This page provides links
to the newest material on Philly H2O.
If you have any suggestions regarding material I might want to add to
the site, please contact me.
For those users with slow Internet connections, large files have been noted. See note on the Home page for more information.
ALSO CHECK OUT THE
Philadelphia Water Department Historical Collection
Online
Catalogue
which includes thousands of photographs and publications
documenting the more than 200 year history of PWD.
This online database is made possible by
Past Perfect Museum Software
March 18, 2010
Kensington
Water Supply (1883) By
William W. Van Baun, M.D.
Located on the Deleware River just below where the Aramingo Canal
emptied into the river, the Kensington Water Works served up a disgusting
brew of polluted drinking water for decades after it was opened in 1851.
Health records from the period show a higher death rate from typhoid fever
and other water-borne diseases in the areas served by this water works.
The Board of Health advocated its closure many times, as did independent
physicians such as the author of this article. Unfortunately, the works
were not completely abandoned until 1890.
1889
Report on Philadelphia's Water Supply
by the Board of Health
This Board of Health Report focuses on typhoid fever and
tries to carefully prove that the pollution of the water supply with sewage
is causing this disease. This is an accepted fact today, but many people
still needed to be convinced of this in 1889. This was one of many reports
that led to the ultimate filtration of the water supply in the early 20th
century.
March 2, 2010
Online Exhibit celebrating 100th Anniversary
of Water Filtration in Philadelphia 1909-2009
The industrial revolution and indoor plumbing brought polluted water and
disease to 19th-century Philadelphia. Accustomed to utilizing the Schuylkill
and Delaware Rivers as the city's water supply, the Philadelphia Water
Department undertook a building project of previously unknown proportions
to create filtration plants that would make the polluted waters safe to
drink. In 2009, Philadelphia celebrates 100 years of delivering filtered
drinking water to all residents of the city.
December 9, 2009
1931 Report
on Water Supply and Sanitation (including sewers and sewerage)
The full citation of this report: "Semi-final draft of report on
the water supply and sanitation problem in the Philadelphia Tri-State
District. Supplement to chapter X of the regional plan report approved
by the Committee on Water Supply and Sanitation, June 30, 1931. Prepared
for submission to the Water Supply and Sanitation Committee, August 1931.
The Regional Planning Federation of the Philadelphia Tri-State District,
1700 Fox Building, Philadelphia." This was among the final scanning
projects undertaken by long-time PWD Archives volunteers, Dan and Pauline
Greene.
News clippings
related to a new water supply for Philadelphia, 1944-1946
This series of clippings documents the city's last search for a new water
supply to replace the grossly polluted Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers.
While the 194-page PDF is a bit unwieldy (and clocks in at 22 mb), it
is a wealth of information for anyone interested in public works in this
region at that time. This was among the final scanning projects undertaken
by long-time PWD Archives volunteers, Dan and Pauline Greene.
Dobson's Run: A brief history
of this Schuylkill River tributary.
Now part of the city's sewer system, Dobson's Run once drained an area
from Germantown down to Laurel Hill Cemetery, and ran through a large
textile mill complex owned by the Dobson brothers. This report was prepared
for the PWD Public Relations Division in 2005, to provide background for
a sewer construction project in the Dobson's Run watershed.
Wise's
Mill Run: A brief overview of this Wissahickon Creek tributary. [PDF,
3mb]
I wrote this report for the PWD Office of Watersheds in 2008. The aerial
photographs shown at the end of the report are courtesy of the Delaware
Valley Regional Planning Commission. DVRPC has scanned these historic
photos and is now offering them for sale at a very reasonable price. Contact
DVRPC for more
information.
June 21, 2009
Geology of Pennsylvania: A Government
Survey (1858).
Excerpts and images including geological and pictorial representations
of Schuylkill River and Wissahickon Creek, descriptions of the Potomac,
Susquehanna, Delaware, and Allegheny watersheds in Pennsylvania, and locations
of quarries in Philadelphia and vicinity.
Fairmount Dam Fishway on the Schuylkill.
Information on the new fishway, opened in May 2009 to replace the Fairmount
Dam Fish Ladder, and Includes photographs and videos of fish (and one
otter) passing through the fishway. Also many links to other fish- and
fishing-related pages. Among the links:
2008 presentation on Fish Passage at Fairmount by Lance Butler and Joe
Perillo (PDF,
23 mb)
2005-2006 Fish Counts by Species at Fairmount Fish Ladder (PDF,
826 kb)
Fishing in Philadelphia: Photographs from the
Philadelphia Anglers Club.
Includes photos of huge fish being taken out of the Schuylkill River and
elsewhere in Philadelphia. A second page of photos, Catch
and Release, documents big fish that took the bait more than once,
and discusses the safety
of eating fish caught in urban environments. Thanks to Louis Cook
of the Philadelphia Anglers Club for providing information and gathering
the photos for these pages, from fellow Philly anglers Matt Coll, Tan
Bui, Aki Mori, Chris McIntee, Dan Coghlin, Dennis Cook, Enoch Lee, and
Jude Becker.
Fred D. Borrelli, Dedicated Philadelphia Water Department
employee, 1938-1963.
A remembrance by Bob Borrelli, who provided several anecdotes and vintage
photographs of his father as a child in West Philadelphia and at work
for the city.
New photographs
of the Aramingo Canal Excavation. (PDF, 23 mb)
Thanks to A. Leonard Pundt of PennDOT for providing the images in this
PDF. To see the full collection of photographs, visit the Aramingo
Canal main page.
New reports and indexes of reports from
the Bureau of Surveys.
Manuscript reports from 1927 to 1950 (in PDF format) have been added to
the existing collection, as well as indexes of reports from 1883 to 1923.
History of East Park Reservoir 1869-1889.
Jane Mork Gibson, historical consultant for PWD, compiled this report
on the reservoir (in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia) from its conception
through construction and finally its opening in 1889.
January 11, 2009
The Pauline and Daniel Greene
Glass Plate Negative Collection.
In honor of these two
long-time PWD volunteers we have renamed this collection for them. See
listing below September 12, 2008 for full description.
December 30, 2008
Aramingo Canal: Then and Now.
Photos of the Aramingo Canal (Gunner's Run) being converted into a combined
sewer, 1900-1902, along with modern photos showing an excavation of a
section of the canal, December 2008. Thanks to Doug Mooney of URS Corp.,
for inspiring this page and providing the modern photos.
December 21, 2008
"The Water Supply of the City of Philadelphia
by a proposed Aqueduct from Norristown Dam, and the Acquisition of the
Works of the Schuylkill Navigation Co. 1891."
This plan was never implemented, but left behind a series of sixteen beautifully
rendered plans and maps showing details of the Schuylkill River watershed;
the canals, locks, dams of the Schuylkill Navigation company; and gate-houses
and other buildings designed by Philadelphia architect Frank Furness.
October 29, 2008
PWD Annual Report Indexes 1898-1913
Thanks to PWD Archives Volunteer Christiane Metz, for compiling these
indexes for the years covering the construction of PWD's filtration system.
Reports for these years are literally crammed with charts, graphs and
other illustrations, all of which are described.
1947
Knappen Report on Frankford Creek (LARGE FILE: PDF, 50mb)
Officially called the "Report on Flood Control, Frankford Creek,
City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," by the Knappen Engineering Company,
280 Madison Avenue, New York 16, N.Y. October 1947. This report, excerpted
elsewhere on PhillyH2O, gives an excellent historical overview of
the creek, and includes large-scale engineering drawings for the flood
control channel completed in 1956.
October 24, 2008
A
Day in the Ma'sh by Maurice F. Egan
An interesting portrait of a section of South Philadelphia, called The
Neck, once an area of marshland, canals, pig-farms, and wide-open vistas.
Illustrations by J.W.Pennell, H.R. Poore, and Thomas Eakins. From Scribner's
Monthly, Volume 22, Issue 3, July 1881, pages 343-352.
October 1, 2008
Glossary
of Drainage Terms by C. Drew Brown
C. Drew Brown, Manager of Public Education
for PWD, created this glossary for our annual Wingohocking Mystery Tour.
I think it's too valuable to simply let lie on some computer hard drive,
so I got his permission to post it here.The terms are not in alphabetical
order, but rather follow a logical hierarchy, beginning with the proper
definition of a watershed and working to smaller elements of both natural
and man-made drainage systems.
September 22, 2008
Down Under II:
Photos from my Second Sewer Walk
These pictures, taken during a walk in a sewer
on the University of Pennsylvania campus September 15, 2008, include a
running description of the experience. The visual aspect that has always
been missing from my first "Down Under"
experience; now I finally have it. The tour was part of publicity for
the American Philosophical Society's "Water Walk Weekend" Sept.
20-21, 2008, and these pictures (combined with those taken by a Phila.
Inquirer photographer who accompanied the tour) made a great hit during
the 12 twenty-minute talks I gave throughout the weekend.
State of the Delaware
River Estuary 2008
This Summer 2008 report, from the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary
(in which the Philadelphia Water Department is an important participant),
details the health of the estuary or tidal portion of the Delaware River,
below the falls at Trenton, NJ. The estuary includes all of the Schuylkill
River Basin, and this report makes a great companion to A
Report on the State of the Schuylkill River Watershed: 2002 recently
added to PhillyH20. For more information on the Delaware Estuary, visit
www.delawareestuary.org.
September 12, 2008
1,580 PWD Photographs (1895-1909),
on PhillyHistory.org: The Pauline and Daniel Greene Glass Plate Negative
Collection
These photographs, created from 8"x10" glass plate negatives,
mostly document the construction of the city's then-new drinking water
filtration system. The small images presented on PhillyHistory give only
a glimpse of the information recorded in these pictures, which show everything
from landscapes and streetscapes that are long gone, turn-of-the-century
construction methods that straddled the transition period between horsepower
and automotive machinery, down to the hand tools, clothing, and hair styles
of the foreman and workmen. In some images, labels on equipment such as
cranes, steam engines, and wheelbarrows are clearly discernible. This
link will take you to a web page that includes sample high-resolution
images; background about the discovery of the negatives and the 20-year
process of cleaning, cataloguing, scanning, and getting them online; and
a tribute to long-time PWD volunteers Pauline and Dan Greene.
A Report on the State of the Schuylkill
River Watershed: 2002
A comprehensive overview of the state of the river. Includes informative
maps, tables, and other illustrations. Prepared by the Conservation Fund
for the Schuylkill River Watershed Initiative, a consortium of most of
the groups interested in the health of the river, including PWD.
July 15, 2008
Complete
19th & 20th Century Atlases of Philadelphia Neighborhoods
1887 Bromley Atlas of the 18, 19th, and 31st Wards
(including Kensington and other neighborhoods)
1927 Bromley Atlas of West Philadelphia (including all neighborhoods
west of the Schuylkill River)
March 4, 2008
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. Mapping Buried Stream Valleys in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
USGS Fact Sheet FS–117–00. 2000, and 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
December 10, 2007
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.
August 28, 2007
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 "Water Supply" section of the Philly H2O
Archives for more information on this proposal.
August 13, 2007
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.
August 6, 2007
Philadelphia Water
Department Library Catalogue
A PDF (265 kb; 151 pages) listing more than 1,500 publications in the
collection of the Philadelphia Water Department. Thanks to volunteer Joe
Shapiro for inputting these volumes.
February 6, 2007
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.)
January 24, 2007
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.
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.
Abington,
Cheltenham, Darby, Horsham, Moreland and Upper Darby Townships
Plates from early 1870s atlases published by G. M. Hopkins, Philadelphia
surveyor and cartographer.
April 14, 2006
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.
March 23, 2006
History
of Belfield, by Sarah Logan Wistar Starr
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.
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
"turning me on" to this historic gem.
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.
Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, as shown on Noll's New Official Guide Map of Philadelphia, 1890. Shows many creeks that other maps of the period omit, and includes elevation contour lines and a more realistic street grid.
Leverington
Street Stormwater Outfall, in the context of the development of
stormwater and wastewater disposal systems in Manayunk and Philadelphia.
A paper written 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
An article originally written for Green Scene, and reprinted as a
fact sheet by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, on the problems
of uncontrolled stormwater runoff, and some of the steps that PHS and
PWD are taking to alleviate it.
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.
Philadelphia's Water and Sewer History. Two virtual exhibits, based on "Clean Water For Life: Philadelphia Water Department 1801-2001," have been posted here: Drainage for the City, which replaces a previously-posted version that did not include all the exhibit images; and Water for the City, a comprehensive visual history of the Philadelphia water supply, based on a quarter-century of research by historian Jane Mork Gibson.
Pennypack Watershed in Philadelphia: Four Plans and Maps. 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.
March 9, 2006
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."
Seven new maps on a new maps page, covering the Delaware River, Philadelphia's port in 1912, Mill Creek in 1852, Tacony and Frankford creeks, and an interesting Center City elevation diagram from the early 18th century.
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.
From various collections, these are divided
into the folowing pages:
General Views
Aerial Views from the PNI Library
Views of Smith and Windmill Islands
February 23, 2006
History
of Philadelphia 1609-1884.
The preface and two chapters from this three-volume comprehensive
history of early Philadelphia: Chapter 1
(Topography) and Chapter 11 (Manners
and Customs of the Primitive Settlers).
Historical Society
of Frankford: Photographs from the Cartledge Collection
56 photographs, mostly of Pennypack Creek, taken by photograph Lincoln
Cartledge between 1890 and 1915.
Nine new maps on a new page, ranging from 1777 to 1925, including several of the Schuylkill River.
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.
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 and drawings from various collections.
Historical
Overview of the Schuylkill River as a Water Supply.
A brief history with links to a number of illustrations.
City
Job Annoucement for Sewer Crawler, 1968. [PDF, 150 kb]
Thanks for Joe and Milton Shapiro for this piece of sewer trivia, which
is linked at the top of the "Down
Under" page.
Upcoming
Lectures.
A new page will list future lectures by Adam Levine on various topics
related to sewers and watershed history.
Research Hints.
A few ideas on how to do your own hidden stream research.
November 23, 2005
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
Waterfront, 1876.
A description from a Centennial guidebook, with illustrations, of the
bustling life along the the Delaware and Schuylkill.
Delaware
River Steamboats, 1876.
A description from a Centennial guidebook, with illustrations.
Philadelphia's
Hidden Streams, 1889.
As early as the late 19th century the streams that had been converted
to sewers, and thus hidden underground, were seen 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.
Wingohocking
Creek Watershed, 1902.
Excerpts from a 1902 guidebook of Germantown concerning the Winghocking
watershed and other local history.
November 2, 2005
Jones Wister's
reminiscences.
Excerpts concerning Winghohocking Creek and Schuylkill River.
Sad
History of Frankford Creek.
A PowerPoint slideshow converted into a Web page or PDF format, with text,
maps, photographs and newspaper articles illustrating the history of pollution
and channelization of Frankford Creek.
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.
List of
Illustrations in History of Philadelphia: 1682-1884.
Indexes to images in all three volumes of this pre-eminent historical
work, commonly known by its authors' last names, Scharf and Westcott.
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.
August 10, 2005
Photographs
of underground sewer inspections added to Down Under!,
courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News library.
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.
Illustrated
history of Philadelphia's drainage and sewerage system
A digital version of part of an exhibit celebrating the 200th anniversary
of the Philadelphia Water Department, mounted in 2001 by PWD and the City
of Philadelphia Department of Records. I co-wrote the text and located
most of the illustrations for this part of the exhibit. [Link updated
March 23, 2006]
A map detailing "The Journey of Your Flush" along with a tribute to the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center.
July 27, 2005
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.
May 24, 2005
Maps
Page: Five
early maps of Fairmount Park (1870-1893), and an 1873 engraving of Fairmount
Water Works, with buildings identified by date of construction.
Lemon Hill and Fairmount Park. The papers of Charles S. Keyser and Thomas Cochran, relative to a public park for Philadelphia, published in 1856 and 1872.
Our City of Tomorrow: Twelve-part 1930 newspaper series detailing plans for Philadelphia and the surrounding region
Watersheds: A 1999 article by Adam Levine.
May 12, 2005
1844 Report on
the Flood of 1843, in Delaware Co., Pennsylvania
August 11, 1843 newspaper article describing the Flood of 1843
1826 Report on Manufactories of Delaware Co., Pennsylvania
1890 Census Return: Portrait of Philadelphia
May 10, 2005
WWW.PHILLYH2O.ORG launched.
Philly H2O replaces my former site, www.sewerhistory.net,
and includes the best of what was on the old site and much more.
Historical Consultant
Philadelphia Water Department
