The Paper Mill House is open for tours on Saturdays & Sundays (in 2012 - I'm not sure about future or past times) in July & August from 1-4pm. Being the timely people that we are, we waited until the very last weekend in August to head over for a tour. We pulled into the parking lot from St. David's Rd and crossed a wooden pedestrian bridge that spans Darby Creek. We proceeded to the front of the building and entered the house. There were two people inside and they offered us a tour.
The house is three stories tall and housed four families when the mills were in full production. Each family had 3 floors in their own wing of the house. All of the floors were wooden and most of the staircases were not tall person friendly. At a stately 5'4" even I found the staircases to be unfriendly for the taller population; however, I know these were the normal dimensions used for housing back in the 1800's. Some of the rooms in the house were set up as bedrooms and many were set up as displays for the local history museum. The local history museum covered topics from historical relics found on site, old maps, old newspaper clippings, paintings of other area historical buildings by local artists, geological displays, period clothing displays, and even some local folk lore (Sandy Flash sticks out in my mind just due to his name).
The ground level features a mid-19th century general store replica. The general store had many objects of interested spread throughout it. One gruesome piece particularly stands out in my memory and it was the foot operated dental drill. As your teeth were being drilled, the dentist would actually pump the drill with his foot. Another thing that stood out to me was the sign of different homeopathic remedies for just about any illness/disease/pain you could imagine would trouble someone in the time before modern medicine. Those two objects made me grateful for the medical technology we have today!
Our guide also told us many interesting stories and facts about the property and the people who lived there. One of the stories was about the smallpox epidemic that struck in the late 1880's (I think that was the decade). Two thirds of the workers died and about a year later one of the buildings burned to the ground. There was no confirmation but arson was suspected to be the case. Speaking of fire, did you know the leading cause of death in women after childbirth was burning to death as a result of kitchen fires? I didn't either! However, after seeing the small size of the "kitchen" and the long flowy dresses women had to wear, it's no wonder that clothing caught fire.
One area we did not get to explore on our trip was the property itself. The trail was not weed whacked and one of us was wearing shorts rather than pants so we decided not to venture too far into the woods. When the trail is clear, you can actually walk along the creek and see the remains of the mills and a few other structures that stood on this property. It turns out there used to be several buildings on the property, and while the Paper Mill House is the last building standing, it was actually the smallest! Even the Paper Mill House almost didn't make it though. When the township acquired the property in the 1980's the roof was falling in and required a great deal of restoration. If you ask me the restoration paid off and it is a great piece of history in a township that is rich in history itself.
For more information:
* Newtown Square Historical Society.
The front of the Paper Mill House & Museum.
The back of the Paper Mill House & Museum from across the Darby Creek.
