The "A Trip Back In Time" Story

This is the mill that was built in 1780 according to it's current owner.

It was an ordinary day.  Traveling along Kirk's Mill Road in Little Britain Township in the southern end of Lancaster County, PA.  After turning off Nottingham Road (Rt. 272) I immediately began to look for my destination: Kirk's Mill.  I first passed over King Pen Road and then Brown Road.  

This is the water wheel that still operates.

After  another quarter mile I reached a crest in the road and as I started down the other side I saw it.  Kirk's Mill was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.  Never heard of the place until I was looking through a book titled "Old Lancaster", which I recently purchased, and found a page telling about the historic mill district to the south of the city.  I found a place to pull over and grabbed my camera, hoping to get some photos of the amazing buildings that I saw.  As I was standing in the drive of one of the old buildings, a man pushing a wheelbarrow crossed the road to where I was standing.  We greeted each other and then I asked him if he knew about Kirk's Mill.  

This was Jacob Kirk's original home.

Seems he was the owner of a few of the buildings and was glad to talk to me about them.  The mill was built in approxi- mately 1780.  The land around the mill was first occupied by Indians, then the Quakers came to the area.  The large building directly along the road, near a small stream where the road began to rise again, was known as the Brick Mill or Kirk's Mill.  

This is "Patience", otherwise known as the Mansion.  Mr.
Kirk built this for his second home.

The mill was purchased by Jacob Kirk in 1810 and was a two and one-half story Flemish bond brick building with a slate gable roof.  The mill has a stone foundation and as I walked around the building I could see the large wheel moving slowly in the water.  He told me that the original mill stone was removed years ago and is in the basement.  

This is the original log house that was made into a home
in the 20th century.

He uses this building as his home.  Sitting next to me at the end of the stone drive is a log house that looks as if someone is living in it.  To the right side of the log building stands a frame structure that he said was added at the beginning of the 20th century.  The log building is a one and one-half story building with gable roof and also belonged to Jacob Kirk.  To the right of the mill was Jacob's first home known as the Brick House.  It too is a two and one-half story brick house with a slate gable roof with a full porch.  There is a walk-in fireplace and root cellar.  Eventually Mr. Kirk moved into what is known as "Patience" or the Mansion.  The home was built in 1752 by Edward Griest and purchased by Jacob in 1810 from heirs of Edward Griest.   It is a three story gable roof brick house which has two large walk-in fireplaces, one with a stone sink and another with a bee-hive bake oven.  

This is another barn that is one of the dozen or so buildings
that were part of the original dozen or so structures that
was known as Kirk's Mill Places.

As I walked around the homes I could see many more homes that were evidently part of the Kirk's Mill Historic District, but I felt as if I was imposing on the owners if I would walk around their homes to take photos.  That, plus the couple of very large barking dogs forced me to head back to my car.  This little village in the southern end of Lancaster County used to be the route that originally ran from Market Street in Philadelphia to the Susquehanna River.  Today it is totally overgrown with large trees and shrubs with a narrow roadway that passes through the village.  I just sat in my car and wondered what it must have been like to drive a covered wagon pulled by horses along this road which must have been either a stone or dirt surface at the time.  So glad I could put my car in drive and know I would be back in Lancaster in less than half an hour.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.