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FAIRMOUNT PARK COMMISSION ARCHIVES
Staff Contact:Rob Armstrong
Days: Tuesday and Thursday
Hours: By appointment only
(between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm)
Address: Fairmount Park Commission
One Parkway
1515 Arch Street
10th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Telephone:215-683-0229
Fax:215-683-0205
Email:rob.armstrong@phila.gov
Park visitor surveying Peter's Island in the Schuylkill River
Photographer: James Cremer, c. 1870
Fairmount Park Commission Archives

The Fairmount Park Commission Archives is a repository for information on Fairmount Park's evolution. The primary goal of the Archives is to help preserve park resources and provide information to the public. The collection is key to understanding the architectural and landscape resources of the Fairmount Park system.

The Fairmount Park Commission Archives essentially grew out of the working documents of park staff and engineers. Its estimated number of archival documents is over 10,000. The collection was slowly accessioned over a twenty year period by the long time Park Historian, John McIlhenny.

The Commission's Archives focuses on a variety of aspects of Fairmount Park history, including a wealth of material on the park's architectural history. Most notably, the collection contains hundreds of original architectural and landscape drawings from the 1876 Centennial Exposition held in Fairmount Park.

You can find the following types of documents in the Archives:
  • Books - Primary and secondary source information ranging from bound copies of Fairmount Park Ordinances to Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record

  • Current Reports - Working management documents such as historic structure reports, cultural landscape studies, archeological studies, and planning documents

  • Fairmount Park Commission Annual Reports - Documentation of the yearly actions of the Fairmount Park Commission from 1869-1998. Collection excludes the years 1900-1912 and 1998-present when no reports were written

  • Fairmount Park Art Association Annual Reports - Documentation of the yearly actions of this important sister organization and a significant portion of the sculpture history of the park

  • Fairmount Park Engineering Records - 230 field survey books, 20 engineering journals, 25 daily log journals kept by senior engineers, and hundreds of pieces of correspondence relating to land acquisition providing unprecedented information about the initial formation of one of the country's oldest and largest urban parks

  • History Files - Book excerpts, brochures, correspondence, genealogies, newspaper clippings, reports, specifications, and studies that document the history of sites and activities within the Fairmount Park system

  • Photographs and Prints - Engravings, lithographs, paintings, photographs, postcards, stereo-views, slides and other types of print that aid in the understanding or documentation property within the park system

  • Maps and Drawings - 3,000 + original drawings, blue prints, blue lines, Mylar's, photo-lithographs, reproductions and tracings of elevations, maps, plans, renderings, sketches, topographical plans, etc. that document the acquisition and development of property within the park system and surrounding areas.

Alternative Archival Sources

A large quantity of Fairmount Park information can be gathered at other research institutions in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia City Archives, in particular, has a wide variety of Fairmount Park information including the official meeting minutes of the Fairmount Park Commission. The city archives also has minutes, correspondence, plans, photographs and other material relating to The Centennial Exposition of 1876 in West Fairmount Park and the Sesquicentennial Exposition of 1926 held in FDR Park. www.phila.gov/phils/records.htm.

The Free Library of Philadelphia is also a good general source for Fairmount Park information. Don't miss the Library's excellent on-line information about the Centennial Exposition with birds-eye view maps, digitized original images, and detailed bibliography! www.library.phila.gov.

If you're looking specifically for information on the Wissahickon section of the park, we recommend you also explore the Germantown Historical Society at www.germantownhistory.org and the Chestnut Hill Historical Society at www.chhist.org.

An index to Fairmount Park drawings of specific buildings is available by visiting the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project (PAB), a free, publicly searchable Internet database of 35,000 structures in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties (www.philadelphiabuildings.org). The Fairmount Park Commission Archives has an index to 518 drawings. Please note that only drawings with identifiable structures or architects were surveyed for the database. Some landscapes by noted landscape architects or those with drawings of structures are also recorded. Not recorded are Fairmount Park bridges and Fairmount Park Engineering drawings.

Other local resources available to researchers include:
   
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