The Springdale Historic District [†] is an example of a rural industrial community. It is associated uith William Maris uho helped create the industrial development. The District contains a collection of structures that range from small workers' housing to the owner's mansion with its Samuel Sloan addition.
Situated west of the community of New Hope on the Old York Road, this small settlement developed as a small industrial community during the late l8th and the 19th centuries. Starting as a grist mill complex along the Ingham (Aquetong) Creek in the late l8th century, the settlement expanded with the construction of a cotton mill by William Maris in 1820. This mill was later converted to a silk mill. Workers housing was constructed in the settlement from 1755 to the 1880. When the silk mill ceased operation in the late 19th century the settlement consisted of two mansion houses, one store and the homes of two businessmen and the remaining structures workers housing. This small community has remained the same to the present as is reflective of a mid-19th century rura industrial settlement.
When William Maris built the Cotton Mill in 1820 industry in the tiny village expanded and Irish, Scotch and English immigrants who were skilled in textiles arrived to work in the mills. Maris lost all his holdings in the entire Borough by 1840 and Simon Gove became the owner of the Cotton Mill—then Joshua Whiteley until it converted to silk production in the late 19th century. Through all of these decades the black wage earners of the village supported their families by working in the mill.
The most prominent individual to have a part in this settlement was Andrew Ellicott who, in 1790, surveyed what became Washington, D.C. His ownership of the Robert Heath Mansion commenced November 11, 1791 and lasted until April 1, 1797.
An individual of local prominence, William Maris purchased the mansion and complex in 1819 (added the ballroom wing at its west elevation) and lost it at a sheriffs sale in 1840. Maris built the Delaware Bridge House and the Union Mills and approximately a dozen other structures still standing in the Borough. The mansion has witnessed local glory from that time, 1840, when the Huffnagle family owned it through to I878, when it passed through a few changes in ownership. The Hood family have been the mansion owners since 1941, and continue to carry on the mansions reputation as a showplace of the area.
† Ann Neissen, Borough of New Hope, Springdale Historic District (District #1), nomination document, 1980-1983, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
