Philadelphia Aquarium
Philadelphia Aquarium | |
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39°57′59″N 75°11′01″W / 39.9663408°N 75.1835954°W | |
Date opened | November 23, 1911[1] |
Date closed | 1962[2] |
Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
The Philadelphia Aquarium was one of the first aquariums in the United States. It was located on the east bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia’s decommissioned Fairmount Water Works buildings from 1911 to 1962, as part of Fairmount Park.
History
By 1909, Philadelphia’s Fairmount Water Works had been replaced by a series of filtration plants in other parts of the city. The site’s former reservoir land was later used for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[2]
On May 16, 1911, the mayor of Philadelphia signed an ordinance specifying that an aquarium be created at the old Fairmount Water Works site. About $1,500 was provided initially to create a temporary aquarium in a building that would eventually become a lecture hall, with plans to use the two powerhouses for the permanent aquarium.
Opening
The aquarium opened on
All of the machinery was removed from the two powerhouses in 1912, and they were eventually refitted as the exhibit halls for the aquarium, the larger (200-by-50-foot (61 by 15 m)) being used for freshwater fish and the smaller (100-by-50-foot (30 by 15 m)) for seawater fish.[4] The buildings required very little structural change, and the flat roofs, previously used as plazas, provided space for skylights to illuminate the exhibits.[3] The aquarium hosted 290,000 visitors in its first year, and by 1929 was one of the four largest aquariums in the world.[1]
Closure
In the period after
See also
- Aquarama Aquarium Theater of the Sea 1962–1969
- Adventure Aquarium 1992–Present
- Fairmount Park
References
- ^ a b c Kativa, Hillary (3 June 2010). "The Philadelphia Aquarium at the Fairmount Water Works". phillyhistory.org. City of Philadelphia. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
- ^ a b "The Water Works: A Place "Wondrous to Behold"". state.nj.us. Delaware River Basin Commission. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ^ a b Meehan, W.E. (1914). "Building an Aquarium for Philadelphia". Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. 43 (1): 179–181. . Retrieved 15 September 2011.
- ^ a b c Gibson, Jane Mork. "The Fairmount Water Works". phillyh2o.org. Adam Levine. Retrieved 24 September 2011.