Wharton’s water plan: reservoirs on paper, not a hidden pipeline

The report can be dated precisely

Engineer C. C. Vermeule addressed his report to Wharton on May 18, 1891. It appears as Appendix H in Philadelphia’s Bureau of Water annual report for the year ending December 31, 1891, issued in 1892. The distinction explains why catalog and historical references can legitimately attach either year to the same document. C. C. Vermeule, Appendix H, Proposed System of Water Supply (1891/1892).

A regional collection system

The report considered water from branches of the Mullica and Rancocas rivers and delivery to both cities. Its later sections describe staged reservoirs and canals, with some water moved by gravity and other supplies requiring pumps. Projected quantities were engineering estimates for an unbuilt system, not measured deliveries to Philadelphia. C. C. Vermeule, Appendix H, Proposed System of Water Supply (1891/1892).

The accompanying map is cataloged by the Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network as an 1891 lithograph by J. L. Smith, from the Philadelphia Water Department. Together, report and map give the proposal a documented form. They do not establish that the drawn reservoirs or conduits were constructed. Philadelphia GeoHistory Network, proposal-map record.

Philadelphia chose a different response

The Water Department’s historical course places Wharton’s proposal among alternatives to the city’s polluted river supply. It explains that the private supply plans were not accepted and that Philadelphia ultimately funded filtration of its existing sources. The Pine Barrens scheme thus belongs to a wider argument over urban water, rather than a story of an inexplicable abandoned pipe in the woods. Philadelphia Water Department historical course, part 6.