Items

Historic resources from our archives - images, maps, documents, and more.

Ghosts of Water in Fairmount Park, Part 1, with Adam Levine

Fairmount Water Works (Picturesque America)

Queen Lane Reservoir pumping station

Queen Lane Pumping Station, proposed design

This 1838 view of the Fairmount Water Works with the Schuylkill River in the distance, by John T. Bowen, “captures the pleasures of Fairmount in its heyday,” writes historian Jane Mork Gibson. “The neat beauty of the works set into a gentle landscape, steep paths and steps that offered an exhilirating contrast to the general flatness of Philadelphia, as well as the excitement of boat races on the river and refreshments offered in the former Engine House, all prompted the admiring comments of visitors.”

Fairmount Water Works and the Schuylkill River, 1838

Centre Square Engine House, location of one of two steam engines used in the city’s original water system. Engraving by Birch.

Centre Square Engine House, ca. 1807

Northern Liberties and Spring Garden Water Works

Northern Liberties and Spring Garden Water Works

Fairmount, bird's eye view from Lemon Hill (detail)

Fairmount Park, bird’s eye view from Lemon Hill, detail

Fairmount

Fairmount Water Works, about 1860

New Mill House at Fairmount (2008.001.0046)

New Mill House at Fairmount

Lemon Hill and Sedgley Park, Graff Jr., 1851 (Graff05.21)

Plan of Lemon Hill and Sedgley Park, Fairmount and Adjoining Property, 1851