{"nrhp_refnum":"98001373","name":"Stoddartsville Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"S side of PA 115 at Lehigh R.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Buck Township","county":"Luzerne County","state":"PA","lat":40.228453739500054,"lon":-75.620654145379,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-11-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Engineering","Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district in Buck Township (Luzerne County) and Tobyhanna Township (Monroe County) along the Lehigh River at the Great Falls, comprising the remains of an early nineteenth-century milling village, its mill ruins and archaeological sites, a turnpike crossing, and later resort cottages.","why_significant":"The district is argued to be significant for its ties to early internal improvements and transportation on the upper Lehigh River, including Josiah White's bear trap locks, and for the ruins of John Stoddart's grist mill and sawmill. Its later resort cottages reflect rustic design. Archaeological remains are considered likely to yield important information about regional industry.","narrative":"Stoddartsville lies in a narrow valley of the Lehigh River at the Great Falls, straddling the Luzerne and Monroe county line. John Stoddart, an English-born Philadelphia merchant, founded the milling village around 1815 on the Easton and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike. In 1816 he began a five-story grist mill, 50 by 70 feet, designed on the automated model of Oliver Evans; it opened in 1818 and its walls still stand facing the falls. A sawmill, a store, a hotel, a blacksmith's house and cottages completed the community. Stoddart backed Josiah White's plan to make the upper Lehigh navigable for coal barges, and White's bear trap locks, the best-preserved examples of which survive here, gave the village its engineering importance. Floods in 1862 and a fire in 1875 ended milling, and the village turned to resort use. The remains are regarded as significant for transportation, commerce, engineering and archaeology.","period_of_significance":"c.1815-1940","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Georgian, Colonial Revival, Federal, other: Rustic cottages","criteria":["A","C","D"],"status_note":"Industrial phase ended after the 1862 flood and the 1875 fire; the village later became a resort. The 1955 Hurricane Hazel destruction of the bridge is stated, and the turnpike is described as no longer continuous.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:37.462373-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/98001373.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98001373/06b864e709-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98001373/06b864e709-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stodardsville_Preservation_Society_Buck_TWP_LuzCo_PA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stodardsville_Preservation_Society_Buck_TWP_LuzCo_PA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994823","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoddartsville_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7618313"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/luzerne-county/stoddartsville-historic-district-98001373/"}