Places Pennsylvania

City of Reading map, 1872

Street map of Reading, Pennsylvania, 1872

Wire Bridge at Fairmount

Schuylkill Navigation lock at Fairmount (Picturesque America)

Map showing various routes of transportation in Philadelphia and surrounding area. Focused mainly on suburban Philadelphia areas.

Map Lovers’ Monday: 1896 Suburban Transportation Map

Hand-drawn and colored map depicting a river with streams branching off of it

Map Lovers’ Monday: 1891 Water Supply Plan

Down Under, Part 2: Beaver Creek as it appears today

Typhoid Fever and sewage tainted drinking water: An 1889 report from the Philadelphia Board of Health

Panoramic Manayunk: Views Past and Present

Schuylkill Navigation Company Scrapbook

Black-and-white image of an ornately lettered document with a decorative border

Images from ‘The Water Supply of the City of Philadelphia by a proposed Aqueduct from Norristown Dam’

1830 plan for the Pine Street Sewer

Plan of Pine Street Sewer, 1830

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

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