Topics Streams & Rivers

Philadelphia drinking water 90+ years ago

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

Map Lovers’ Monday: 1891 Water Supply Plan

Frankford Creek Watershed Historical Timeline

Down Under III: A walk in the Dobson’s Run Storm Relief Sewer, June 15, 2010

Dobson FLP

Requiem for a stream: A brief history of Dobson’s Run

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

Aramingo Sewer, view near Hughes & Patterson and Beach Street Bridge, March 15, 1902

Aramingo Canal, Then and Now

William Penn balks at drinking the "mixed drink" offered him: Schuylkill water, mixed with pollution from the upstream sources named. Editorial cartoon by Fred Morgan, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 1899. One of a series of cartoons drawn by Morgan protesting the state of the city's drinking water and trying to encourage the passage of legislation authorizing the construction of a water filtration system.

Half a Century of Clean Water

69th St. Sewer and Culvert across Lansdowne

69th St. Sewer and Culvert across Lansdowne AVe.

Showing method of sinking the pipe on the bed of the River (2004.057.0074.006)

Showing the method of sinking the pipe on the bed of the river

A list of rules governing the sanitary maintenance of privy vaults in Philadelphia in 1915

Be Thankful You Don’t Live in Pre-Flush Philly