PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL and DESCRIPTIVE DATA HABS PA-6696 MORTONVILLE MILL Southwest Corner of the Intersection of Strasb
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MORTONVILLE MILL HABS PA-6696 Southwest corner of the intersection of Strasburg Road and Laurel HABS PA-6696 Road Mortonville Chester County Pennsylvania PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NW Washington, DC 20240-0001 HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY MORTONVILLE MILL HABS No. PA-6696 Location: Southwest corner of the intersection of Strasburg Road and Laurel Road, Mortonville, Chester County, Pennsylvania USGS Coatesville Quadrangle Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinates: 18.433526.4421866 Significance: The Mortonville Mill is the ruin of a fieldstone grist mill that ceased operations about 1929. Historically, milling was the most enduring industrial activity in the small rural village ofMortonville. From the 1760s to 1920s, a mill at or near this site processed locally-grown wheat, corn, and other grains into flour, meal, and feed. The mill was substantially altered for use as a store with upstairs apartment in the late 1940s. The remodeled building burned in 1955. Description: The Mortonville Mill has collapsed in on itself One exterior fieldstone wall and sections of two side walls and an interior wall are all that remain standing. The front (eastern) wall is two-story, three-bay. The foundation has a rectangular footprint (55' x 54'). Some timber framing survives amongst the rubble. Archeological investigations in 1991 identified no significant historical deposits due to extensive modern disturbances. No machinery survives. The clearest physical evidence that the building was once a mill is the depression of the dry mill race and rubble-filled wheelpit at the rear of the ruin. The race continues upstream (northwest) approximately 200' to a breached masonry dam across the West Branch of Brandywine Creek. History: The Mortonville Mill ruin is at or near a site that was used for milling beginning in the colonial period. The earliest documentation for a grist mill is the 1771 Chester County Tax List assessing Thomas Hayes, who purchased a 136-acre tract including the mill lot in 1767. Hayes was one of many millers to take advantage of eastern Pennsylvania's swiftly falling streams for waterpower. By the 1760s, thirty mills operated in Chester County alone. Hayes mill is the earliest recorded in East Fallowfield Township. Some local histories assert that the colonial mill was in the vicinity of, not at, the fieldstone mill, which was built later, but evidence for this is inconclusive. Over the next century, the Hayes mill property passed through a series of owners - John and Thomas Worth (1772-1814), John and Israel Pym (1814-1831), Benjamin Newlin (1831-1840), and Sketchly and Crosby Morton (1840-1860). In October 1830, Israel Pym advertised the sale of the mill, part of a 206-acre farm. This is the earliest account of the mill's appearance: "The Mill-House is built of stone, 45 by 50 feet, three stories high, it has three run of Burrs; a sufficiency of water at all seasons of the year, replete with machinery, excellent order for MORTONVILLE MILL HABS No. P A-6696 (Page 2) merchant and country work." The reference to merchant and country work means that the mill was producing flour for trade and lower-quality meal and feed for local consumption. The mill's most prosperous years were from 1840 to 1860 under the tenure of Sketchly and Crosby Morton, for whose family Mortonville is named. Sketchly' s son Crosby ran the mill and gradually acquired most of the property in the village, also operating a saw mill, cider press, and hotel. When Morton sold the mill in 1860, it remained the same 45' x 50' dimensions but had grown from three to four stories with attic. One breast waterwheel and one undershot waterwheel provided power. Eber Smith operated the mill from about 1865 to 1895. Early-20th-century photos ofMortonville in the Chester County Historic Society offer only obstructed views of the mill, but it was clearly a four-story structure with gable roo£ Barton Jeffries, the last miller, shut down about 1929. He sold the grist mill to Wesley Armstong in 1946. Local newspaper articles described the condition of the mill before Armstong purchased it as deteriorated and consisting of four sagging stone walls. One newspaper clipping in the historical society's file credited Armstrong with rebuilding the "entire" mill, including walls and roof, with special attention given to the stone work. The Armstrong family ran an antique store and lived in an upstairs apartment. A 1955 :fire severely damaged the remodeled mill building. It was abandoned and fell into decay. In the early 1980s, an attempt was made to reuse the shell, making repairs and adding some framing, but the project was left incomplete. The mill ruin will be removed for the approach roadway to a new bridge over the West Branch of Brandywine Creek, scheduled for construction beginning in late 2002. Sources: Chester County Historical Society. Newspaper Clipping File. File labeled, "Mortonville." Futhey, J. Smith and Gilbert Cope. History of Chester County. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881. Heathcote, C. W. and Lucile Shenk. A History of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Historical Association Inc., 1932. P. A. C. Spero & Co. "Mortonville Bridge, Strasburg Road, S.R. 3062, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Historic Resources Survey Report and Determination of Eligibility." Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. 1991. Historian: Patrick Harshbarger, Lichtenstein Consulting Engineers, Inc., February, 2002 DJ ~\ a a ~. Dry Mi I I ~ /Race Bridge @ a a.. Strasburg Rood 1 1 49 -9 II 60 -2" 50 I 0" ( s. R. 3062) Span Span 2 Span 3 Span 4 8 I -5 II 8 I -3 II 8 I -3 II ~ Mortonville Bridge PLAN Scoleoo 7 100 1 ::r::s::)>C) ClJ=tJ V)--J C) <:<: a <::::: --. lJ(Jr-r- a :c. rr, ~ OJ--.~ :s:: DRAWINGS WERE PREPARED BY LICHTENSTEIN GJ\.Or- CONSULTING ENGINEERS, INC. ! 2002J '-Olr- IFoundatlon/;·.• .• C) 0 ()::::J Ui I 9 CD ~u~/(F~Jn~ XX X CD -,., 0 Col! I Story Stone c:: ap~~d r_;· ·'·I::::J · ..• Q Cl Tal I Race Rubble () Head Race ::::J I Rubble I ~ ~ () 2 Story Ti mb e r Frame /~ 0:() .0 I":);' .-:o Some Framinq [\) ~ C)Cy ()C) Remains ~"GO) I () I 2 Story Stone I I 2 Story Stone L ~ n ~ I / / )>.C)::r::;;;::: O:J::o ~ lr)-...., C) - ------- ------- ------- ()<<::: ..._,"' ----- r-- Laurel Road "b -or-- Cl )>.rr, 'Cl I OJ:;;;::: CD ())..._, DRAWINGS WERE PREPARED BY LICHTENSTEIN ._t.I..Or-- CONSULTING ENGINEERS, INC. f2002J -._O)r--.