{"nrhp_refnum":"76001652","name":"Springfield Mill","other_names":["Piper-Streeper Mill"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"On Northwestern Ave. between Germantown Ave. and Bethlehem Pike","address_restricted":false,"city":"Erdenheim","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.09099592100006,"lon":-75.23047662999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-05-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-and-a-half-story limestone grist mill on Wissahickon Creek in Erdenheim, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, built in 1854 on the foundation of an earlier mill. The miller's house on the site dates from about 1845.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the mill is one of very few surviving mills along the Wissahickon Creek, an area that was a major milling center in the late 18th and 19th centuries. It retains much of its original drive machinery, most of which dates from 1850 to 1900, including a wooden main drive gear and millstone gearing.","narrative":"Built in 1854 on an outcrop of limestone about 16 feet above Wissahickon Creek in Erdenheim, Pennsylvania, the Springfield Mill is a three-and-a-half-story grist mill with walls of locally quarried limestone, stuccoed and about 22 inches thick, and a clapboard west wall. It was built on the foundation of an earlier mill from around 1761, which took the name Piper/Streeper Mill after its owners. Beside it stands a miller's house from about 1845 with Greek Revival elements. The interior retains much of its machinery, most of it dating from 1850 to 1900. Power came from a turbine through a horizontal shaft to a large wooden tooth gear, which drove the millstones on the floor above through engaged gear sets. Its roof is carried by two rows of trusses, and its timbers are pegged and mortised. The mill operated well into the 20th century. It is important because the Springfield Township area was once a major milling center, with at least 52 mills built along the creek, and this is one of the very few that survive.","period_of_significance":"1854 - early 20th century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal Style Eclectic with Federal and Greek Revival elements","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Unused; the document lists the then-function as mill and the now-function as unused, and all openings are boarded up.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.441635-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/76001652.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001652/6c3be73760-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001652/6c3be73760-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Hshuvaeva","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Springfield_Mill_01.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Hshuvaeva</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Springfield_Mill_01.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71995495","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Mill","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7580994"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/springfield-mill-76001652/"}