FULL TITLE New map of Philadelphia and vicinity compiled from the latest surveys and [records]. Published by J. L. Smith, 27 South Sixth St., Philadelphia. 1898. Map annotated with black and colored ink, with a handwritten title at bottom: “Plan showing location of works of Berwyn, Spring[field], and Oak Lane Water Companies, five townships supplied by the Berwyn Water Co. (tinted), watershed of Pickering Creek (cross-hatched), and cres[tline] between Schuylkill and Delaware watersheds.”
DATE 1898, with later annotations
SIZE 44 x 30 inches
SOURCE I found this in PWD’s Belmont Raw Water Pumping Station, a beautiful brick building located at Montgomery Drive and Martin Luther King Drive a stone’s throw from the Schuylkill River. It’s a great building from an architectural standpoint, but not so great a place to store archival documents. The plan was one of hundreds stored in about a dozen large five-drawer flat file cabinets. Those cabinets had been relocated from some unknown PWD facility, where the person in charge must have decided that the plans were no longer needed and the cabinets took up too much space. The map was in fragile condition, with pieces actively flaking off. Scanning in this case was a form of digital preservation, much cheaper than having professional conservators work to stabilize it. Having a scan also means that the map can now be viewed without further damaging it.
WHY I LOVE THIS MAP?
I love the details it contains – the villages, mills, hotels, taverns, railroads, and streams that were eventually overrun as suburban sprawl spread across the Philadelphia region. The annotations made the map even more interesting; I especially appreciated the somewhat crude outlining of the watershed divides, since I have drawn such divisions on maps myself when trying to understand more about where water flows. I was almost ready to post this map without no further explanation or justification than this, but at the last second I decided to do an online search to see what might turn up.
WHAT TURNED UP?
I quickly learned that this map was likely created as part of the early efforts of the Springfield Water Company in Delaware County (founded in 1886) to buy up other water purveyors. All the other companies on the map eventually were acquired by the enlarged company known as the Springfield Consolidated Water Company. One of the first hits in my Web search was this 1918 report from the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission, which was trying to resolve many cases brought against the company by communities and individuals who claimed that service was inadequate and too expensive. As far as I can tell, the company won this battle, and continued to grow and expand its reach. SCWC eventually became PSWC – the Philadelphia Suburban Water Company. It is now known as Aqua, and it continues to grow, part of a privatization movement that has affected water suppliers and water supplies all over the world.
“For more than 135 years,” proclaims the Aqua website, “we’ve been protecting and providing Earth’s most essential resource, water. Today, we provide water and wastewater services to more than 3 million people in eight states, and that number continues to grow.” Aqua itself is part of Essential Utilities, Inc., “one of the largest publicly traded water, wastewater and natural gas providers in the U.S., serving approximately 5 million people across 9 states under the Aqua and Peoples brands.”
You can follow the company’s stock price at ticker symbol WTRG.