AN INVENTORY OF REINVENTION:

THE WOODEN WATER PIPE

Section of Wooden Water Pipe, c. 1820. Maker unknown; wood and metal.
Donated by the Philadelphia Water Department, 1984.

It only takes an outbreak of yellow fever and a fear of unstoppable fires to inspire a city to update its water situation. This is exactly what happened in 1790s Philadelphia when citizens, after realizing the possible connection between yellow fever, mosquitoes, and clean drinking water, petitioned the city to seek a new water supply drawn from the Schuylkill River. In 1805, Frederick Graff, grandson of a German immigrant, was assigned to the task. Not only did Graff design a reservoir on top of Morris Hill (later known as Fairmount Hill and currently the location of the Philadelphia Museum of Art) with a pumping station at its base, but he also created technology to control the movement and delivery of water. Because of Graff, fire hydrants allowed a direct connection to fire engines, and stopcocks prevented the flow of water in case of leaking or broken pipes. The crowning achievement was the completion of the Water Works in 1822—today the site of many weekend bike rides, family strolls, and the occasional marriage proposal, thanks to its 2002 restoration.

Though Graff replaced the majority of hollowed out wooden logs with iron pipes in the 1800s, some of these tree trunk pipes (like the one pictured here) were used in Philadelphia as late as 1930. And it’s probably the last thing workers excavating the Commuter Tunnel in the early 1980s expected to find embedded beneath our city. Make your own unexpected discoveries at the Philadelphia History Museum, reopening in Spring 2011.