“Places I love come back to me as music …”
~ Sara
Teasdale
~ American lyric poet & Pulitzer Prize
winner
~ 1884-1933
~ “The
Collected Poems”
The historic Helfrich Springs Grist Mill is patriotically festooned with
The Cowpen’s flag and American flag bunting on a beautiful summer afternoon in
late July.
Peter Grim built this substantial stone structure in 1807. A waterwheel
powered by spring water turned massive burrstones used to process grain into
flour and feed grown on local farms. Grim resided in the brick home at the
northwest corner of Mickley Road. Reuben Helfrich purchased the mill in 1872
since then named Helfrich Springs Grist Mill. Milling ceased about 1930.
The mill is located at Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania along the Jordan
Creek. It is a three-story fieldstone mill and measures approximately 30 feet
wide and 58 feet deep and has a slate roof. The Township of Whitehall acquired
the property by eminent domain in 1963. The building is owned and operated by
the Whitehall Historical Preservation Society, who began restoring it in 1984.
It was added to the National
Register of Historic Places in 1977. A boundary increase in 1999 added the
Peter Grim House.
The Cowpens flag, or 3rd
Maryland flag, is an early version of the United States flag that meets the
congressional requirements of the Flag Resolution of 1777. Like the Betsy Ross
flag, the white stars are arranged in a circle on the blue field; but the
circle consists of just 12 stars, with the 13th star in the center.
