Site: Kenderdine's Grist and Saw Mill
Bucks Co. | Pennsylvania | USA
Watersource: Cuttalossa Creek
Site: Kenderdine's Grist and Saw Mill
Located about one mile south of Lumberville on Pa 32/River Road at the Cuttalossa Creek behind and south of the Cuttalossa Inn.
The Cuttalossa Inn as seen from the corner of Pa 32/River Road and Cuttalossa Road. The Inn stems from 1758, when it was a stopover on the Philadelphia to New York stage route. It was converted into a country inn in the late 1800's. William Skeltons early grist mill of 1758, sometimes credited with being part of the inn, was torn competely away about 1830, to make way for the Delaware Canal. This mill was actually on the east side of Route 32 where the canal now is located.
The Cuttalossa Inn as viewed from above and behind on Cuttalossa Road. The pictures shows the rear of the inn and the patio dining area, in this case, with the chairs bunched together.
The actual ruins of the grist and lumber mill before work was begun by the present owner in 1995 to convert the ruins into an semi-outdoor bar for the Inn located across the footbridge replica of a canal bridge.
The house across Cuttalossa Road from the Inn. It may or maynot be part of the Inn property. John E. Kenderdine came into the area just as the other mills were being demolished and built his grist and saw mill on the west side of route 32 on Cuttalossa Creek in 1834. His businesses made the area from below Lumberton, north through Lumberville and up to Laurelton a successful area of commerce.
John E. Kenderdine came to the Lumberton area just as the early Skelton Mill, which had been rebuilt several times under various owners, and other mills along the Delaware were being or had been torn away to make room for the Delaware Canal. He built his new grist and saw mill on the west side of River Road on Cuttaloosa Creek. He tried his hand at treadmill milling with oxen, but as was the case in almost all treadmill ventures, the power source outstripped the profits. John moved the saw mill portion of his enterprise a short way upstream in 1847 and in 1864, added some height to the grist mill, eventually having a 5 story structure.
In the late 1850's, Kenderdine capitalized on a planing mill patent he had purchased to enable his lumber mill to produce tongue & groove flooring. He also built a sash & door mill in Laurelton. Because of Kenderdine's initiative, the area from Lumberton through Lumberville to Laurelton became a commercial success.
In 1856, the planing and flooring mill was converted by Watson & Thaddeus Kenderdine into a fertilizer & bone meal factory. The grist mill was sold to Wilson Paxson in 1869. By 1918, all the lumber portions of Kenderdines original mills had been stripped for use in other structure and the mills were just stone walls, of which part are now used by the Cuttalossa Inn.