Cobb's Creek and Delaware County

Abington, Cheltenham, Darby, Horsham, Moreland and Upper Darby Townships
Plates from early 1870s atlases published by G. M. Hopkins, Philadelphia surveyor and cartographer.

Cobbs Creek Watershed: A Brief Historical Overview
A brief written survey of some of the major issues of the watershed over the past 300 years.

Cobbs Creek in the Days of the Old Powder Mill
by John Eckfeldt M.D. 1917. A brief illustrated history of the section of Cobbs Creek outside Philadelphia, written at a time when most of the evidence of that history was fast disappearing due to residential development.

Report on the Flood of 1843 in Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Written in 1844 and reprinted in 1911, this long, detailed report provides a fascinating glimpse of a horrendous flood that destroyed hundreds of bridges, mills and houses and killed nearly 20 people. Also available is the following:

Newspaper Account of the Flood of 1843 in Delaware County, Pennsylvania

1826 Report of the Committee of Delaware County, on the subject of
Maufactories, Unimproved Mill Seats, &c. in said County [PDF, 1.5 mb]
Arranged by the creeks along which the mills were situated, this 1826 report gives a detailed view of the area's former industrial past, providing the amount and worth of products, number of employees and other information for the county's 158 mills. Streams mentioned include: Cobb's Creek, Darby Creek, Mukinipates Creek, Crum Creek, Ridley Creek, Chester Creek, Green's Creek, Marcus Hook Creek, Naaman's Creek, Buck Run and Brandywine Creek.

A Brief History of the Overbrook Neighborhood of Philadelphia, focusing on Changes in the Natural Landscape
A report completed in 2002 that includes information on Mill Creek Sewer and Indian Creek (a Cobbs Creek tributary) in West Philadelphia.

Frankford Creek and its Tributaries

Army Corps of Engineers and US Geological Service (USGS) Sinking Homes Studies
Fascinating surveys of several Philadelphia neighborhoods that grew up around two buried streams, Wingohocking Creek and Wissinoming Creek. This report, which included many photographs of the neighborhoods in question, is no longer available on the Web, so I have posted two PDF files related to the study directly on this site. The files can be downloaded by clicking the links below:
Mapping Buried Stream Valleys in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: USGS Fact Sheet FS–117–00. 2000
Geographic Information System Analysis of Topographic Change in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, During the Last Century
By Peter G. Chirico and Jack B. Epstein. USGS Open File Report 00-224. 2000 PLEASE NOTE: This is a large file: 21 Mb

Memories of Belfield Avenue
An article by Lou Brownholtz about growing up on this Germantown street, which was built over Wingohocking Creek, a Frankford Creek tributary. Lou did some of his research in the PWD Archives, and is now an archives volunteer. The article was originally published in the Germantown Crier, publication of the Germantown Historical Society. (Clicking link will open a new page in another website.)

Filling Low Land: A story of ash-dumping in the Wingohocking Creek watershed
An excerpt from Utility Cars of Philadelphia (1971) by Dr. Harold E. Cox, discussing one of the reasons the once-thriving Logan neighborhood has become an abandoned wasteland.

Abington, Cheltenham, Darby, Horsham, Moreland and Upper Darby Townships
Plates from early 1870s atlases published by G. M. Hopkins, Philadelphia surveyor and cartographer.

1882 Report from the Army Corps of Engineers on Navigation in Frankford Creek.
Report, by future PWD Chief William Ludlow, indicates the need for dredging and other work to restore the navigation channel in Frankford Creek. Includes details of employment and materials used for several manufactories along the creek.

Two bridges across Frankford Creek: 19th century photos from City Archives.
Photographs showing reconstructed bridges at Bridge and Orthodox streets. Photos also show area in vicinity of Bridge Street, including Tacony or Lennig Chemical Works (now Rohm & Haas) the Frankford Arsenal, and other business.

History of Belfield, by Sarah Logan Wistar Starr [PDF, 3.1 mb]
1934 booklet about this estate, now part of the LaSalle University campus, in Philadelphia's Olney section. Belfield and Little Wakefield still exist, as do remnants of the Belfield's gardens, which are on a steep hillside in the Wingohocking Creek valley, overlooking a section of Belfield Avenue (beneath which the creek now flows in a large sewer). In the early 19th century Philadelphia artist Charles Willson Peale lived on the estate.

Wingohocking Creek Watershed, 1902.
Excerpts from a 1902 guidebook of Germantown concerning the Winghocking watershed and other local history.

The Frankford Creek Watershed in the context of the development of Philadelphia's Sewers and Sewage Treatment System
This work was completed in 2002 as part of a project, for the PWD Office of Watersheds, which included the timeline below.

Frankford Creek Historical Timeline
This timeline focuses on changes in the creek channel to facilitate storm drainage and flood control, and development of sewers and sewage treatment facilities in the watershed.

Frankford Creek Flood Control: Excerpts from 1947 Knappen Report
Besides providing a long range plan for the channelization of Frankford Creek, the 1947 Report on Flood Control, Frankford Creek, City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the Knappen Engineering Company of New York, gave a comprehensive overview of the history of the creek. Excerpts include:
Flood History to 1946
Previous investigations to 1946
Previous Projects for Improvement Up to 1946.

1912 History of Frankford
80-page souvenir booklet, with historical essays about this Philadelphia neighborhood, as well as
many pages of advertisements that provide a portrait of Frankford at that moment in time.

Jones Wister's reminiscences.
Excerpts concerning Winghohocking Creek and Schuylkill River.

Sad History of Frankford Creek.
A PowerPoint slideshow converted into a Web page, with text, maps, photographs and newspaper articles illustrating the history of pollution and channelization of Frankford Creek.

Pennypack Creek
(For other maps, see MAPS link)

Abington, Cheltenham, Darby, Horsham, Moreland and Upper Darby Townships
Plates from early 1870s atlases published by G. M. Hopkins, Philadelphia surveyor and cartographer.

Pennypack Watershed in Philadelphia: Four Plans and Maps
Included are a 1916 plan and report on Pennypack Park, a modern map created by Roland Williams that is a must for any visitor to the park, a composite map from 1927 showing Sandy Run, a mostly-obliterated Pennypack tributary, and a 1930 road map of the area.

The Pennepack in Lower Dublin Township
By I. Pearson Willits, M. D., written for The City History Society of Philadelphia. 1911. A brief illustrated history of the section of the Pennypack Creek watershed within Philadelphia.

Historical Society of Frankford: Photographs from the Cartledge Collection
56 photographs, mostly of Pennypack Creek, taken by photograph Lincoln Cartledge between 1890 and 1915.

Miscellaneous Watersheds
(For more maps, see MAPS link)

Army Corps of Engineers and US Geological Service (USGS) Sinking Homes Studies
Fascinating surveys of several Philadelphia neighborhoods that grew up around two buried streams, Wingohocking Creek and Wissinoming Creek. This report, which included many photographs of the neighborhoods in question, is no longer available on the Web, so I have posted two PDF files related to the study directly on this site. The files can be downloaded by clicking the links below:
Mapping Buried Stream Valleys in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: USGS Fact Sheet FS–117–00. 2000
Geographic Information System Analysis of Topographic Change in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, During the Last Century
By Peter G. Chirico and Jack B. Epstein. USGS Open File Report 00-224. 2000 PLEASE NOTE: This is a large file: 21 Mb

Abington, Cheltenham, Darby, Horsham, Moreland and Upper Darby Townships
Plates from early 1870s atlases published by G. M. Hopkins, Philadelphia surveyor and cartographer.

Watersheds
An attempt to relate the complicated topic of watersheds to the home gardener, and to do it in
less than 1600 words. Originally from Green Scene, November 1999.

Dock Creek Sewer Investigation, 1849.A report to City Councils regarding this sewer, which was then inadequate to the growing drainage needs of the city.

Philadelphia's Hidden Streams, 1889.
As early as the late 19th century the streams that had been converted to sewers, and thus hidden underground, as worthy of a newspaper story.

The Neck, 1919.
An essay by Christopher Morley on this section of South Philadelphia.

The Western Commons, 1840s.
Excerpt of a section from Watson's Annals about the western rural part of the original city.

Changes in the Names of Streams In and About Philadelphia: 1879
and
Islands in the Delaware & Schuylkill Rivers Within the Boundaries of Phila.: 1882
and
Ancient Ferries in Philadelphia: 1882
Three articles from the Public Ledger Almanacs for 1879 and 1882.

Philadelphia's Waterfront, 1876.
A description from a Centennial guidebook, with illustrations, of the bustling life along the the Delaware and Schuylkill.

Suburban Sprawl: Turning the tide against poorly planned development
From Green Scene, April 2005

When it rains, it pours: Understanding the importance of stormwater runoff [PDF, 1.4 mb]
An article originally written for Green Scene, and reprinted as a fact sheet by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, on the problems of uncontrolled urban stormwater runoff, and some of the steps that PHS and PWD are taking to alleviate it.

Maps relating to 1886 Report on a New Water Supply for Philadelphia
This collection of large-scale images includes a fascinating collection of detailed topographic maps (dated 1887) that cover portions of Bucks and Montgomery counties, including the watersheds of Perkiomen Creek and Neshaminy Creek. Other documents include maps and aqueduct profiles that summarize, in visual form, this never-implemented plan for a new upstate water source. For more on this plan, see link below under "Water Supply."

Sewer History

Philadelphia's Water and Sewer History: A Digital Exhibit
Two virtual exhibits, based on "Clean Water For Life: Philadelphia Water Department 1801-2001," an exhibit still on view at the Municipal Services Building, 1401 Arch Street, Philadelphia.
Drainage for the City replaces a previously-posted version that did not include all the exhibit images. I co-wrote the text and located most of the illustrations for this part of the exhibit.
Water for the City: This comprehensive history of the Philadelphia water supply is based on a quarter-century of research by industrial historian Jane Mork Gibson.

Leverington Street Stormwater Outfall, in the context of the development of
stormwater and wastewater disposal systems in Manayunk and Philadelphia
A paper I wrote for the Fairmount Park Commission that is, essentially, a history of drainage in Philadelphia through the 19th century.

When it rains, it pours: Understanding the importance of stormwater runoff [PDF, 1.4 mb]
An article originally written for Green Scene, and reprinted as a fact sheet by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, on the problems of uncontrolled urban stormwater runoff, and some of the steps that PHS and PWD are taking to alleviate it.

Regulations for Sewer Inspectors, 1908
This vintage document include this caveat: "No manhole or sewer is safe to enter in which a lighted candle will not burn brightly.

City Job Announcement for Sewer Crawler, 1968.
Thanks for Joe and Milton Shapiro for this piece of sewer trivia, which is linked at the top of the
"Down Under" page.

"The Journey of Your Flush"
A map on display at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center, following the ten mile, six hour journey of a flush from the FWWIC to the Southwest Sewage Treatment Plant.

Reports from the Chief Engineer and Surveyor of the
City of Philadelphia 1854-1889
In the second half of the 19th century and into the first half of the 20th century, the bailiwick of the City's Chief Engineer & Surveyor and his subordinates, the district surveyors, was nothing less than the creation of Philadelphia as we know it. These reports, in PDF format, cover that work, from bridges and streets to providing drainage for both stormwater and sewage.

Excerpts from the Annual Report of Strickland Kneass, Chief Engineer & Surveyor
for Philadelphia, 1856 to 1870
Kneass was the City's first surveyor after Consolidation expanded the City territory from two to 129 square miles. Many of these excerpts relate to problems with sewer construction, the health problems of sewage pollution in streams, and the problems related to the shift from privies to water closets.

State of the Schuylkill River in 1876: Sewage pollution and possible remedies
An excerpt from the PWD Annual Report for 1876.

Future Sewerage Requirements of the City of Philadelphia, 1880.
A report that outlined the system of interceptor sewers that was eventually adopted and implemented by the city.

Philadelphia Drainage in 1880
An excerpt from Report on the Social Statistics of Cities, published by the US Census Bureau and edited by George Waring Jr., the country's leading sanitary engineer at that time. See also companion from this Census report, Philadelphia in 1880.

Report on the Collection and Treatment of the Sewage of the
City of Philadelphia.
Excerpts from report published by the City in 1914 that outlined plans for sewage interceptors and sewage treatment plants.

Board of Health Newspaper Clipping Scrapbooks
at City Archives of Philadelphia 1891-1908
This selective list of clippings includes items relating to sewers, water pollution, water filtration, typhoid and other diseases, and anything else that caught my fancy.

Report of a Sanitary Survey of the Schuylkill Valley, 1884. [PDF, 2.3 mb]
This exhaustive 69 page report of this survey covers the entire valley from the source of the river to the Fairmount Water Works. A summary of the report in 12 color charts, published in the PWD 1883 annual report, can be accessed in a compressed black and white PDF [324 kb] or as 12 separate JPG images that are about 125 kb each: Chart 1, Chart 2, Chart 3, Chart 4, Chart 5, Chart 6, Chart 7, Chart 8, Chart 9, Chart 10, Chart 11, Chart 12

Petition and Plan of Manufacturers along the Schuylkill River, 1868.
Including an editorial deriding the self-serving nature of the petition, in which the manufacturers suggested piping water to Philadelphia from upstream so they could continue polluting the river within the City limits.

Purity of Water: The Schuylkill in 1866.
An excerpt from the 1866 PWD Annual Report on the condition of the Schuylkill River, then as now the source of much of the City's water.

If the People Will It that the Streams of Pennsylvania Shall Be Clean, IT CAN BE DONE
Address by Grover C. Ladner, Esq. to Izaak Walton League, 1929, concerning the Pure Streams Law and pollution of the Schuylkill River.

Redemption of the Lower Schuylkill: The River As It Was, The River As It Is, The River As It Should Be
A 1924 book by John Frederick Lewis, about the deplorable state of the river below the Fairmount Dam and what might be done to restore it.

When it rains, it pours: Understanding the importance of stormwater runoff [PDF, 1.4 mb]
An article originally written for Green Scene, and reprinted as a fact sheet by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, on the problems of uncontrolled urban stormwater runoff (in particular combined sewer overflows), and some of the steps that PHS and PWD are taking to alleviate it.

Water Supply History

1848 Dauguerreotype View of Fairmount Water Works and Vicinity
Including Lemon Hill, Schuylkill Navigation Company locks and canal, and various buildings in the area north of the Water Works once called "the Flatiron." Images reproduced with permission of the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York.

Philadelphia Water Department Library Catalogue: A PDF listing more than 1,500 publications in the collection of the Philadelphia Water Department. Thanks to PWD volunteer Joe Shapiro for cataloguing these volumes.

The Fairmount Water Works, by Jane Mork Gibson. From Bulletin, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Volume 84, Numbers 360, 361 Summer 1988. Published for the exhibition The Fairmount Water Works, 1812-1911 (July 23-September 25, 1988). The original publication contains many illustrations and informative captions, a checklist of the exhibition, and a preface by Anne d'Harnoncourt, none of which is included here, But even without the illustrations, the following text stands as the best and most complete history of Fairmount, from Jane Mork Gibson, the site's most knowledgeable historian.

Philadelphia's Water and Sewer History: A Digital Exhibit
Two virtual exhibits, based on "Clean Water For Life: Philadelphia Water Department 1801-2001," an exhibit still on view at the Municipal Services Building, 1401 Arch Street, Philadelphia.
Drainage for the City replaces a previously-posted version that did not include all the exhibit images. I co-wrote the text and located most of the illustrations for this part of the exhibit.
Water for the City: This comprehensive history of the Philadelphia water supply is based on a quarter-century of research by historian Jane Mork Gibson.

1883 Report of William Ludlow, Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia Water Department.
Ludlow is particularly astute in his discussion of the need for water conservation and the sewage pollution of the city's river-based water supply. Other related PWD reports from the mid-1880s can be found under the "Water Supply History" and "Sewer History" headings of the Philly H2O Archives.

Reports relating to the development of the Philadelphia Water System, 1798-1875.
From a bound volume once the property of John L. Ogden, PWD Chief Engineer from 1886 to 1895. Facsimiles in PDF format have been made of most of the reports, including some of the earliest reports of the Watering Committee of the Select and Common Councils (predecessor of the present-day PWD). This link takes you to an index page for the PDF files.

1886 Report on a New Water Supply for Philadelphia
Rudolph Hering's 1886 proposal is one of the most comprehensive of the many plans for alternative water supplies the City commissioned between 1868 and 1946. It is certainly among the best documented, with a plethora of tables, charts and photographs reproduced. It discusses the outlying watersheds from which Hering thought Philadelphia should obtain its water, and includes detailed costs estimates of the many reservoirs, down to the number of buildings that would have to be flooded out in the process. In the end, the City rejected this plan and all the others, choosing instead to continue using the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers as its water sources.

Maps relating to 1886 Report on a New Water Supply for Philadelphia
This collection of large-scale images includes a fascinating collection of detailed topographic maps (dated 1887) that cover portions of Bucks and Montgomery counties, including the watersheds of Perkiomen Creek and Neshaminy Creek. Other documents include maps and aqueduct profiles that summarize, in visual form, this never-implemented plan for a new upstate water source. See the link above for more information on this proposal.

Surveys for a Future Water Supply of the City of Philadelphia: Annual Report of Progress during 1884, by Rudolph Hering, C.E., Engineer in Charge. [PDF, 24 kb]
The excerpts included here describe in detail the condition of various watersheds in the vicinity of Philadelphia, which the City considered using for an alternative water supply. Most of these
watersheds, unlike the territory draining into the Schuylkill, were relatively unspoiled in 1884. This report is also a preliminary portion of the 1886 Water Supply Report, also by Hering, included above.

Frederic Graff Scrapbooks: Index to Part 1: 1854-1857
Frederic Graff Scrapbooks: Index to Part 2: 1858-1871
Graff was PWD Chief Engineer during part of the time these scrapbooks cover. They include clippings on a variety of local and national topics, reflecting Graff's wide interests and activities. This is one of three scrapbooks that cover the period from 1906-1929. The index to this 363-page volume includes a wealth of information about the various water supply woes of the 1920s.

PWD Newspaper Clipping Scrapbooks: Index to Volume for 1920-1929
This volume is one of several that cover the water-related news of the period from 1906 to 1945.

Interview with Samuel Baxter
Baxter was Water Commissioner for more than 20 years, and involved in building water and sewer infrastructure for more than 50 years. This interview was first published by the Public Works Historical Society.

Purity of Water: The Schuylkill in 1866.
An excerpt from the 1866 PWD Annual Report on the condition of the Schuylkill River, then as now the source of much of the City's water.

The Present Water Supply: Excerpt from the Annual Report of the Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia Water Department for the year 1884.
An overview of the failed attempts to keep the Schuylkill River's Fairmount pool (from which 80 percent of the City's water was derived) free from pollution. Of especial interest is the discussion of sewage pollution, and the dangers it posed to the health of the population.

Petition and Plan of Manufacturers along the Schuylkill River, 1868.
Including an editorial deriding the self-serving nature of the petition, in which the manufacturers suggested piping water to Philadelphia from upstream so they could continue polluting the river within the City limits.

Hydrographical Survey of the Schuylkill River, 1866.
Map and accompanying text give a detailed description of the state of the river in Philadelphia, above the Fairmount Dam, in a report by PWD Chief Enginer H. P. M. Birkinbine.

Historical Overview of the Schuylkill River as Water Supply.
A brief history with links to a number of illustrations.

Schuylkill River
(For more maps, see MAPS link)

Railroad Scenery of Pennsylvania, 1875.
A section of the volume Philadelphia and Its Environs, and the Railroad Scenery of Pennsylvania
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1875). The text and accompanying illustrations provide a fascinating tour, via various Pennsylvania railroads, of the state's coal mining regions, as well as other sites to be seen along the way. In my talks about the Schuylkill River as it flows through Philadelphia, I often mention the so-called "culm" (small pieces of waste coal) that accumulated around the many coal mines, washed into the river with every rainfall, and eventually clogged the river upstream from the Fairmount Dam.

Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, from Noll's New Official Guide Map of Philadelphia, 1890.
This map shows the many creeks that other maps of the period omitted, as well as elevation contour lines that give a sense of the rise and fall of the terrain. The street grid also seems more realistic than other maps, which are often projections of future development than depictions of what is actually built.

Hydrographical Survey of the Schuylkill River, 1866.
Map and accompanying text give a detailed description of the state of the river in Philadelphia, above the Fairmount Dam, in a report by PWD Chief Enginer H. P. M. Birkinbine.

Purity of Water: The Schuylkill in 1866.
An excerpt from the 1866 PWD Annual Report on the condition of the Schuylkill River, then as now the source of much of the City's water.

Views of the Schuylkill River.
A selection of engravings from various collections.

Historical Overview of the Schuylkill River as Water Supply.
A brief history with links to a number of illustrations.

The Present Water Supply: Excerpt from the Annual Report of the Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia Water Department for the year 1884.
An overview of the failed attempts to keep the Schuylkill River's Fairmount pool (from which 80 percent of the City's water was derived) free from pollution. Of especial interest is the discussion of sewage pollution, and the dangers it posed to the health of the population.

Report of the Lieutenant of the Schuylkill Harbor Police for the year ending December 31, 1884.
Basically a "crime log" for the year for the Schuylkill River side of the Port of Philadelphia, then one of the largest and busiest in the world. A companion is the report of the Delaware Harbor Police.

Report of a Sanitary Survey of the Schuylkill Valley, 1884. [PDF, 2.3 mb]
This exhaustive 69 page report of this survey covers the entire valley from the source of the river to the Fairmount Water Works. A summary of the report in 12 color charts, published in the PWD 1883 annual report, can be accessed in a compressed black and white PDF [324 kb] or as 12 separate JPG images that are about 125 kb each: Chart 1, Chart 2, Chart 3, Chart 4, Chart 5, Chart 6, Chart 7, Chart 8, Chart 9, Chart 10, Chart 11, Chart 12

If the People Will It that the Streams of Pennsylvania Shall Be Clean, IT CAN BE DONE
Address by Grover C. Ladner, Esq. to Izaak Walton League, 1929, concerning the Pure Streams Law and pollution of the Schuylkill River.

Redemption of the Lower Schuylkill: The River As It Was, The River As It Is, The River As It Should Be
A 1924 book by John Frederick Lewis, about the deplorable state of the river below the Fairmount Dam and what might be done to restore it.

Petition and Plan of Manufacturers along the Schuylkill River, 1868.
Including an editorial deriding the self-serving nature of the petition, in which the manufacturers suggested piping water to Philadelphia from upstream so they could continue polluting the river within the City limits.

Delaware River
(For maps see MAPS link)

Delaware River Images
From various collections, these are divided into the folowing pages:
General Views
Aerial Views from the PNI Library
Views of Smith and Windmill Islands

Delaware River Steamboats, 1876.
A description from a Centennial guidebook, with illustrations.

Report of the Lieutenant of the Delaware Harbor Police for the year ending December 31, 1884 [PDF Format, 0.5 mb]
Basically a "crime log" for the year for the Delaware River side of the Port of Philadelphia, then one of the largest and busiest in the world. A companion is the report of the Schuylkill Harbor Police.

Photographs and engravings

Railroad Scenery of Pennsylvania, 1875.
A section of the volume Philadelphia and Its Environs, and the Railroad Scenery of Pennsylvania
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1875). The text and accompanying illustrations provide a fascinating tour, via various Pennsylvania railroads, of the state's coal mining regions, as well as other sites to be seen along the way. In my talks about the Schuylkill River as it flows through Philadelphia, I often mention the so-called "culm" (small pieces of waste coal) that accumulated around the many coal mines, washed into the river with every rainfall, and eventually clogged the river upstream from the Fairmount Dam.

1848 Dauguerreotype View of Fairmount Water Works and Vicinity
Including Lemon Hill, Schuylkill Navigation Company locks and canal, and various buildings in the area north of the Water Works once called "the Flatiron." Images reproduced with permission of the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York.

Images from the Castner Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
These are divided into the following pages:
Delaware River: General
Delaware River: Smith and Windmill Islands
Augustus Kollner: Watercolors and Lithographs, and
Frank H. Taylor: Watercolors of West Philadelphia.

Picturesque America: D. Appleton & Co., 1873
A collection of engravings of scenes along the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, Wissahickon Creek and in Fairmount Park. From the collection of Adam Levine.

Photographs of underground sewer inspections
Photographs used through the courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News library. This small collection illustrates my article about the sewer walk I took in 1997, found at Down Under!

Engravings from the Magee Guide to Philadelphia, 1876.
and
Engravings from Philadelphia and Its Environs, 1875.
Selections focusing on the city's streams, rivers, and parks, including Fairmount Park.

List of Illustrations in History of Philadelphia: 1682-1884.
Indexes to the hundreds of images in all three volumes of this pre-eminent historical work, commonly known by its authors' last names, Scharf and Westcott. Many are fine full page engravings.

Philadelphia Historical Miscellany
(For maps see MAPS link)

Railroad Scenery of Pennsylvania, 1875.
A section of the volume Philadelphia and Its Environs, and the Railroad Scenery of Pennsylvania
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1875). The text and accompanying illustrations provide a fascinating tour, via various Pennsylvania railroads, of the state's coal mining regions, as well as other sites to be seen along the way. In my talks about the Schuylkill River as it flows through Philadelphia, I often mention the so-called "culm" (small pieces of waste coal) that accumulated around the many coal mines, washed into the river with every rainfall, and eventually clogged the river upstream from the Fairmount Dam.

Funeral receipts from a Philadelphia family: 1849, 1891 and 1934
and an 1897 advertisement for Laurel Hill Cemetery

Profile of Queen Village in Philadelphia
and real estate advertisements from the Philadelphia Bulletin, June 19, 1966.

History of Philadelphia 1609-1884.
The preface and two chapters from this three-volume comprehensive history of early Philadelphia: Chapter 1 (Topography) and Chapter 2 (Manners and Customs of the Primitive Settlers). Als
included is a list of illustrations in the books.

Philadelphia brick and cobble-stone: A vision of arctic climates
Chapter XI of Town Geology: The Lesson of the Philadelphia Rocks, an 1885 book by Angelo Helprin, "Professor of Invertebrate Paleontology at, and Curator-in-Charge of, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia."

History of Belfield, by Sarah Logan Wistar Starr [PDF, 3.1 mb]
1934 booklet about this estate, now part of the LaSalle University campus, in Phildelphia's Olney section. Belfield and Little Wakefield still exist, as do remnants of the Belfield's gardens, which are on a steep hillside in the Wingohocking Creek valley, overlooking a section of Belfield Avenue (beneath which the creek now flows in a large sewer). In the early 19th century Philadelphia artist Charles Willson Peale lived on the estate.

Our City of Tomorrow [PDF, 1.3 mb]
From March 1930, this 12-part series appeared in the Philadelphia Public Ledger. It described grand plans developed by planners in the Regional Planning Federation of the Philadelphia Tri-State District, which included Philadelphia and surrounding counties in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Article topics included water supply and sewage problems, zoning, the Hog Island shipyard, growth in Delaware County, Pa., parks and forest preserves, airports, bypass highway and scenic parkway construction, and industrial, port and railroad development. This series is remarkable as much for the dreams of the planners as for the many ideas that never made it off the drawing board.

Guide to the City Hall Philadelphia. 1908. Issued by Alfred S. Eisenhower,
Chief of Bureau of City Property [PDF, 1.1 mb]
An early guidebook to City Hall, with a history of the 25-year construction project.

Philadelphia in 1880
An excerpt from Report on the Social Statistics of Cities, published by the US Census Bureau, that provides a detailed portrait of the city and its institutions. See also companion from this Census report, Philadelphia Drainage in 1880.

Philadelphia in 1890
The statistics of the City, from streets to wharves to sewers, as reported for the 1890 Census. Published as an appendix to the 1890 Annual Report of the Bureau of Surveys.

2,000 turn out for 'Be-In' to promote 'Flower Power'
Article and photograph from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, April 17, 1967. The event, held in Fairmount Park, was organized by Ira Einhorn and attended by "hippies, teenie-boppers, mods, psychedelics and pretenders." Thanks to Rob Armstrong of the Fairmount Park Archives for sharing this historic gem.

Articles on related subjects by Adam Levine

When it rains, it pours: Understanding the importance of stormwater runoff [PDF, 1.4 mb]
An article originally written for Green Scene, and reprinted as a fact sheet by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, on the problems of uncontrolled urban stormwater runoff, and some of the steps that PHS and PWD are taking to alleviate it.

Down Under: My trip through a Philadelphia sewer
From the Philadelphia City Paper (1997)

Drought and Gardeners
From the newsletter of the Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group (2004)

Suburban Sprawl: Turning the tide against poorly planned development
From Green Scene, April 2005

Profiles of Gardens and Gardeners
A selection of articles from past years.

Watersheds
An attempt to relate the complicated topic of watersheds to the home gardener, and to do it in
less than 1600 words. Originally from Green Scene, November 1999.

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