Although historically credited with “originating the idea of the Fairmount dam, resulting in giving to the citizens of Philadelphia such a plentiful supply of water as they never dreamed of before,” Josiah White, founder of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company is unrecognized at the Fairmont Waterworks Interpretive Center.

In 1793, a yellow fever epidemic took the lives of an estimated 5,000 residents, about one fifth of the population of Philadelphia—then the largest city in America and the capital of the United States. Incorrectly believing the yellow fever was a water-borne disease, Philadelphia turned to the Schuylkill River as a source of clean drinking water.

Looking for a location with sufficient waterpower to run a planned nail mill, on June 2, 1810, White purchased from Robert Kenedy the Falls of the Schuylkill and the adjacent land for $14,000. Complicating the agreement was a requirement that Kenedy had accepted that required the owner to build a dam and lock to improve navigation at the Falls.

Josiah White developed a plan for improving navigation on the Schuylkill River.

 Benjamin Henry Latrobe (left) designed Philadelphia’s original waterworks at Centre Square. Frederick Graff, Sr. built the Fairmont Waterworks and dam.

The brilliant success of Philadelphia’s National Historic Landmark, the Fairmont Waterworks, denies credit to its visionary, Josiah White.

Part 1 – A Brilliant Solution

 Looking a bit like the Parthenon transplanted to Philadelphia, from the Schuylkill Parkway the Greek revival-styled Fairmont Waterworks is the piece-de-resistance of Fairmont Park and a worthy architectural neighbor of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

 In the fall of 2003, after being decommissioned as a waterworks nearly a century ago, Philadelphians, searching for an ecotourism attraction, reopened its doors as the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center.

 As industrial architecture goes, the buildings and grounds are gorgeous. But these are a shell that covered and was financed by a very profitable water system. One that was built for the wrong reason and gave credit to the wrong person.

 Fairmont Waterworks History

In 1793, a yellow fever epidemic took the lives of an estimated 5,000 residents, about one fifth of the population of Philadelphia—then the largest city in America and the capital of the United States. Physicians used bloodletting to treat the ill. The wealthy took late summer vacations and the politicians wanted to know the cause of the disease and find measures to stop it.

 Even today there is no cure for the disease and it wouldn’t be until one hundred years later that Dr. Walter Reed would show that the disease was transmitted by mosquitoes.

 Philadelphia experienced yellow fever epidemics in 1699, 1741 and 1762 but these had been much smaller. The spring of 1793 was wet and created swamps and stagnant pools—excellent breeding grounds for mosquitoes. About the same time, a slave revolution in Santa Domingo, now Haiti, caused thousands to flee the island with hundreds arriving in Philadelphia infected with the yellow fever virus. Infected people plus large quantities of mosquitoes equals epidemic.

 Incorrectly believing the yellow fever was a water-borne disease, Philadelphia turned to the Schuylkill River as a source of clean drinking water. In 1812, it erected an engine house with wood fired steam engines to raise water from the river to the reservoirs on Faire Mount—now the site of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

 The wood fired engines had many drawbacks. They were expensive to operate and required maintenance. They were unable to keep up with the demand for water. Lastly, one of the engines exploded.

 Who’s Brilliant Solution?

This is where the story begins to have a problem. According to the Fairmont Interpretive Center, “The Water committee, in truly visionary thinking, solved by returning to the most efficient source of power, the Schuylkill itself.” And goes on to state, “With the construction in 1821 of Fairmont Dam, the Golden age of the Fairmont Waterworks began.”

This writer was totally blown away by these statements and checked with everyone from the tour guides to the General Manager, Ed Grusheski.

 Those among us familiar with the history of Carbon County know that it was Josiah White, the founder of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company that conceived of using the power of the Schuylkill River to economically provide water to the city of Philadelphia.

 White Buys the Falls

Having come from an apprenticeship in the hardware business, Josiah White felt there was a demand for and he could succeed in the business of manufacturing nails. He designed a water-powered mill for rolling iron into nails and, on March 14, 1810, received a patent for his invention.

 Looking for a location with sufficient waterpower to run his planned mill, on June 2, 1810, White purchased from Robert Kenedy the Falls of the Schuylkill the adjacent land for $14,000. Complicating the agreement was a requirement that Kenedy had accepted that required the owner to build a dam and lock to improve navigation at the Falls.

 The Falls of the Schuylkill is located about four miles north of the Fairmont Waterworks. There is currently a Falls Bridge at the site. The Falls are no longer visible because when the dam was built at Fairmont, it turned the area upstream of the dam into a six-mile lake.

 This was also the site that White erected the world’s first iron wire suspension bridge—a 407-foot long footbridge that was used for two years while the main bridge was rebuilt. The “spider bridge” is noted in passing on a wayside sign near the current Falls Bridge.

 Wanting only to operate a nail mill and not a navigation system, White, after having read of the Philadelphia Watering Committee’s interest in developing a system for pumping Schuylkill River water, conceived of using the power of the river to pump its own water. He made this proposal and offered to sell the navigation rights to the Falls at his cost.

 Continued in Part 2 – The Golden Age