By 1769, George Washington owned 1600 acres of land where Perryopolis now lies. His Grist Mill is located on this 1600 acres. Construction for the mill began in 1774, under the direction of Gilbert Simpson. Due to trouble with the Native Americans and the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the Mill was not completed until the fall of 1776. In the fall 1779, Washington leased the Mill along with 150 acres of land to Colonel Israel Shreve, a hero of the Revolutionary War, for a term of five years. Washington died in 1799, without having conveyed the tracts under the Articles of Agreement to Colonel Shreve, who also died in 1799.

The land for George Washington's Grist Mill was purchased in 1774, and construction completed in 1776. The Mill has belonged to Powell Hough, John Strickler, and Jacob Strawn. Strawn's heirs proceeded to sell it to George Anderson, who repaired it in 1859, and later sold it to Samuel Smith. The Mill today belongs to Perryopolis Parks and Recreation Authority.

George Washington's Grist Mill 

This tour offers guided directions to many of the leading historical attractions of Perryopolis. The tour includes several historical buildings as well as landmarks and the local history museum. 

History of Perryopolis Pennsylvania Tour

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When the Slavs settled in Fayette and surrounding counties of 
Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century, their numbers became a 
source of security and comfort. They did not dread traveling a distance to a place of worship, as some walked as far as 13 miles to St. Stephen's Greek Catholic Church in 
Leisenring. The decision to build a church created a controversy over the site. The parish was organized in 1911 and named after St. Nicholas to memorialize the Darr Mine disaster of 1907 in which 239 miners died on St. Nicholas Day.&nbsp; The basement was completed in 1912 and services were held there until the church was completed in 1918, having been delayed by the onset of World War I.&nbsp; A crystal chandelier was imported from Czechoslovakia and a bell from Moscow and the ceiling murals were painted sometime during the 1920s.Other than the addition of the rectory in 1966 there have only been minor changes made to the church over the years.&nbsp; It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Also known as St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Church, the St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church is a historical Catholic church in Perryopolis, PA. It was built between 1912 and 1918, and is a 30 feet by 60 feet yellow brick building in the Byzantine Revival style. It has a cruciform plan and the gabled roof is topped by four onion domes. The church served a community of Rusyns who originally settled in the area prior to 1907.

St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church

The building that now houses the museum has a long and storied history.&nbsp; It first contained one of the earliest banks west of the Allegheny Mountains.&nbsp; However, the bank closed its doors after the Panic of 1819.&nbsp; It has since served as a post office, school, church, restaurant, and doctor's office.&nbsp; It also sat empty for 30 years before being transformed into the Old State Bank Museum.&nbsp; That museum closed in 2009 and the building was then renovated by the Heritage Society.The new museum&nbsp;now houses almost 1,000 historical artifacts that are arranged into three chronological sections: Early Settlement (1769-1879), Coal and Coke Era (1880-1945), and Post-World War II (1946-present).&nbsp; These artifacts include uniforms from both World Wars, Native American arrowheads, vintage tools, business ledgers and three glass pieces from the Green Glass Company.However, visitor's favorite artifact&nbsp;seems to be&nbsp;a large, aerial photo of Perryopolis from 1932 that covers the entire back wall of the museum.&nbsp; The Heritage Society plans on opening a children's museum on the building's upper floor in the near future and it hosts various special events during the year, such as its Pioneer Days Celebration.&nbsp;

The Perryopolis Area History Museum, formally known as the Old State Bank Museum, opened its doors in 2014.  It is housed in the former Youghiogheny Bank of Pennsylvania building that was constructed sometime around 1815 and is the oldest building in the borough.  The museum, which is run by the Perryopolis Area Heritage Society, displays numerous local antiques, historical artifacts and documents.  It also contains a genealogy research room for public use.  The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.    

Perryopolis Area History Museum

The influence of the American arts and crafts movement are readily apparent in the two-story red brick Karolcik Building.&nbsp; It first opened its doors in 1921 and housed, in addition to a 412-seat theater, a meat market, pharmacy, barbershop, a billiards&nbsp;room and bowling alley in the basement and a public hall and&nbsp;owner's apartments&nbsp;on the second floor.&nbsp; The theater operated from its opening until the&nbsp;1970s and hosted political rallies as well as numerous fundraisers.&nbsp;The&nbsp;second-floor public hall&nbsp;was used primarily for dances and the bowling alley was in operation until the early 1980s,&nbsp;utilizing pinboys to reset the pins until its last days.&nbsp; The theater, with its small stage, is&nbsp;still housed within the building but hasn't been used in many years.&nbsp; The building itself is still in good shape and only superficial changes have been made to it over the years.&nbsp;

Michael Karolcik built and opened his theater on Thanksgiving Day in 1921. Known as the Perry Theater today, the historic structure is just one of a few remaining brick and mortar buildings erected in the hub of the town’s circle during the 19th and early 20th centuries.  It housed much more than a theater when it first opened, but the theater was the main attraction as it hosted vaudeville shows and musicals in addition to movies.  The Karolcik family sold the building in the mid-1980s and it now rents out space to local businesses.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Karolcik Building (the Perry Theater)

The centerpiece of this park is the reconstructed grist mill that was originally built by William Crawford at the behest of George Washington who owned many acres of land in and around what would later become Perryopolis. When Crawford completed the mill in 1776 the area was known as "Redstone" or Washington's Bottom." While Washington never operated the mill, he leased it to his friend, Israel Shreve, there is evidence that he visited the area on several occasions. The mill eventually fell into disrepair and collapsed in 1926. It was finally rebuilt from 1992-1999, to include its massive water wheel which was added in 2003. Within a few feet of the grist mills sits Shreve's Distillery which was originally built sometime around 1790. It served as roll in the infamous Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. Ironically, it was President Washington who sent federal troops to the area to quell the rebellion. Nor far from the park, just across Layton Rd and also along Washington Run, sits another historical building, that being Searight's Fulling Mill.When viewed as a whole, the complex represents one of the few, authentic, pre-industrial areas left in the United States. The Perryopolis Parks and Recreation Authority recently added a new playground at a cost of over $100,000, and also has plans to make the mill, distillery and bake oven operational complete with historical exhibits and educational programs.While the park is located only a few blocks from the Perryopolis town center, finding it can prove to be a bit difficult. It is located just across Galley St from the Harry Sampey Park between Galley and Layton (State Route 4038) Roads. Access, if available, is off of Galley St.

This 7-acre park contains several recreated historical structures that once stood here. These reconstructed buildings include a grist mill that George Washington once owned, a 1790s distillery, and a 1850s beehive bake oven. The park is owned and operated by the Perryopolis Parks and Recreation Authority and one should contact it for information regarding the park's access to the public.

 Washington Run Park

The distillery, located only a few blocks from the center of Perryopolis, is across
 the road from the town park. There is a huge octagonal pavilion in the center
 that was built just a few years ago. The mill and distillery are open now for visitors. Shreve's distillery is what's known as a first-level
 commercial distillery, which means it was a business enterprise that provided
 a distilling service to people who brought their grain to the mill
 to be processed. The still that Shreve originally used is no longer there, but in it's place is a still that is the same size and model of one that he would have used. Shreve's distillery has been restored at least twice. It is believed that the mill was still operational for some time, but not after the 1970s, when a fire burned everything but the foundation.

The Heritage Society has restored this building, using the original stones. The distillery is now in mostly-authentic condition. While being renovated, it was updated with electricity. The Heritage Society was required to add electricity because it is now a public building. 

Israel Shreve's Distillery

This is the only free-standing fulling mill in the United States.&nbsp; The 20' x 30' sandstone building was built with a gable roof and was only in service as a fulling mill until 1820&nbsp;when Searight closed its doors.&nbsp; It was later converted into a dwelling.&nbsp; &nbsp;Fullling is a process by which the fibers of a&nbsp;cloth are both&nbsp;cleaned and shrunk in water, creating a more dense and therefore more durable and valuable textile. Prior to the adoption of mills to complete this process, people known as&nbsp;fullers used their feet to&nbsp;trample cloth while it sat in a&nbsp;trough of water.&nbsp;&nbsp; In later years, fulling mills were erected along streams and applied the energy of moving&nbsp;water to&nbsp;power the mill. As early as 1815, Jonathan Hewitt had a fulling mill and a saw mill at the mouth of Washington Run. The site was bought by John Bradley who later established a brickyard a short distance north of Washington's Grist Mill. William Searight was of a settler of&nbsp;Scotch-Irish descent who became an influential landowner.&nbsp;After Searight sold this mill, he purchased a farm on Route 40, which is now known as Searight's Crossing.

William Searight acquired this farm on property that had once belonged to George Washington. He built this mill around 1810. Searight is credited for realizing that rural fulling mills (fulling is a process in the creation of woolen cloth) could not compete with urban mills that were serviced by canals and combined each process of cloth production in one area. Recognizing that fulling mills would no longer be viable businesses, he sold this property before the mill became unprofitable. The building is now owned by the Parks and Recreation Authority of Perryopolis.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.  

History of Perryopolis Pennsylvania Tour

George Washington's Grist Mill

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context