BUILDING AN AQUARIUM FOR PHILADELPHIA 



By W. E. Meehan, 

 Director of the Philadelphia Aquarium. 



After fifteen years of agitation, the City Councils of 

 Philadelphia passed an ordinance directing the establish- 

 ment of a Public Aquarium. The ordinance was signed 

 by the Mayor, John E. Reyburn, May 16, 1911. By its 

 terms the old Fairmount Water-works buildings in Fair- 

 mount Park, near the Spring Garden Street Bridge and" 

 on the banks of the Schuylkill River were designated as 

 the site of the new institution. 



The Fairmount Water-works were built in the first 

 quarter of the last century, and for many years were fa- 

 mous over this country and Europe for the completeness 

 of the plant and for the beauty of the buildings. They 

 were situated below the Fairmount Dam, with a huge 

 rocky hill, known as Faire Mount, as a picturesque back- 

 ground on the east. The water-works plant was aban- 

 doned by the city of Philadelphia in 1910. 



There were two power houses, one 200 feet long and 50 

 feet wide, and the other 100 feet long and 50 feet wide; 

 and these it was proposed to utilize for the new Aquari- 

 um. They were admirably adapted for the purpose, re- 

 quiring no radical structural changes. As the roofs are 

 flat and used as a plaza, by the public, it is a simple mat- 

 ter to install the necessary overhead skylights which are 

 to illuminate the tanks. 



It is planned to use the smaller of the two buildings as 

 a sea water house and the larger as a fresh water house, 

 and possibly for sea water fishes also. The two buildings 

 will hold approximately 140 capacious tanks, 



A small sum, about $1,500, was appropriated in De- 

 cember, 1911, with which to establish a temporary aqua- 

 rium of fresh water fishes in the large hall of a building 

 once used for administration purposes by the Water De- 

 partment at the Fairmount water works. In the general 

 plans for the permanent aquarium this large hall is des- 

 ignated by ordinance of councils to be used for the de- 



