5 Comments on "I have two questions unanswered on the message board. Remember the message board?"

  1. Joseph J. Menkevich | October 4, 2011 at 1:50 am |

    Jim says: I’d love to do a background post on the Old Mill building that’s part of Matt Papajohn’s complex that has an entrance on Orchard St. The building, however, backs up to Waln Street.
    Does anyone have any information?”

    Hexamer General Surveys

    264
    Borie & Mackie Spring Mills
    Borie, M. J. & Mackie
    Orchard St, Waln St, and Culvert St
    Frankford /Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
    http://www.philageohistory.org/rdic-images/view-image.cfm/HGSv4%2E0264

    1127
    Spring Mills & Providence Cotton Mill
    Borie & Mackie
    Waln St, Orchard St, and Unity St
    Frankford / Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
    http://www.philageohistory.org/rdic-images/view-image.cfm/HGSv12%2E1127

    792
    1874
    Spring Mills
    Borie & Mackie
    Waln St, Orchard St, and Unity St (NW corner)
    Frankford /Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
    http://www.philageohistory.org/rdic-images/view-image.cfm/HGSv9%2E0792

    But the real question you should be thinking is who own it before Borie & Makie?

    Why was it called Spring Mills (as they did not manufacture springs)?

    J.M.

  2. Jim | October 4, 2011 at 7:33 am |

    Well done Joe! I would guess they called it Spring Mills because it ran right next to a spring that fed into the Frankford Creek.

  3. Joseph J. Menkevich | October 5, 2011 at 12:03 am |

    Actually, I found this after I already posted:

    http://www.workshopoftheworld.com/frankford/spring.html

    1768-1862 Friends schoolhouse (demolished)
    1862- Spring Mills / Borie & Makie (umbrella & parasol sticks, cotton yarn)
    1889- Montgomery Ford (umbrella sticks)
    1894- David M. Hess (chemical works)
    1895-1945 Wallace Wilson Hosiery Co. (infants hosiery)
    c. 1920- Malcolm Mills (yarn)
    1946-2004 H. Riehl & Son (textile machinery)
    2004- Pappajohn Woodworking (custom woodworking) & misc tenants.

    4355 Orchard Street, Philadelphia PA 19124
    (east side between Church Street and Unity Street, property extends back to Waln Street; originally Waln Hill at Unity Street)

    About the name, there was a spring, but it more likely fed into the Little Tacony Creek down where Torresdale Avenue is today.

    I often have some minor disagreement with various historical accounts, and I disagree with the “1768 Friends schoolhouse,” as use above.

    The first school did not belong to “The Friends.”

    The following account is accurate and supported by my research:

    “The Frankford Academy had its beginnings in 1768 when William Ashbridge, Rudolph Neff and Isaiah Worrell, as trustees of a fund raised by the people of Frankford for the erection of a school, purchased a piece of ground at Wain and Spring Streets, upon which a school, afterwards known as the Spring House School, was erected.

    In 1799 the property was transferred to the Friends Society, the sum of $337 being paid to those not belonging to the Friends, representing the proportion of their interest.

    This money was applied toward the purchase of a lot on Paul’s Lane, on the site where the Rehoboth Methodist Episcopal Church was later erected.

    A building was erected in which school was held on the second floor. It was chartered in 1800 as the Frankford Academy.

    The building was used also for a town hall and a portion of it as a jail.

    In 1808 the title to the property was transferred to the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church, as has already been stated. The church continued to support it until 1830, when it was sold to Robert and Samuel Huckel, who, in turn, sold it to the society afterward organized as the Rehoboth Church.”

    “The Presbyterian church of Frankford, 1770-1920”
    http://www.archive.org/details/presbyterianchur00some

    J.M.

  4. Jim | October 5, 2011 at 2:53 pm |

    Awe man, that’s a shame. I was looking to uncover new info, it looks like that mill is already known. I need to find another building that has a recorded history that no one else has reported on.

  5. Joseph | October 5, 2011 at 10:19 pm |

    How about Hood Bros. on Orchard Street right across from the Pappajohn mill? Good Luck!

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