Topics City Life

Map Lovers’ Monday: The Ellet Map of Philadelphia County, 1843

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.

The Manayunk Expressway

High Water: Flooding in Philadelphia

Visions of the Schuylkill, 1884 and Now

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

View of Fairmount Water Works, ca. 1827