Archives West Finding Aid

Its 23 photographs demonstrate various water pipeline and dam building projects that occured between 1899 and 1900 in Western Washington. The inadequacies of Seattle's privately owned water systems were apparent during the Great Fire of June 6, 1889, which destroyed most of downtown Seattle. This proved to many voters that a publicly owned water supply would do the most good for the city, and on July 8, 1889, Seattle voters overwhelmingly approved creation of a municipal water system. In September of that year, construction began on the Cedar River water supply system. The project was completed in 1901. Today, the Cedar River watershed provides two-thirds of the water supply for much of Seattle. The construction projects shown in the album include riveting pipe joints on a hill east of Renton on September 1, 1899, building a dam across Black River and at South Bank, and laying a 42" pipe on Bagley hill. Photographs described in Frank Morrill, Jr. photograph collection no. 10. A second album containing copies of the same images made by Anders Wilse was transferred to the Wilse Collection, PH Coll. 285. They are still in their original album and order.