The name of this small neighborhood has been around a lot longer than you might think. And it has nothing to do with vinegar.

John Jackson, an Irish shipbuilder, bought a part of that land in 1791 and built the area’s original shipyard as well as 10 houses for his shipbuilders. He sold 40 acres to the federal government in 1801 for use as a Yard. The rest he called Vinegar Hill, a small village of mainly Irish immigrant workers. It was also popularly known as “Irishtown.”

The name came from the Battle of Vinegar Hill, which ended the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

In the mid-19th century, the area around Sands Street became home to bars, brothels and gambling houses and was nicknamed Hell’s Half Acre.

Today, the quiet community is modernizing but still features a 19th-century look with cobbl

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