Another great photograph (above) by James Reuel Smith of a Well and House, 50 feet east of Amsterdam Avenue and 100 feet north of West 137th Street, New York, the two photographs were taken on April 9, 1898.
Wells (like the one above, with the little boy laying on the ground to the right) ran throughout Harlem, and the Bronx, the entire area was connected to the “Indian Springs” and wells that Harlem World Magazine wrote about in the past. Smith’s photographs document this transition between “Indian Springs” and the industrial revolution of mass production bringing water to homes throughout the area.
In 1922, Smith published Springs and Wells in Greek and Roman Literature, Their Legends and Locations. He spent much of the years from 1897 to 1901 bicycling around Northern Manhattan.
Via source
