Neighborhoods North Philadelphia

Spring Garden Northern Liberties, or Schuylkill Works (1844)

Fairmount Water Powered Works Expansion (1859 to 1861)

Fairmount Water Turbine Wheels (1851)

Fairmount Water Powered Water Works (1822)

Fairmount Steam Works (1815)

Delaware and Kensington Works (1851-1890)

High Pressure Fire Service Stations (1902)

James W. Phillips Letter Book, 1904-1913

The 1815 Engine House (shown here in an 1819 print) housed two steam-powered pumps that drew water from the Schuylkill River and pumped it into the reservoirs above the building, on top of Faire Mount. The artist showed smoke pouring from the south chimney, indicating that the South Engine was operating. The bridge just downstream was the covered Upper Ferry Bridge, an incredible 340 feet long, also completed in 1815. Designed and constructed by Lewis Wernwag, a native of Germany who had studied engineering there, the bridge opened in 1813. Formally called the Upper Ferry Bridge, it was also known as the “Colossus of Philadelphia” because — like the mythical Colossus of Rhodes — the bridge was held up only by piers at its two ends, with no intermediate supports. Made entirely of wood, the bridge was destroyed by fire in 1838.

Fair Mount Water Works engine house, 1819

Black-and-white photo of an ash car, side view, in the doorway of a barn with trees behind

Car 2615, Brill, 1909, Brill Curtis trucks

Black-and-white photo of men, horses and a cart inside of a barn-like structure

Ash dumping house, 2nd floor, 15th and Wood St.

New Mill House at Fairmount (2008.001.0046)

New Mill House at Fairmount