Union Mills Homestead Historic District is a national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, Carroll County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

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Description

The homestead comprises a dwelling house, a brick

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

, a surviving bark shed from the 19th century tannery complex, a reconstructed tannery barn, and a Bollman-design bridge.

History

The Shriver Homestead was built in 1797 by Andrew and David Shriver and has been continually occupied by the family. The mill, also built 1797, is a large brick structure, built of locally manufactured brick laid in both

Flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

and common bond. On June 30, 1863, General

J.E.B. Stuart James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart (February 6, 1833May 12, 1864) was a United States Army officer from Virginia who became a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb,” from the initials of ...

of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia camped at Union Mills and was hosted by part of the Shriver family. On the following day, General James Barnes of the 5th Corps of the

Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confedera ...

arrived on the site and welcomed and entertained by other members of the family. Union Mills was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1971. The Union Mills Homestead was home to the Shriver family for 6 generations. It is currently a historic landmark located near

Westminster, Maryland Westminster is a city in northern Maryland, United States. It is the seat of Carroll County. The city's population was 18,590 at the 2010 census. Westminster is an outlying community within the Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA, which is part of a great ...

, about 17 miles south of

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town. Gettysburg is home to th ...

. The Homestead is now a museum of American culture, operated by the Union Mills Homestead Foundation, a non-profit foundation with all proceeds dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Union Mills Homestead Complex.

The building of the Shriver homestead

The following passage is excerpted from "Union Mills: The Shriver Homestead Since 1797" by Frederic Shriver Klein:

The Shriver brothers bought a large tract of land along Big Pipe Creek, about seven miles north of
Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
and along early roads leading into Littlestown and Pennsylvania's roads toward the west. The junction of Pipe Creek and Deep Run furnished a strong flow of water for a mill in the wide valley, and gentle slopes on either side provided land for grazing, farming or settlement. Heavy stands of black oak would furnish tanbark for a tannery, and the Shrivers knew a good bit about tanning leather. At this time, Andrew Shriver was operating a store and tavern in
Littlestown, Pennsylvania Littlestown is a borough in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,434 at the 2010 census. Originally laid out by Peter Klein in 1760, the town was first named "Petersburg". German settlers in the area came to call the t ...
, and David was practicing as a civil engineer in Maryland.
The original mill contract shows that on January 25, 1797, the two brothers completed arrangements with John Mong, a Frederick County millwright to construct "a set of mills," a
grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...
and a
saw mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ( dimens ...
. On March 13, Jacob Keefer and John Eckert contracted "to mould and burn a kiln of brick" for the mill, "providing 100,000 brick or more, to be paid for at the rate of one French crown for every thousand brick." The brick kiln was constructed near the creek, known in previous years as Pipeclay Creek.
The house had its origin on January 26 of the same year, when a contract was made with Henry Kohlstock of
York County, Pennsylvania York County ( Pennsylvania Dutch: Yarrick Kaundi) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 456,438. Its county seat is York. The county was created on August 19, 1749, from part of Lancaster ...
, for building a small double house as a residence for the two brothers. Kohlstock, a joiner, agreed "to finish two small houses 14 by 17 feet each, to be connected by a porch and passage about 10 feet wide." Each house had one upper and one lower room, with a connecting center hallway and a small porch in front, twelve by eight feet. The carpenter's bill for labor gives an interesting idea of costs in 1797: * Lower floors for small house 5 dols. * Upper floor, rough 3 dols. * Windows, casing, frames and sash 2 dols. each * Doors, casings, etc. 2 dols.each * Weatherboarding, stairs, porch, cornice seats, washboards 3 dols. * Painting 6 dols. The total labor costs for the house came to eighty-six dollars!"

References

External links

*, including photo from 2002, at Maryland Historical Trust
Boundary Map of the Union Mills Homestead Historic District, Carroll County
at Maryland Historical Trust

* {{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Historic districts in Carroll County, Maryland Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses in Carroll County, Maryland Shriver family Museums in Carroll County, Maryland Historic house museums in Maryland Mill museums in Maryland Historic American Engineering Record in Maryland Westminster, Maryland Union Mills, Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Carroll County, Maryland Grinding mills on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland