Documentary History of American Water-works

Southwark

Southwark, Pennsylvania

Southwark was created as a district in 1762 and was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia in 1854.

After successful completion of the new water works pumping station at Fair Mount, the City of Philadelphia offered a supply of water to contiguous districts, including Southwark, which entered into an agreement for twenty years of water supply on June 1, 1826. This contract was extended on January 1, 1845 for an additional ten years. The supplied districts paid rates 50% higher than consumers in Philadelphia, with a discount for billing its own users. The agreement also did not allow for installation of public water hydrants which supplied water users in the city without their own connection. This greatly annoyed labor leader William Heighton, who is 1828 excoriated authorities for not providing free water for all citizens.

Water service is provided by the City of Philadelphia.

References
1826 Articles of Agreement between the mayor, aldermen, and citizens of Philadelphia and the commissioners and inhabitants of the district of Southwark to supply and receive a supply of Schuylkill water. June 1, 1826.

1828 Principles of aristocratic legislation developed in an address delivered to the working people of the District of South Wark and townships of Moyamensis and Passyunk, in the Commissioners' Hall, August 14, 1828, by an operative citizen, [by William Heighton]

1843 A Map of the County of Philadelphia from Actual Survey, 1843, by Charles Ellet, Jr.

1952 "The Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations and the Formation of the Philadelphia Workingmen's Movement," by Louis H. Arky, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 76(2):142-176 (April, 1952)
Page 166: When pumps had been installed throughout the city and county to pipe in Schuylkill water, these districts had been neglected, a fact [William] Heighton observed in one of his addresses.