Subjects Architecture

The art and science of planning, designing, and erecting buildings or other structures. This topic overlaps with engineering, in that any building needs to be properly engineered to prevent catastrophic failures, and large architectural firms often employ engineers.

Black-and-white image of an ornate white building on a riverbank with trees behind it

A new book, more than 40 years in the making, about an iconic Philadelphia building

Fairmount Water Works: The Surprising History of an American Landmark

Fairmount Water Works in High Resolution

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

Repurposing Old Infrastructure: Water History Video 5

Birch’s Views of Philadelphia, 1800

Fairmount Water Works (Picturesque America)

Models of Change

History of Belfield (1934)

Early photographs of Fairmount and vicinity, 1848

Overbrook, as it was. A brief history of the Overbrook neighborhood of Philadelphia, focusing on changes in the natural landscape.

Newspaper Clipping Scrapbooks of Frederic Graff Jr.,Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia Water Department: Part 1, 1854-1857