Elm Station
LESS THAN SEVEN MILES FROM BROAD STREET STATION ON MAIN LINE OF PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.
If you were thinking of buying a suburban home for the better protection of your own health and that of your family we would urge you to try all localities suggested by the common sense test,
A PROTECTED WATER SUPPLY?
If you were compelled to empty your drainage into one hole and pump your drinking water from another in the same say 50×100 foot lock, you can hardly have a protected water supply, for it not infrequently happens, under such circumstances, that when you empty your drainage well you lower the water level in your drinking well, showing a connection more intimate than is pleasant to contemplate. You may seek protection in that very doubtful expedient a "seal well," one that has been plastered up with cement. But even if tight when finished, which is doubtful, you have no assurance that it will remain so, or even if your own does, what guarantee you have you that your neighbors' are secure?
Tried by this test you will find that our operation at Elm Station is the only place where you can obtain a protected water supply within fifteen miles of Philadelphia.
As to the character of our water supply, Dr. Cresson's letter tells all that could be told in volumes, and, in the selecting of the site for this well, we have been influenced solely by the desire to so locate it that any contamination in the future would be impossible. In the first place it is situated upon our highest point, the ground sloping away from it on three sides and on the fourth side we have the deep railroad cut shown in our sketch. Sinking the well at this point entailed unusual expense, for seven feet from the surface we encounter the hardest and most compact gneiss rock, through which we drilled over two hundred feet. The wisdom of our choice of location, as protecting us from all surface drainage, was shown by the fact that until we reach the depth of forty feet we found no water at all, but to make assurance doubly sure, we put in a wrought-iron casing fifty feet deep, so as to shut off absolutely all water above that depth. This water, which we went through over two hundred feet of the hardest rock to get, we pump into a tank at the top of our Tower. This tank holds enough water to supply five times as many houses as we will ever put on the prtperty. From the tank the water is carried in pipes to the houses, just as it is in the city.
But not content with securing a deep well water supply under circumstances that rendered contamination from surface drainage practically impossible, we determined to take the still further precaution of underdraining all the houses and allowing
NO DRAINAGE WELLS ON THE PROPERTY
After examining the various systems of underdrainage, we have adopted the one acknowledged by experts to be, by all odds, the best, namely, THE WARING SYSTEM OF UNDER DRAINAGE.
Bear in mind ours is not a land scheme, for we have no lots to sell, except with the houses; you can thus be assured against improvements which do not improve. Would you not indulge in any sensational methods of advertising. We need none. We believe our buyers are of a class that is sufficiently intelligent to be influenced by naught but the plain statement of the facts.
The number of applications for information about Elm Station shows the widespread interest excited by our attempt to supply SUBURBAN HOMES, NEAR THE CITY, WITH EVERY POSSIBLE SANITARY PROTECTION.
Be kind enough not to confound us with Narberth Park. There is no connection what ever; we are on the left hand side of the Railroad as you come out from the city.
Philadelphia, October 9, 1889,
C.W. Macfarlane, Esq.
Dear Sir:
The sample of water from the Artesian Well at Elm Station, which you sent for analysis on the 2d inst., has given results which show that it is a pure soft water adapted for household, manufacturing or steam purposes.
It is unusually free from deleterious mineral or organic matter.
Very truly yours, (Signed) Charles M. Cresson, M.D.
Updated March 19, 2025.