West River Drive at Falls Bridge, Philadelphia PA
© Jane Mork Gibson,
Workshop of the
World (Oliver Evans Press, 1990).
The Washington Print Works of
William Simpson were located on the west bank of the
Schuylkill River between the Falls Bridge (1894-95) and
the Stone Bridge (1855) of the Reading Railroad, well
within the "Schuylkill Pond" which provided the water
supply of Philadelphia. Sidings from the Reading
Railroad, which ran through the property, made possible
the easy transportation of both raw materials and
finished product. The advent of steam power in the 1830s
made it possible to locate a mill without regard to the
water power available, and the Washington Print Works is
an example of the threat which burgeoning industry on the
Schuylkill posed to the purity of the water, and
subsequently led to the establishment of Fairmount Park.
A series of five Hexamer General Surveys #148, 299,
477-478, 570-571 and 858-859 indicate that the Washington
Print Works had expanded considerably during its
operation. Although the earlier maps were not dated, the
identification number suggests that the first survey was
made c.1867, and the final one was dated April 14,
1875. This
date is later than the acquisition date of many of the
other properties taken by the city for the
park.
Hexamer General Survey #148
(1866) stated the activity of the
works as "Printing and Dyeing done & Dyers Liquor
manufactured." The establishment included a Logwood
House, Bleach House, Finishing Room, Washing and
Padding Room, Print Room, Dye House, and Drying Rooms.
The surveyor thought the buildings were from ten to
twenty-five years old. Dirty Waste was carefully
removed every day, but there is no indication of how
or where, or whether it was disposed of in the river.
Only on this map was shown a Silk Print Works, which
evidently was not successful as the later surveys
indicate that the buildings are used for drying rooms.
There was a total of twenty-six buildings on the
earliest map, many of them small buildings.
Hexamer General Survey #858-859
(1875) was the final survey
undertaken and gives several specific items of
information. By 1875 there were thirty-eight
buildings, the various steam engines ranged from 6-60
horse power, and there were nine printing machines,
five power sewing machines, and five callenders.
Approximately four hundred hands were employed,
putting in a ten hour day, with the Bleach House
operating until 12 midnight. Waste was removed every
day and wood shavings from the Carpenter's Shop were
"cleaned out weekly and taken away from the premises
or thrown into the river." What other waste was
discharged into the river is not indicated.
Because they were fire insurance maps, the Hexamer
General Surveys were particularly concerned not only with
building construction, but with the availability of water
and other equipment to fight fires. This information in
the case of the Washington Print Works gives further
evidence of the expanding industrial activity on the
site. The silk printing buildings were situated up a
steep hill, beyond and above the Reading Railroad tracks.
In the first three surveys #148 (1866), #299, #477-478, a single reservoir was
shown alongside these buildings with a notation that
it was 60 feet above the highest part of the lower
buildings and that its use was for "Supplying the
Plugs and the Whole Establishment with Water."
Survey #570-571 (1872) shows a pond above the
reservoir, and the fifth survey #858-859 (1875) showed three basins. The
two lower basins, with a steep hill and a dam between
them, were "for supplying the establishment with water
for manufacturing purposes," and were supplied by
springs on the hill. The third basin, separated by a
stone-wall dam from the one below, was "A Basin used
exclusively for water supply in case of fire. Water
pumped from Schuylkill River by 2 forcing pumps in No.
14 [Pump House by the river]. Supply pipes 12 in. and
6 in." A creek also fed water into this basin.
When the City acquired the land as part of Fairmount
Park, the buildings were razed and at present all
evidence of this large cotton print and dye works has
been just about obliterated. The West River Drive and a
grassy plot on the river bank occupy the site today. The
basins were converted to become the scenic Chamonix
Lakes, where the Philadelphia Transportation Company
trolley line built Chamonix Station in 1896. During the
1950s, unauthorized swimming and a drowning in onr of the
lakes caused them to be drained. Parts of the Schuylkill
Expressway and the western abutments and approaches for
the Twin Bridges are now on the site of the upper areas
of the Washington Print Works. It is probable that
remnants exist of the stone dams for the basins that
stored water. The only other evidence of this industrial
activity of earlier years that is now readily seen is the
flow of water from the springs on the hill, now channeled
through a culvert to become a small cascade from the
rocks just south of the Falls Bridge on the West River
Drive.
Update May
2007 (by
Jane Mork Gibson):
The bucolic appearance of the location of the Washington
Print Works belies the former industrial activity at the
spot. The still-active springs that once fed the millpond
located above the roadway continue to provide for a
waterfall at the location.