Engine & Mill Houses

Three buildings here once housed machinery that pumped water from the Schuylkill River up to a reservoir built atop Faire Mount, where the Philadelphia Museum of Art now stands. The tallest, the Engine House, was constructed between 1812 and 1815 to resemble a Federal-style country house and housed two wood-burning steam engines, which were costly and dangerous to operate and were abandoned in 1822; the building was later used as an ice cream parlor, saloon, and restaurant. The Old Mill House, built 1818-1821, lay beneath the red brick deck and contained eight waterwheels in the machine level below, propelled by river water. Between 1859 and 1862, the New Mill House was constructed to house three water-powered Jonval turbines, and its roof is the deck with gray paving stones to the right.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States