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By Dena Sher _____________________________ Thanks to the following two publications for
permitting the use of their material: The
Pennsylvania Gazette, "Rebirth on the River" by Susan Lonkevich (Jan/Feb
2000), and The Chestnut Hill Local. ______________________________
WATER WORKS PAST During the 18th century, the Water On the banks of the Schuylkill
River, just downstream from the Fairmount Dam and Boathouse Row, is a group of
handsome neoclassical structures that formerly housed the Philadelphia Water
Works. A technological wonder in its time,
the Water Works began operation in 1815 and soon attracted international
visitors. During the greater part of the 19th century, it was the second most
popular tourist site in the United States after Niagara Falls. Even Charles Dickens, who visited
Philadelphia in mid-century, was impressed and wrote: "The Water-Works,
which are on a height near the city, are no less ornamental than useful, being tastefully
laid out as a public garden... The river is dammed at this point and forced by
its own power into reservoirs, whence the whole city is supplied....at a very
trifling expense." The Water Works operation began
because of a yellow fever epidemic in the 1790's that killed 10 percent of
Philadelphia's population in a single year. At that time, City leaders
established a Watering Committee (forerunner of the Philadelphia Water
Department). They believed that the filth in city streets spread yellow fever,
actually carried by mosquitoes. The Committee had to come up with a source of
clean water not only for drinking, but also for fire fighting and washing city
streets. The initial effort to pump water, from the
Schuylkill River, then of "uncommon purity", was only a partial
success. Wooden boilers producing steam for the pumps kept exploding, requiring
that the whole system shut down for repairs. Because of high operating costs
and the deaths of three men, steam was abandoned in favor of safer, cheaper
water power. Frederick Graff, designer of the
Fairmount Water Works, disguised its industrial function within buildings that
resembled a genteel country estate. Behind its stucco exterior, the millhouse
was wide open from the water level to the rafters to accommodate the
water-powered pumping machinery. At the time of its construction, Gigantic water wheels, 16 feet in
diameter, used water from a bay created by the Fairmount Dam. At the time of
its construction, the dam measuring 1,204 feet, was the longest in the world.
As they turned, surprisingly soundless, the wheels operated pumps that sent
water through a series of mains to the city's reservoirs. With an impressive degree of
environmental foresight, Philadelphia began buying up land along the Schuylkill
River north of the city in order to prevent water pollution from industrial
development. Boathouse Row and East and West Fairmount Park were ultimately
born of this investment. Because the Wissahickon Creek is a
major tributary to the Schuylkill River, the newly established Fairmount Park
Commission acquired 1,800 acres of the Wissahickon Valley in 1868. At the time,
dozens of industrial mills operated in the Valley compromising the purity of
the creek's water. Soon they were demolished leaving present-day evidence in
dams and the foundations of their buildings. As one epidemic brought the Water
Works into existence, another closed it down. In the 1890s, Philadelphia
endured the worst typhoid epidemic in the nation, second only to Chicago. Subsequently, the city built five new
water pumping stations with sand filtration beds to purify the water supply.
The Water Works, out of service, was transformed into a public aquarium. A badly deteriorated aquarium shut
down in 1962 and was replaced by a public swimming pool that lasted about 10
years. In the early 1980s, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior placed the Water
Works on the list of threatened national landmarks. Enough funding followed to
renovate two small buildings and stabilize the old millhouse. ______________________________ WATER WORKS FUTURE
Targeted
for an opening date in Spring 2001, the Interpretive Center will recount past
history of the operation - once the prototype for the world's water supply
systems - and emphasize today's need to protect the Schuylkill River watershed
from pollution.
The Philadelphia Water Department
has been running educational programs in the renovated buildings for a few
years, however, plans for the Interpretive Center call for a broad array of
activities, including a lab where visitors can test water quality and examine
microorganisms in water; interpretative displays on the environment; and a
working model of a water wheel. Using a computer mapping system, visitors will
be able to locate their home address and track the source of their drinking
water and destination of their wastewater. Ed Grusheski, a museum educator with
an interest in historic preservation and the environment, spearheads the
restoration project. According to Mr. Grusheski, the reason full restoration
has taken so long is that the environment along the Schuylkill River had to
catch up to the preservationist's concepts. Thanks to the Federal Clean Water
Acts of the 1970s, there has been "an amazing turnaround in the quality of
the river's water." Between 1986 and 1996, 40 varieties of fish and other
indigenous wildlife reappeared in the Schuylkill watershed. In Mr. Grusheski's opinion, the
public has to understand the importance of water resources . The attraction of
an accurately restored and dramatic Water Works, added to by the Interpretive
Center, should carry forward that mission. |
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