Fairmount Water Works "1812-1909"

Fairmount Water Works with view of the Philadelphia Art Museum in the background.

Built in 1812 to supply water to the growing city of Philadelphia. Up until then the water was supplied by the city's wells and had become polluted. Residents feared that the outbreaks of Yellow Fever were from the polluted wells. Frederick Graff who designed the Water Works asked the city to provide "buffer" land on both sides of the Waterworks to prevent pollution. The Fairmount Park, largest park in the nation was then created. However by 1909, the buffer land known as Fairmount Park was not big enough to prevent the waters of the Schuylkill from being polluted by the industry up river. Therefore in 1909 the Fairmont water Works closed and new access to water came from the Delaware River.