Name/Title
The WissahickonEntry/Object ID
2013.34.5.85Description
The Edwin C. Jellett Series of Scrapbooks, Volume 5 -The Wissahickon
Page 85 contains Jellett's notes transcribed as follows:
Platt's Mill and Home
The mill at Allen's Lane was known as "Platt's". It was first conducted by Joseph Hill - after by a man named Partenheimer, after by Jacob Heft - and lastly by Platt who conducted it at the time the Park took control. This mill stood on the turnpike immediatley above Allen's, or Deadman's, Lane. The springhouse yet preserved on the bank above the drive is part of the estate.
(Part Fee and part E.C.J.)
During a freshet in the 50ties, the dye house here was washed away and the gable wall of the main mill was undermined to such an extent that it cracked from the bottom to the top. (Fee)
After "Jake" Heft retired from the mill, he and two friends were forced to appear before a magistrate for fast driving on the Wissahickon - on warrants sworn to by Park Guard Fink. This action greatly offended Heft but his friends took it as a good joke. Heft declared that he would not again drive on the Wissahickon - "but he did", said Fee, "and enjoyed it>"
Platt's house stood on the bank on the west side of the turnpike, immediately south of the spring-house there. (Shingle to E.C.J. May 21, 1905).
After Jacob Heft left the Wissahickon, his mill was owned by John Livezey, and after, by Platt. When the Park took over the mill, Platt moved to the mill owned by Corson (?) on Sharpnack Street, Germantown. (Amberg to E.C.J. May 28, 1905)
Adam Stein, who drove for Jake Heft, lived in a house immediately in front of Heft's mill - which stood between the mill and the road. (Amberg to E.C.J. June 4, 1905)
L. Amberg also told me he remembered the flood at Heft's mill which washed away the dye house. The water rose in Stein's house up to clothes hanging in the closets - and washed away part of the house. (June 4, 1905)Collection
GHS Scrapbook Collection
