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These houses still stand on Rose Valley Road just north of Brookhaven Rd. They were originally built as mill worker housing |
ROSE VALLEY MILLS
LOCATED ON Ridley Creek in Nether Providence, are worthy of
prominent mention among the recent improvements of our county. The mill is in charge of Antrim Osborne &
Son, the father being the proprietor and financial partner, the son the general
partner. All the buildings of Rose
Valley have been erected since 1862. In
that year the mill was erected on the site of Park Shea’s old paper mill. It is a stone house 30 by 40 feet, with dry,
dye, and other houses attached. It runs
60 looms, and turns off from 50,000 to 55,000 yards per month of a light and
good grade of cotton jeans. Two boilers
are used, one a tubular, the other plain, with a 30 horse power capacity; these
do the dyeing of and heat the mill. The
entire machinery is now run by a new double acting turbine wheel, made by James
Leffell & Company, of Springfield, Ohio.
This wheel is 40 inches in diameter; the waterfall is about 12 feet, the
wheel using about half the creek. It
gives much better speed and greater regularity than the overshot wheel it displaced,
has been running about two weeks, and is considered a complete success. It was put in by Eber Rigby, the carpenter
regularly employed by the firm.
Everything in and about the mill is in the best of order, and we believe
that in cleanliness it will compare favorably with any in the county or
state. Between fifty and sixty
operatives and workmen are employed. The
machinery was all newly put up in 1862, but the last year displaced about
one-third of it with yet later improvements.
It was all made by Jenks, of Bridesburg, well known to our
manufacturers. The firm is about to add
a new dry house, 25 by 40 feet, two stories high; and contemplate the erection
of twelve new houses for the use of the operatives, next spring and
summer. The homestead dwelling is of
stone, upon a high hill near the mill, 38 feet front by 33 feet deep with
kitchen, 28 by 16 feet. In front is a
fine lawn planted with ornamental trees and shrubbery. Water is forced to it by a wheel, a distance
of 500 feet from a spring of CHALYBEATE – water impregnated with particles of
iron – healthy and excellent taste. The barn is a very fine
structure 56 by 50 feet; with a wagon shed and carriage house attached 51 feet
long – ice house underneath. On the opposite
hill has just been completed a handsome frame dwelling, the property of William
H. Osborne, and, we presume, to be occupied by him, when ‘in the dim distant
future,’ he persuades the companionship of the one of the gentler six. Rose Valley can boast over
a dozen buildings beside the mill, all erected during and since the year 1862
by Antrim Osborn, the entire work being under the charge of Eber Rigby, a
carpenter and mechanic of the first class.
It is said of him that in all this work, as well as in the erection and
repair of the mill, mansion, &c., he has yet to make the first
mistake. His is a record that any man
should be proud of. The Valley and its
surroundings will someday be picturesque and beautiful. The Osborne’s have only fairly ‘broke ground’
in the way of improvement and a few years continuance in the way they have
begun will make it as fine a spot as any of which our county can boast. The hill bordering the eastern side of the
valley was only recently a thick wood; it is now a clearing, and will doubtless
soon bear the same marks of thrift and improvement as the one opposite,
containing the homestead, &c. Four
years have done much for Rose Valley under the direction of men who take pride
in their work, and who seem to be winning the success which their skill and
enterprise deserve.
The Delaware County Historic Preservation Network
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