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Cobbs Creek: A Brief Historical Overview
by Adam Levine This brief overview was written in 2005 as part of my research into Cobbs Creek for the PWD Office of Watersheds. During the course of this work, I gathered hundreds of historical images of the watershed. Many were taken from old atlases of Philadelphia, Delaware and Montgomery counties, housed at the Free…
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Glossary of Drainage Terms
by C. Drew Brown, Philadelphia Water Department Note from Adam LevineC. Drew Brown, PWD’s Manager of Public Education for many years, was my first point of contact with the department, when I interviewed him for my “Down Under!” article in 1997. I have also collaborated with him on a number of public education projects, including…
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Manayunk and the Schuylkill Navigation
by Adam Levine The following brief historical overview, written in 2014 for the Philadelphia Water Department and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, focuses specifically on the transportation aspects of the Schuylkill Navigation and the Manayunk Canal. The history of the community and industries that grew up in Manayunk and elsewhere after the construction of the canal…
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The Water Works of the City of Philadelphia
The Story of their Development and Engineering Specifications Compiled by Walter A. Graf (Staff Engineer, The Budd Company, Philadelphia), with the assistance of Sidney H. Vought and Clarence E. Robson. This online version created from an original typescript volume in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Catalog No. WZ 23591 (4th Fl. Folio).…
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History of East Park Reservoir, Philadelphia, Pa., 1869-1889
By Jane Mork GibsonPhiladelphia Water Department Historical ConsultantMay 2009 Notes used to compile this history follow the main narrative report, below the reservoir diagram. The East Park Reservoir took almost twenty years to build. The need for a large storage reservoir in Philadelphia became apparent in 1869 after an unprecedented drought threatened complete stoppage of…
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The Water and Drainage History of Philadelphia
A seven-part course This 7-part course is worth your time. Really. PWD web editor Justin Martin tells you why. A little explanation might be necessary here. You can make the argument, without a whole lot of strain, that the viability of a city goes hand-in-hand with its ability to manage its water supply. If a…
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Watersheds: Learning to care for and protect our local water resources
By Adam Levine This article originally appeared in the November 1999 issue of Green Scene, the magazine of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. It was an attempt to relate the complicated topic of watershed preservation to the home gardener, and to do it in less than 1600 words. You can find much more information on Philadelphia Water Department…
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Andorra Run, aka Wise’s Mill Run
A preliminary historical report on this northwest Philadelphia watershed by Adam Levine This is a this vintage post from 2009, updated for WaterHistoryPHL. All photographs were taken by Adam Levine on May 30, 2008. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW This small watershed covers about 446 acres in the Roxborough and Andorra neighborhoods on the western flank of the…
