View looking west toward the Schuylkill River from Fairmount showing part of the Fairmount Water Works. Several elegantly-attired visitors traverse the site. In the foreground, individuals, including a couple, descend a walkway that leads to the gazebo on the mount. Within the pavilion, a number of men and woman traverse and enjoy the vista over the roof of the millhouse. A figure adorns the top of the open air gazebo and individuals descend the walkway and stairs that lead from that observation deck. More visitors stand in the doorways of the partially visible engine house to the far right of which, past the millhouse, the mound dam and gazebo are visible. On the west bank, the superintendant’s house of the Schuylkill Navigation Company stands across from the canal lock. A few buildings and several trees complete the landscape. In the river, a man fishes from one of a few rock formations, sailboats glide, waterfowl swim, and three teams of scullers drill near docks adjacent to the waterworks and bordering the east river bank. The sun peaks through one of some clouds visible on the horizon. The Fairmount Water Works were originally built between 1812 and 1822 after the designs of Philadelphia engineer Frederick Graff., Title and publication information from duplicate in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 796, LCP copy trimmed and lacking title and imprint., Wainwright retrospective conversion project., Historical Society of Pennsylvania:
Date
[1838]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **W8 [P.2004]
View looking northwest from Fairmount showing the Fairmount Waterworks, including the engine house, millhouse, race bridge, and mound dam. Vistors stroll on the grounds near the engine house and across the promenade of the mill house. Bushes, trees, and rocks dominate the foreground. In the right, a man stands in the gazebo on the partially visible mount. On the bucolic west bank, the superintendant’s house of the Schuylkill Navigation Company stands across from the canal lock. In the river, sailboats and a rowboat travel and two teams of scullers drill near docks adjacent to the waterworks and bordering the east river bank on which two buildings stand. A twilight sky forms the horizon. The Fairmount Water Works were originally built between 1812 and 1822 after the designs of Philadelphia engineer Frederick Graff., Title and publication information supplied from duplicate in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 797, LCP copy trimmed and lacking title and imprint., Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bc 88 B786.
Date
[c1838]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **W9 [P.2006]
Album of photographs documenting the Philadelphia, Middle, and Pittsburgh divisions of the Pennsylvania Railroad, incorporated in 1846. The consolidated company sought to build a trunk route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh through the Allegheny mountains in order to compete with the Erie Canal for freight traffic. In 1854, rail passage through the Alleghenies via the "Horse Shoe Curve" was achieved and spurred the establishment and growth of the several towns depicted along the route.
