Subjects City Life

Fairmount Water Works: The Surprising History of an American Landmark

Map Lovers’ Monday: Water for City Hall

Annual reports and other documents relating to Philadelphia’s water supply system, 1796-1992

Birch’s Views of Philadelphia, 1800

Models of Change

History of Belfield (1934)

Early photographs of Fairmount and vicinity, 1848

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

Newspaper Clipping Scrapbooks of Frederick Graff Jr., Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia Water Department. Part 2: 1858-1871

Visions of the Schuylkill, 1884 and Now

“Fairmount Waterworks. From the forebay.” (From nature & on stone G. Lehman; Published by C.G. Childs & G. Lehman, 1833. Free Library of Philadelphia, Print & Picture Collection)

Fairmount Water Works from the forebay, 1833

This 1838 view of the Fairmount Water Works with the Schuylkill River in the distance, by John T. Bowen, “captures the pleasures of Fairmount in its heyday,” writes historian Jane Mork Gibson. “The neat beauty of the works set into a gentle landscape, steep paths and steps that offered an exhilirating contrast to the general flatness of Philadelphia, as well as the excitement of boat races on the river and refreshments offered in the former Engine House, all prompted the admiring comments of visitors.”

Fairmount Water Works and the Schuylkill River, 1838