Ivy Mills Historic District

The Ivy Mills Historic District is a national historic district located in Concord Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It encompasses the ruins of a paper mill (erected 1829), a clerk's house (built circa 1830), and the Ivy Mills Mansion House (built 1837). The mansion house is a 2 1/2-story, five bay wide, stuccoed masonry structure, which includes a saltbox wing and a wide verandah. The original paper mill was erected in 1729, and the original mansion house in 1744. Both of the original buildings were replaced in the early-19th century by the present buildings.

Ivy Mills Historic District
Ivy Mills Mansion House, November 2009
LocationCorner of Ivy Mills and Pole Cat Rds., Concord Township, Pennsylvania
Coordinates39°53′10″N 75°29′14″W
Area38.4 acres (15.5 ha)
Built1829
NRHP reference No.72001117[1]
Added to NRHPAugust 21, 1972

This district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[1]

History
Wilcox Paper Mill sketch from Henry Ashmead's History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 1884

In 1726, Thomas Willcox along with Thomas Brown built a mill dam across the Chester Creek.[2] In 1729 a paper mill was erected and the first paper was sold. The Ivy Mills is the second oldest paper mill built in America.[3] Only the Rittenhouse mill in Philadelphia is older.[4]

The first output from Ivy Mills was pressboard and then printing paper. Thomas Willcox was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and was known to have made paper for him.[5] Willcox received the first order for paper used in the production of colonial and continental currency. After 1775, the mill was devoted almost entirely to making government paper for the continental bills, loan certificates and bills of exchange. At the time of the American Revolution, the government depended entirely on Ivy Mills for paper for currency.[6] The Ivy Mills supplied paper for the Continental and United States governments as well as many South American countries. Paper was produced at Ivy Mills until 1886. The mill gradually fell into ruins.[7]

A mission chapel was established at Ivy Mills in 1730,[8][9] making it the oldest Roman Catholic parish in Pennsylvania.[10] In 1837, St. Mary's Chapel was built as part of the new Ivy Mills Mansion. Eventually the size of the congregation was sufficient to warrant the construction of a new church in 1852 named St. Thomas the Apostle Church a mile away in what would become the borough of Chester Heights.[11]

This district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[1]

  • Photo taken in 2017 of PA Historical Market in front of Ivy Mills Historic District
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Media related to Ivy Mills Historic District at Wikimedia Commons

  • "Thomas Willcox Family". Retrieved 30 June 2017.

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Weeks, Lyman Horace (1916). A History of Paper-manufacturing in the United States, 1690-1916. New York: The Lockwood Trade Journal Company. pp. 11-14. Retrieved 3 July 2017. The Willcox Paper Mill, 1729 -1866.
  3. Martin, John Hill (1877). Chester (and Its Vicinity,) Delaware County, in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Wm. H. Pile & Sons. p. 231. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  4. Ashmeade, Henry Graham (1884). History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co. p. 493. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  5. Weeks, Lyman Horace (1916). A History of Paper-manufacturing in the United States, 1690-1916. New York: The Lockwood Trade Journal Company. pp. 11-14. Retrieved 3 July 2017. The Willcox Paper Mill, 1729 -1866.
  6. Weeks, Lyman Horace (1916). A History of Paper-manufacturing in the United States, 1690-1916. New York: The Lockwood Trade Journal Company. p. 13. Retrieved 3 July 2017. The Willcox Paper Mill, 1729 -1866.
  7. "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Note: This includes Pennsylvania Register of Historic Sites and Landmarks (June 1972). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Ivy Mills Historic District" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-01-16.
  8. Jordan, John W. (1912). A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania and Its People. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 394. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  9. Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia (Vol. VI ed.). Philadelphia: The American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 1895. p. 460. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  10. "Friends of Old St. Thomas Website". www.friendsofoldstthomas.org. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  11. "Friends of Old St. Thomas Church Website". www.friendsofoldstthomas.org. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
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