Engine house of the Twenty-fourth Ward Water Works. Designed and constructed by Birkinbine & Trotter, engineers and contractors, Philadelphia. [graphic].
Title
Engine house of the Twenty-fourth Ward Water Works. Designed and constructed by Birkinbine & Trotter, engineers and contractors, Philadelphia
Description
View showing the engine house at the water works also known as the West Philadelphia Water Works, completed circa 1855, on the west bank of the Schuylkill River above the Fairmount Dam. The engine house built after the designs of engineers Birkinbine & Trotter, contained two boiler rooms, sleeping rooms for the engineers, and storerooms. Also shows two men standing near a fence in the foreground and the smokestack at the waterworks in the background., Name of photographer from duplicate in private collection., Title from accompanying label., Originally part of a series of eleven scrapbooks compiled by Philadelphia antiquarian Charles A. Poulson in the late 1850s entitled "Illustrations of Philadelphia" volume 5, page 70? The scrapbooks contained photographs of 18th-century public, commercial, and residential buildings in the city of Philadelphia collected by Poulson to document the vanishing architectural landscape., Birkinbine & Trotter was a partnership between Philadelphia engineers Henry P.M. Birkinbine and Edward H. Trotter (1814-1872), Reproduced in Kenneth Finkel's Nineteenth century photography in Philadelphia (New York: Dover Publications, Inc. in cooperation with the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1980), entry #97., McClees, a prominent Philadelphia photographer and daguerreotypist, produced some of the earliest paper photographic views of Philadelphia between 1853 and 1859.
Creator
M'Clees, Jas. E. (James E.), photographer
Date
ca. 1854
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - McClees - Public Utilities [(5)2526.F.4a]
Philadelphia Water Works. "Stand Pipe" 24th Ward Works.
Title
Philadelphia Water Works. "Stand Pipe" 24th Ward Works
Description
View showing the standpipe with an ornate spiral staircase erected at Thirty-Fifth and Sycamore streets as part of the Twenty Fourth Ward Water Works also known as the West Philadelphia Water Works. Completed circa 1855 after the designs of engineers Birkinbine & Trotter, the standpipe served as a reservoir for the waterworks located on the west bank of the Schuylkill River above the Fairmount Dam. The standpipe was removed in 1870., Title from manuscript note by Henry P.M. Birkinbine, Chief Engineer of the Water Department, on accompanying label., Manuscript note on accompanying label: With respects of Henry P.M. Birkinbine Chief Engineer., Blue mount with square corners., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook., Birkinbine & Trotter was a partnership between Philadelphia engineers Henry P.M. Birkinbine and Edward H. Trotter (1814-1872)., See Poulson's scrapbook vol. VII, pg. 119 for clipping concerning the raising of the stand pipe dated December 15, 1853., Digitization funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Date
ca. 1860
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department stereo - unidentified - Public Utilities [(8)1322.F.3a-2]