Documentary History of American Water-works

Conshohocken

Conshohocken, Pennsylvania

Conshohocken was incorporated as borough in 1850.

The Conshohocken Gas and Water Company was incorporated in 1871 by Lewis A. Lukens, Evan D. Jones, A. D. Saylor, Alan Wood, Junior, Benjamin Hany, Frederick Light, Samuel Fulton, David L. Wood, William Summers, John K. Reed, George W. Jacoby, Michael O’Brien, James Tracy and William Haywood. The charter allowed the company to collect a "protection tax" on "owners or occupiers of lots having any building or buildings thereon, bounded on a street where a water-pipe of said company is laid opposite thereto, or within one hundred yards of said pipe," with the proviso that such tax "shall not exceed the sum of five dollars on a front not exceeding thirty feet" nor be paid when water rents are paid.

The first water works were built in 1873, using steam engines to pump water from the Schuylkill River into an elevated reservoir.

The company was bought by the American Pipe Manufacturing Company on June 20, 1898. This company owned several other water works in the Philadelphia suburbs and elsewhere. The company was leased to the Springfield Consolidated Water Company for 99 years on September 28, 1908, and that same company bought the stock of Conshocken Gas and Gas Company on October 2, 1923. Springfield Consolidated was renamed Philadelphia Suburban Water Company in 1925 and became part of Aqua America.

Water is provided by Aqua Pennsylvania.

References
1871 An act to incorporate the Conshohocken Gas and Water Company. May 12, 1871.

1881 Conshohocken, from Engineering News, 8:409-410 (October 8, 1881)

1888 "Conshohocken," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 1.

1890 "Conshohocken," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 2.

1891 "Conshohocken," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 3.

1897 "Conshohocken," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 4.

1898 "Selling the Water Works," The Conshohocken Recorder, June 17, 1898, Page 1.
Offer from American Pipe Manufacturing Company to purchase the Conshochocken Gas and Water Company.

1898 "Water Company Sold," The Conshohocken Recorder, June 21, 1898, Page 1.
The Deal to Sell the Local Water Company to the Philadelphia Concern Goes Through.

1898 Harrisburg Star-Independent, October 21, 1898, Page 5.
The residents of Conshohocken are to have pure drinking water. The American pipe company will put a force of men to work next week to lay the pipes through the borough. The line will cross the Schuylkill above the West Conshohocken and enter the borough near Plymouth creek. A 16-inch cast iron pipe will be used. The new line will run to Oak Lane farm, the reservoir near Valley Forge, and will connect with the Conshohocken basin.

1899 The Times (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), July 13, 1899, Page 8.
Drexel & Co. have purchased from the American Pipe Manufacturing Company $100,000 of the 4 per cent. bonds of the Conshohocken Gas and Water Company.