For most of its length the present-day stream flows under Lincoln Drive. The stream first sees daylight near Johnson Street. During the 18th century the stream possessed a small community of thriving mills, and dams were built along the creek to power the mills. William Rittenhouse, grandfather of the astronomer David Rittenhouse, built the first paper mill in America along Paper Mill Run in the late 1600s. This location was then known as Rittenhousetown

In recent years, the creek has suffered from high levels of pollution whose source is unclear, but which may have to do with leakage from a sewer line that is routed next to the buried stream along Lincoln Drive. A controversial wetlands restoration project in Saylor's Grove was built in 2006, in part an attempt to reduce the pollution of the stream by providing a natural buffer for some of the water flowing into it.

References

• Finkel, Kenneth, ed. Philadelphia Almanac and Citizen’s Manual. Philadelphia, PA: Library Company, 1995.

See also

• List of Pennsylvania rivers

External links

• Creek to sewer history
• aerial photo
• Saylor's Grove site at Fairmount Waterworks
• Historic RittenhouseTown