These ateps lead from the towpath near the river to the Shawmont Pumping Station's main buiding.

The Shawmont Waterworks Pumping Station was built about 1870 and located at Shawmont and Nixon Street off of River Road. These are pictures taken from the outside of the pumping station's main building.
As you can see the station is reduced to ruins by years of

vandalism and neglect. The roof of the building barely exists.
Debris is everywhere.
These are pictures taken from within the building itself.
The building once had large windows that looked out
into the park and over the river.

The floor of the building had contained its pumps.
Shawmont Pumping Station pumped water from the Schuylkill River to the Roxborough Reservoir located at Port Royal and to the "Little Roxborough" Reservoir located on Shawmont Avenue.
This is the actual pipeline which carried the water from the Schuylkill River into the pumping station and out through to the reservoirs in Roxborough. The pipe line actually runs along the towpath from the one story brick pumping station to the main pumping station.
We had to walk on this trail off the towpath in order to get to the one story brick building located near Flat Rock Dam.

Steps leading to the one story addition of the pumping station
located near Flat Rock Dam.
This is the spill off location between the canal and river used when the water rises too high in the canal looking. This is the one story addition to the pumping station
which was built in 1902 for 21,000 dollars.

View of the canal from the pumping station.
Part of the building collapsed into ruins.
Section of an old pump used up to the 1960's.
This part of the canal that runs underneath the one brick story pumping station addition is now overgrowth. Of note, in 1898 according to an article from the Board of Health, the city saw an increase in Typhoid Fever due to contamination found from the water at Queen Lane and Shawmont Reservoir. It appeared that when water levels were taken the Schuylkill River North from the Shawmont Pumping Station, the bacteria that causes Typhoid Fever was discovered.