Millheim Historic District

Millheim is a borough in the Penns Valley of eastern Centre County, Pennsylvania, set along Elk Creek where the stream runs out of the Brush Mountain gap. Settlement began with mills on the creek in the late 1700s, and a formal town plan was laid out in 1797 by Michael and Philip Gunkle. The district's mills, including the Elk Mills complex built by James Duncan in 1817, supplied flour and lumber and supported a range of industries through the nineteenth century, among them woolen and hosiery works, tanneries, and a chair factory. The Buffalo and Penns Valley Turnpike, incorporated in 1810, brought westward travelers and commerce. The district holds about 437 buildings, of which 237 contribute to its character. Its houses include simple I types from around 1800 to 1840, Victorianized I houses, gable-end workers' dwellings from 1890 to 1920, and Italianate and Classical Revival commercial blocks. Relatively few modern intrusions remain.