Items

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

Sandy Run Watershed and the Holmesburg Water Works

Photograph of Roberts Mill on Wingohocking Creek in Germantown, built in the late 17th century. (Photograph by J. C. Browne, 1871. Castner Collection/Free Library of Philadelphia)

Roberts Mill, Wingohocking Creek, 1871

Fairmount Park topographical map, showing East Park Reservoir, 1872

Dripps map of Frankford and vicinity, 1849

Thomas Mill Covered Bridge on the Wissahickon

Thomas Mill Covered Bridge over Wissahickon Creek (Picturesque America)

Wingohocking Sewer across Penn St.

Wingohocking Sewer across Penn St.

History of Belfield (1934)

Fairmount Gardens, with the Schuylkill Bridge. This 1839 engraving, published in London, shows a view of the South Garden from the walkways that brought visitors up the cliffside to the overlooks at the height of the reservoirs. The fountain used the pressure of the reservoirs and was a a delightful refreshment in hot weather, and a wonder at all times. One anachronistic element of this engraving is the Upper Ferry Bridge, which burned the year before the print was published. Harding’s Hotel, a popular resort, is at the western end of the bridge.

Fairmount Gardens with the Schuylkill Bridge, 1839

Black-and-white reproduction of the title page of an old periodical

19th century life in South Philadelphia’s marshland

Black-and-white image of workers in a pit with a sewer opening behind them and text

Frankford Creek: Sad History of an Urban Stream title page

Image shows a black-and-white drawing of a creek with dotted lines indicating where changes will be made

“A Snake That Will Be Straightened Out,” map of Frankford Creek with proposed changes, 1949

Birkinbine Schuylkill Hydrographical Survey 1861-66

Schuylkill River Hydrographical Survey 1861-66 by H. P. M. Birkinbine