Items

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

Thomas Mill Covered Bridge on the Wissahickon

Thomas Mill Covered Bridge over Wissahickon Creek (Picturesque America)

Centre Square Water Works, Drawings of Intake Basin

Centre Square Water Works, Frederick Graff, Sr. Plans, 1799

Benjamin Henry Latrobe, portrait by Filippo Costaggini, 1880

Centre Square Water Works, Latrobe Plans, 1799

1830 plan for the Pine Street Sewer

Plan of Pine Street Sewer, 1830

Mill Creek Sewer under construction. Several men standing beside a giant partially constructed sewer pipe.

Mill Creek Sewer under construction, 1883

Fairmount Water Works, by W. H. Bartlett, 1839. This engraving from an 1839 painting by William Bartlett shows the porch added to the Engine House about 1835 and the two gazebos built at the same time, all added to welcome visitors to the Water Works and a new saloon, or restaurant, in the Engine House. The powerful jet of water rising from the fountain in the South Garden, fed by a dedicated pipe under the full pressure of the reservoir, was depicted against the green foliage on the west slope of Faire Mount, near the east end of the Colossus. A barge is making its way downstream through the canal, headed under the Colossus to the busy port city of Philadelphia.

Fairmount Water Works, W.H. Bartlett, 1839

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

Black-and-white image showing a factory, smokestacks and smoke, and streets

Dobson’s Mill, 1884, from History of Philadelphia by Scharf & Wescott

Black-and-white image of a refinery with smokestacks emitting smoke

A Day in the Ma’sh – Oil Refinery

Black-and-white image of the title page of a government report

Perkiomen Water Supply Surveys, 1866

Map of Philadelphia showing Population in year 1920

Map of Philadelphia showing Population in year 1920