About The Oldest Water System in America
The water system only supplies two fountains in the town
A water system is an infrastructure for the collection, transmission, treatment, storage, and distribution of water for homes, commercial establishments, industry, and irrigation, as well as for such public needs as firefighting and street flushing.
The oldest water system in America can be found in the sleepy town of Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania. Not only is Schaefferstown Water Company documented as the oldest public water system in all of America, it is also considered the oldest gravitational conveyance system by underground pipes in the entire United States.
The Schaefferstown water works is described by Northeastern University as the nation’s first piped public water supply system. The Pennsylvania State Library mentions that Schaefferstown water works are the oldest of their kind in the United States. Heidelberg Township recognizes it as the oldest waterworks in the United States.
German immigrant Alexander Schaeffer founded a settlement in the town of Heidelberg in Lebanon County in 1743 which became known as Schaefferstown. He built The King George hotel around 1746, which still stands as The Franklin House.
He also constructed a water system from a spring on a nearby hill sometime before 1750. To provide water for the hotel and for residents of the town Schaeffer he installed underground wooden pipes connecting a spring at the south end of Market Street to the square.
On July 16, 1763, Alexander Schaeffer and his wife, Anna, conveyed ownership of the spring to a trust, with the residents of Market Street designated as the overseers of the trust. Schaeffer and his wife deeded the water system to local residents been called it "The Fountain Company of Heidelberg."
This group became known as the Schaefferstown Water Company. The entity was owned and operated by local water consumers who prayed for a corporate charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which was granted April 16, 1845 as the "Schaefferstown Water Company."
Alexander Schaeffer began construction with the laying of 1,300 feet of wooden pipe and the watershed sometime between 1744-1750. These first pipes were “made of wood sections of oak with holes bored through the center” and were functional for over a century when they were then replaced with cast iron metal pipes in 1845, the same year the system was officially chartered.
Schaefferstown Water Company continues to own and operate the public water supply system which only supplies two fountains in Schaefferstown, PA. The company is currently organized on a cooperative basis.
The gravitational “flow from the spring was so strong that the water flowed uphill to fill troughs or springs” without use of pumps. This use of gravity to force water into the springs is the first documented use in the country.
Today, Schaefferstown proudly boasts having the oldest gravitational conveyance pipe system in the United States. Otherwise known as the oldest water works system or oldest water supply system in America.
*Note: The Bethlehem Waterworks, also known as the Old Waterworks or 1762 Waterworks, is sometimes referred to as the oldest water supply system. However that is not quite accurate. It is actually the oldest pump-powered public water supply system in America, established in 1754. (You can see photos of it on our Bethlehem, PA page.) Schaefferstown Water Company, established in 1744, is the oldest water system of any kind in America.