DOYLESTOWN WATERWORKS
In 1851, a proactive borough council set about the task of supplying water to the citizens of Doylestown from a central source. A mill property located in the southeastern portion of the borough was offered along with the possibility of using underground springs as a source of water. The only suitable location for a collection basin was part of the cemetery property, and a lot was secured.
Construction began, but in May 1852, a newly elected borough council resolved that work on the costly waterworks should stop. All efforts ceased for 17 years, until the borough council’s civil engineer reported that the borough mill property should be reconsidered as a water source, using the headwaters from the stream before it entered the dam to avoid the impurities that collect in the dam.
Proponents forged ahead, sometimes against public opinion, laying water mains, installing coal-fired steam-driven pumps, and completing cisterns around the mill property. From there, water would be pumped through a 10-inch main (located under what is now Borough Mill Hill Road) to State Street then up Church Street to Court and finally discharged into the collection basin.
On October 5,1869, 18 years after work was first begun, water was lifted by a steam pump and delivered to the basin at a rate of 350 gallons per minute.
There are still remnants of the original water system visible today. The stone wall at the cemetery surrounds the original basin. (Eventually the basin was filled in and the first of a series of water towers was erected.) The borough dam and waterworks building are located in Chapman Park, part of the original mill property. Water contained in one of the original cisterns is still available for use by the fire company. One of the supplementary springs still flows into the borough dam, and an original springhouse is located in the southeastern part of the park.
Source: Borough of Doylestown website.
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