Fairmount Water Works | |
Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
---|---|
Coordinates | 39°57′56″N75°10′51″W / 39.96556°N 75.18083°W |
Built | 1812–1815 |
Architect | Frederick Graff et al. |
Architectural style | Mid 19th Century Revival, Palladian |
NRHP reference No. | 76001662 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | May 11, 1976 |
Designated NHL | May 11, 1976 |
The Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was Philadelphia's second municipal waterworks. Designed in 1812 by Frederick Graff and built between 1812 and 1872, it operated until 1909, winning praise for its design and becoming a popular tourist attraction. It now houses a restaurant and an interpretive center that explains the waterworks' purpose and local watershed history. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 for its architecture and its engineering innovations. It was the nation's first water supply to use paddle wheels to move water. [2]
Following a series of yellow fever epidemics in the late 18th century, which was at the time thought to be caused by unclean water or by rotting matter in the streets, city leaders appointed a "Watering Committee". The initial water system was designed by Benjamin Latrobe and accepted by the committee in 1799. His system utilized two steam engines in series to pump water from the Schuylkill River, into the city, then into two wooden tanks that held a total of just 57,000 US gallons (220,000 L). From the wooden tanks, the water was gravity fed into a series of wooden water mains. The system was plagued with problems. If either of the steam engines failed, the water supply to the city was cut off. [3]
The committee began searching for another solution and eventually picked John Davis and Frederick Graff, Latrobe's apprentice and successor as chief engineer, to design a new waterworks, in order to meet the demand of the increasing numbers of city residents [3] and to solve the problem of inadequate storage capacity.
The Fairmount Water Works was initially constructed between 1812 and 1815 on the east bank of the Schuylkill River. The Water Works initially consisted of a 3 million US gallons (11,000,000 L) earthen reservoir atop Faire Mount at the present site of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and a pump house with two steam engines to pump water. Between 1819 and 1821, a 1,600-foot-long (490 m) dam was built across the Schuylkill to direct water to a Mill House with three water wheels that replaced the steam engines in 1822. Later, Jonval turbines were used to lift the water in a New Mill House and in the renovated Old Mill House. [3]
The facility, the industrial nature of which was disguised by a Classical Revival exterior, [3] became a tourist attraction for its beauty and its location on the riverside. Visitors included Charles Dickens, who praised it for its pleasant design and public usefulness. Another English visitor, Fanny Trollope, in her 1832 book Domestic Manners of the Americans , mentioned the Water Works:
There is one spot, however, about a mile from the town, which presents a lovely scene. The water-works of Philadelphia have not yet perhaps as wide extended fame as those of Marley, but they are not less deserving it. At a most beautiful point of the Schuylkill River the water has been forced up into a magnificent reservoir, ample and elevated enough to send it through the whole city. The vast yet simple machinery by which this is achieved is open to the public, who resort in such numbers to see it, that several evening stages run from Philadelphia to Fair Mount for their accommodation. [4]
The Fairmount Water Works eventually closed in 1909 when several newer and more technologically updated facilities were built.
Completed in 1822, Fairmount Dam cut diagonally across the river, channeled water into the Waterworks, and acted as a spillway. [5] The Schuylkill is a tidal river, so it also prevented brackish water in the Delaware River from mixing with the fresh water. Above it, the dam created the "Schuylkill Pond", several miles of tranquil water used for recreation.
After the waterworks closed in 1909 the facility was used for several purposes, including the Philadelphia Aquarium, which closed in 1962, and an indoor swimming pool which closed in 1973. Attempts have been made to return the waterworks to its previous position as an engaging tourist attraction. Despite a severe fire which caused setbacks to the restoration, an interpretive center has now been added and tours are regularly given. Its position near Boathouse Row and the Philadelphia Museum of Art is hoped to aid in making it a regularly visited tourist site once more.
The Fairmount Water Works buildings now house the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center (FWWIC), a hands-on science and environmental educational center, created by the Philadelphia Water Department. The FWWIC offers interactive exhibits, lectures, events, and school programs.
In December 2004, Michael Karloutsos won a 25-year, $120,000/year lease with the Fairmount Park Commission. After a highly publicized renovation, Karloutsos opened Water Works Restaurant and Lounge within the Water Works on July 20, 2006. [6] This restaurant closed in 2015, [7] and an event venue opened shortly thereafter. [8]
The Schuylkill River is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for 135 miles (217 km) from Pottsville southeast to Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city, where it joins the Delaware River as one of its largest tributaries.
Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, with the two sections together totalling 2,052 acres (830 ha). Management of Fairmount Park and the entire citywide park system is overseen by Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, a city department created in 2010 from the merger of the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation.
William Rush was a U.S. neoclassical sculptor from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is considered the first major American sculptor.
Manayunk is a neighborhood in the section of Lower Northwest Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania. Located adjacent to the neighborhoods of Roxborough and Wissahickon and also on the banks of the Schuylkill River, Manayunk contains the first canal begun in the United States.
Fairmount is a neighborhood within Lower North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Its boundaries are north of Fairmount Avenue, west of Corinthian Avenue, south of Girard Avenue and east of The Schuylkill River. While this may be the most accurate demarcation, the area's boundaries fluctuate depending how the neighborhood is defined. Several other neighborhoods near Fairmount are sometimes also collectively called Fairmount, including: Spring Garden, Franklintown and Francisville. Fairmount and neighboring Spring Garden are commonly referred to as the "Art Museum Area," for their proximity to and association with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Fairmount is also the location of the Eastern State Penitentiary.
Boathouse Row is a historic site which is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the east bank of the Schuylkill River just north of the Fairmount Water Works and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It consists of a row of fifteen boathouses housing social and rowing clubs and their racing shells. Each of the boathouses has its own history, and all have addresses on both Boathouse Row and Kelly Drive, named after Philadelphia oarsman John B. Kelly Jr..
The Schuylkill Canal, or Schuylkill Navigation, was a system of interconnected canals and slack-water pools along the Schuylkill River in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, built as a commercial waterway in the early 19th-century. Chartered in 1815, the navigation opened in 1825, to provide transportation and water power.
East Falls is a neighborhood in Lower Northwest, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies on the east bank of the "Falls of the Schuylkill," cataracts submerged in 1822 by the Schuylkill Canal and Fairmount Water Works projects. East Falls sits next to the Germantown, Roxborough, Allegheny West, and the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhoods. Wissahickon Valley Park separates it from Manayunk, Philadelphia.
The Schuylkill River Trail is a multi-use trail along the banks of the Schuylkill River in southeastern Pennsylvania. Partially complete as of 2018, the trail is ultimately planned to run about 140 miles (230 km) from the river's headwaters in Schuylkill County to Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia.
The Schuylkill Navy is an association of amateur rowing clubs of Philadelphia. Founded in 1858, it is the oldest amateur athletic governing body in the United States. The member clubs are all on the Schuylkill River where it flows through Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, mostly on the historic Boathouse Row.
The Philadelphia Aquarium was one of the first aquariums in the United States. It was located on the east bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia’s decommissioned Fairmount Water Works buildings from 1911 to 1962, as part of Fairmount Park.
The Lehigh Canal is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern regions of Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of 20 years beginning in 1818. The lower section spanned the distance between Easton and present-day Jim Thorpe. In Easton, the canal met the Pennsylvania Canal's Delaware Division and Morris Canals, which allowed anthracite coal and other goods to be transported further up the U.S. East Coast. At its height, the Lehigh Canal was 72 miles (116 km) long.
Historic Strawberry Mansion is a summer home in East Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Built between 1783 and 1789 by Judge William Lewis, it was originally named Summerville.
The Colossus Bridge – also known as Fairmount Bridge, Colossus of Fairmount or Upper Ferry Bridge – was a record-setting timber bridge across the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia. It was built in 1812 by Louis Wernwag, and was considered his finest bridge design. It had a clear span of 340 feet (103.6 m) and the longest single-span wooden truss to be erected in the United States as well as the first long span bridge to use iron rods.
Lemon Hill is a Federal-style mansion in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, built from 1799 to 1800 by Philadelphia merchant Henry Pratt. The house is named after the citrus fruits that Pratt cultivated on the property in the early 19th century.
William Rush and His Model is the collective name given to several paintings by the American artist Thomas Eakins, one set from 1876–77 and the other from 1908. These works depict the American wood sculptor William Rush in 1808, carving his statue Water Nymph and Bittern for a fountain at Philadelphia's first waterworks. The water nymph is an allegorical figure representing the Schuylkill River, which provided the city's drinking water, and on her shoulder is a bittern, a native waterbird related to the heron. Hence, these Eakins works are also known as William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River.
Spring Garden Street Bridge is a highway bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It crosses the Schuylkill River below Fairmount Dam and connects West Philadelphia to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It is the fourth bridge at this location.
Fairmount Rowing Association is an amateur rowing club, founded in 1877. The facility, located at #2 Boathouse Row in the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Fairmount originally catered to blue-collar youths living in the Fairmount neighborhood. In 1916, after decades of being rejected, the club was finally allowed to join the Schuylkill Navy. The Club boasts being known as the "premiere club for Masters rowing in the mid-Atlantic region" and has produced several world class rowers.
University Barge Club of Philadelphia is an amateur rowing club located at #7 in the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark. The club's founding, in 1854, is considered the "dawn of organized athletics in the University of Pennsylvania." Known as "the upper-class rowing club," UBC is a founder, and the most senior member, of the oldest amateur athletic governing body in the United States, the Schuylkill Navy.
The Philadelphia Water Department is the public water utility for the City of Philadelphia. PWD provides integrated potable water, wastewater, and stormwater services for Philadelphia and some communities in Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties. PWD is a municipal agency of the City of Philadelphia, and is seated in rented space at the Jefferson Tower in the Market East area of Center City, Philadelphia.
Although repairs and additions to Fairmount Dam have been undertaken in the years since its construction in 1819–1821, the original cribs have remained as placed, with the added support constructions before and behind.