollinator garden, and composting bins. SWQV Community Garden also hosts an active bee program and participates in the Philadelphia Horticultural Society's City Harvest program.
Established in 1976, the SWQV garden sits on the site of the former Henry Berk Elementary School. The brainchild of local residents working with Queen Village Neighborhood Association, the SWQV Garden was an “interim use” garden created as part of the neighborhood’s celebration of the Bicentennial.
It became a protected garden in 1983. That year, when ownership of the site reverted to the federal government, the gardeners, the Urban Gardening Program, and the City of Philadelphia worked with the National Park Service to have the site turned over to the city as a park and recreation area “in perpetuity.”
Today, the site is managed as a gardening park by the Neighborhood Gardens Trust / A Philadelphia Land Trust and the gardeners.
More History
Ripe for a Party by Denise Cowie / Philadelphia Inquirer, September 7, 2001
A Little History by Libby Goldstein / 2001
Libby’s Legacy / Queen Village Crier, Spring 2020
How Did Our Garden Grow? by Suzanne Dreitlin / Queen Village Crier, Spring 2021
Libby Goldstein and Jack Brightman Grow a Garden by Carla Puppin / Neighborhood Gardens Trust, March 11, 2021