Stoddartsville Historic District

Last updated

Stoddartsville Historic District
Stoddartsville Historic Center.jpg
Stoddartsville Historic Center
USA Pennsylvania location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationS side of PA 115 at Lehigh River, Buck Township, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 41°07′47″N75°37′42″W / 41.12972°N 75.62833°W / 41.12972; -75.62833
Area180 acres (73 ha)
Built1815
Built byJohn Stoddart (1777-1857)
Architectural styleGeorgian, Colonial Revival, Federal
Website https://www.stoddartsville.com/
https://www.stoddartsvillepreservationsociety.com/
NRHP reference No. 98001373 [1]
Added to NRHPNovember 12, 1998

The Stoddartsville Historic District is a national historic district that is located in Buck Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

Contents

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. [1]

Architectural features

This district includes thirty-six contributing buildings, fourteen contributing sites, and one contributing structure that are located in the nineteenth-century milling and transportation center of Stoddartsville. It includes houses and summer cottages, outbuildings and wells, and the remains of mills and mill races, barn ruins, and the ruins of "bear trap locks" and wing dams.

Notable contributing resources include the remains of Stoddart's Grist Mill and related archaeological sites, the remains of Stoddart's Saw Mill (1815), the "Appleyard" house (c. 1815), the "Miller's House" (1890-1893), the Inn (c. 1875), and the Stoddart House or "The Maples" (c. 1810). [2]

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. [1]

History

Stoddartsville was founded by John Stoddart in 1815, [3] who partnered with Josiah White (of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co.) to improve navigation on the Lehigh River. Stoddart imagined a canal town with mills, shops, taverns and homes. The dams only allowed for a one-way canal, which was not ideal because arriving barges would need to be broken up and sold. As the mining industry in Luzerne County grew, two-way canals became an option, and Stoddart had hoped to extend a two-way canal by 12 miles from White Haven to Stoddartsville, but plans were abandoned when the estimated cost for such expansion to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company was deemed too great. Over the years, the town became a vacation community filled with cottages.

Stoddartsville saw its share of misfortune, from floods in 1862 and fires in the 1950s. With the growth of resorts in the Pocono Mountains, visitors to Stoddartsville waned and it became a private, residential area. [3]

Preservation

Through the efforts of John L. Butler Jr., the village of Stoddartsville was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 12, 1998. As direct descendants of John Stoddart, the Butler family has had close ties to Stoddartsville for generations. During his lifetime, John Butler Jr. amassed a collection of artifacts, photographs, and documentation of the village. In 2001, John and Haney Butler began construction of a Historic Center and hosted tours to share the history of Stoddartsville. Mr. Butler retained ownership of the Historic Center and Stoddartsville Cemetery until his death in August 2010, shortly after the founding of the Stoddartsville Preservation Society Inc. (SPS). The SPS acquired both properties in 2011 and continues to hold tours and meetings with a mission to preserve Stoddartsville and carry on his legacy. The Historic Center is open for visitors on the first Saturday during the months of May through October, or by appointment.

As of Spring 2024, 288 cemetery burials have been extensively documented by the Stoddartsville Preservation Society.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania</span> County in Pennsylvania, United States

Schuylkill County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 143,049. The county seat is Pottsville. The county is part of the Northeast Pennsylvania region of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris Canal</span> Canal in New Jersey

The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a 107-mile (172 km) common carrier anthracite coal canal across northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals in Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its western terminus at Phillipsburg, New Jersey to New York Harbor and New York City through its eastern terminals in Newark and on the Hudson River in Jersey City. The canal was sometimes called the Morris and Essex Canal, in error, due to confusion with the nearby and unrelated Morris and Essex Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manayunk, Philadelphia</span> Neighborhood of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, United States

Manayunk is a neighborhood in the section of Lower Northwest Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania. Located adjacent to the neighborhoods of Roxborough and Wissahickon and also on the banks of the Schuylkill River, Manayunk contains the first canal begun in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schuylkill Canal</span>

The Schuylkill Canal, or Schuylkill Navigation, was a system of interconnected canals and slack-water pools along the Schuylkill River in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, built as a commercial waterway in the early 19th-century. Chartered in 1815, the navigation opened in 1825, to provide transportation and water power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Register of Historic Places listings in Pennsylvania</span>

This is a list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania. As of 2015, there are over 3,000 listed sites in Pennsylvania. All 67 counties in Pennsylvania have listings on the National Register.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lehigh Canal</span> United States historic place

The Lehigh Canal is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern regions of Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of 20 years beginning in 1818. The lower section spanned the distance between Easton and present-day Jim Thorpe. In Easton, the canal met the Pennsylvania Canal's Delaware Division and Morris Canals, which allowed anthracite coal and other goods to be transported further up the U.S. East Coast. At its height, the Lehigh Canal was 72 miles (116 km) long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lehigh Gorge State Park</span>

Lehigh Gorge State Park is a 4,548 acres (1,841 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Luzerne and Carbon Counties, Pennsylvania. The park encompasses a gorge, which stretches along the Lehigh River from a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control dam in Luzerne County to Jim Thorpe in Carbon County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor</span> United States National Heritage Area in Pennsylvania

Delaware & Lehigh Canal National and State Heritage Corridor (DLNHC) is a 165-mile (266 km) National Heritage Area in eastern Pennsylvania in the United States. It stretches from north to south, across five counties and over one hundred municipalities. It follows the historic routes of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Lehigh Navigation, Lehigh Canal, and the Delaware Canal, from Bristol northeast of Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre in the northeastern part of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Canal Historic District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

The North Canal Historic District of Lawrence, Massachusetts, encompasses the historic industrial heart of the city. It is centered on the North Canal and the Great Stone Dam, which provided the waterpower for its many mill complexes. The canal was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, while the district was first listed in 1984, and then expanded slightly in 2009.

The National Canal Museum is the Signature Program of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, located in Easton, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Ann Street–Mill Street Historic District</span> Historic district in New York, United States

South Ann Street–Mill Street Historic District is a national historic district located at Little Falls in Herkimer County, New York. The district includes 15 contributing buildings and one contributing structure. They relate to the history of transportation and commercial/industrial development of the city. They include multi-story brick and stone commercial buildings, the former New York Central Railroad passenger station, remains of Erie Canal trunk and aqueduct, and a former hydroelectric power station and remains of the related dam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company</span> Defunct mining and transportation company

Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was a mining and transportation company headquartered in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, in present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The company operated from 1818 until its dissolution in 1964 and played an early and influential role in the American Industrial Revolution.

Coal River Locks, Dams, and Log Booms Archeological District is a national historic district and historic archaeological site located on the Coal River in Boone, Lincoln, and Kanawha County, West Virginia. It consists of an underwater resource depicting the navigation and transportation system used on the Coal River during the late-19th and early-20th century. It includes remains of timber cribs, locks and dams, and a lock master house. It was designed by William Rosecrans in the mid-1850s, and was one of the first complete lock and dam systems in West Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josiah White</span>

Josiah White (1781–1850) was a Pennsylvania industrialist and key figure in the American Industrial Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biery's Port Historic District</span> Historic district in Pennsylvania, United States

Biery's Port Historic District is a national historic district located in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and includes 90 contributing buildings in the Biery's Port section of Catasauqua.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashley Planes</span> United States historic place

Ashley Planes was a historic freight cable railroad situated along three separately powered inclined plane sections located between Ashley, Pennsylvania at the foot, and via the Solomon cutting the yard in Mountain Top over 1,000 feet (300 m) above and initially built between 1837 and 1838 by Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company's subsidiary Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad (L&S).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bear Creek Village Historic District</span> Historic district in Pennsylvania, United States

The Bear Creek Village Historic District is a national historic district located in Bear Creek Village, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The district includes fifty-five contributing buildings, four contributing sites and two contributing structures in the borough of Bear Creek Village.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swatara Furnace</span> United States historic place

The Swatara Furnace is a historic iron furnace and 200-acre national historic district located along Mill Creek, a tributary of the Swatara Creek in Pine Grove Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pine Forge Mansion and Industrial Site</span> Historic house in Pennsylvania, United States

The Pine Forge Mansion and Industrial Site, also known as Thomas Rutter's Mansion and the Pine Forge Iron Plantation, is an historic, American iron plantation and mansion and national historic district located in Douglass Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roswell Historic District (Roswell, Georgia)</span> Historic district in Georgia, United States

The Roswell Historic District, in Roswell, Georgia in Fulton County, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System.Note: This includes George E. Thomas (n.d.). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Stoddartsville Historic District" (PDF). Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Talarico, Donna (August 21, 2005). "A Look Back: Stoddartsville: Keeping a Dream Alive". The Times Leader. Retrieved July 29, 2020.