This 1891 map shows the proposed design for the Seattle Sewer System by Benezette Williams, a nationally renowned civil engineer who was called in by the City of Seattle to design its first municipal water system. After the Great Seattle fire in June of 1889, Seattle was forced to rethink and rebuild its water supply and fire prevention systems. Mayor Robert Moran supported a publicly owned water supply system and hired Williams, who had designed the Philadelphia water treatment system. Williams' plan combined sewage and stormwater in the same pipes, and though it was not fully implemented, it would help shape the system developed by City Engineer Reginald H. Thomson (1851-1949) in the early 1900s.

Benezette Williams (1844-1914) was born in West Liberty, Ohio. His first major design project was the construction of the water and sewer system in Pullman, Illinois in the early 1880s. Following his success in Pullman, he was appointed to the Chicago Drainage and Watter Supply Commission in 1886 and served as Chief Engineer of the Chicago Sanitary District (1892-1893). Among his major private projects was the design of the sewer and water systems in St. Louis, Seattle, and a number of smaller cities, and he did important work for the New York Interurban Water Company and the Suburban Company of Philadelphia.

Printed on map: Seattle Sewerage Skeleton Map showing outline of main sewerage districts and proposed methods of intercepting the sewage.

Caption information sources: "Wastewater Treatment and the Duwamish River," by Jennifer Ott, HistoryLink.org Essay 11250; "Department of Streets and Sewers Annual Reports Historical Note, 1895-1931", Seattle Municipal Archives.