From the Mill Creek Historic District Website: http://www.livingplaces.com/PA/Montgomery_County/Lower_Merion_Township/Mill_Creek_Historic_District.html
The earliest mill located at the mouth of the [Mill] creek was a
saw mill owned by Thomas Rees, a stone cutter formerly of Roxborough. Rees ran
the mill from 1735 to 1741. The original Rees Mill was destroyed in 1805, the
result of an attempt at operating it as a powder mill. The site is now below
the waters of the Schuylkill River, the river's height having since been raised
by the construction of the Flat Rocks dam.[6]…
Meanwhile, John Roberts III also constructed a paper mill,
probably in 1758, where the Walover/Jones Mill now stands, supporting the
beginning of the boundary increase's period of significance. Like all of John
Roberts III's property, the mill was confiscated after his execution for
treason in 1778. (The Supreme Executive Council convicted Roberts of treason
for joining the British army and acting as a guide in September, 1777.)
Eventually, this land was sold by George McClenahan to Peter Walover, a Lower Merion
paper-maker. Evan Jones purchased the mill through a sheriffs sale, and
continued to operate the paper mill until 1848, when it first changed to a
cotton and woollen mill, and finally to a grist mill, known as Merion Flour
Mills. Like most mills on the creek, it ceased operation after the 1894 flood,
and was eventually renovated into apartments under the ownership of James
Crosby Brown, in 1924. The mill and its surrounding community of outbuildings
and residences is the boundary increase's most intact mill community, providing
a standing demonstration of nineteenth century mill community for all who pass
by on Creek Road.
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