Benjamin Henry Latrobe, often considered America’s first professional architect, designed and engineered the Center Square Water Works. He designed a system that used pumps powered by steam engines to raise water from the Schuylkill River. The structure depicted in this print actually housed the second of the two pumping stations in the system. Latrobe’s pumping station at Center Square, which became operational in January of 1801, was a striking combination of rectangular and cylindrical volumes rendered in a classical idiom. It received a most prominent location in the city, and the grounds around the waterworks came to be a venue for public functions and recreation. Philadelphia’s City Hall now occupies this location. Latrobe was appointed surveyor of public buildings in 1803 by President Thomas Jefferson. He is remembered as the second Architect of the Capitol.

The Center Square Waterworks proved difficult and expensive to operate and provided a barely adequate water supply. Latrobe’s assistant and waterworks superintendent Frederick Graff (1774–1847) undertook the design of the celebrated Fairmount Water Waterworks to succeed the overtaxed Center Square system. Construction began in 1812, and the Fairmount Waterworks continued in service until the early twentieth century. The Center Square Waterworks was demolished by 1828.