Upper Roxborough Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Two municipal water reservoirs and their treatment plants in northwest Philadelphia were added to the Upper Roxborough Historic District as a boundary increase. The Lower Reservoir was built in 1868-1869 and holds about 20 million gallons; its filtration plant, with orange brick pump houses and terra cotta trim, dates from 1901-1902. The Upper Reservoir, completed in 1891-1892, has two basins totaling 148 million gallons and is ringed by fieldstone walls and earthen embankments. The City condemned privately held land for the Upper Reservoir in 1890, including property belonging to Henry Houston, Darius Keely and the Roxborough Presbyterian Church, whose burial ground was relocated. The sites are significant for their role in Philadelphia's public water supply and early municipal water filtration, which followed engineering reports issued in 1899. Their pumping stations and filter beds show the engineering of the period, and the Upper Reservoir's pumps were described in the city's 1902 report.