Log Grist Mill
Jennerstown, Somerset County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
This reconstructed early log mill was built originally at Roxbury by a miller named Cronin in 1805. It was in operation until 1918. It is now used as the Mountain Playhouse. As restored, it is a fine example of an early mill.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In 1805 a miller named Cronin raised a log grist mill at Roxbury, part of the network of small water-powered mills that ground the grain of frontier Pennsylvania into flour and meal. The mill turned for well over a century, staying in operation until 1918 before its working days ended. Later reconstructed, the sturdy log building found new life as the Mountain Playhouse, preserving a fine example of early American milling.
Why it matters
Grist mills were the industrial heart of rural communities, and this survivor shows how the everyday machinery of early agriculture could be saved and repurposed for later generations.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Cronin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Quecreek Mine Accident and Rescue
Lincoln Township, PA · est. 2006
On July 28, 2002, the nation held its breath as nine coal miners lay trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine, entombed underground for four days. A rescue shaft drilled at this spot finally reached them, and all nine were lifted to safety in a drama that drew round-the-clock national attention. The effort drew together local, state, and federal agencies, mining companies, emergency responders, and neighbors, and afterward reshaped mine-safety, mapping, and drilling practices.
Early Bible
Somerset, PA · est. 1954
In 1813, in a log cabin on this spot, printer Charles Frederick Goeb produced what is remembered as the first Bible printed west of the Allegheny Mountains. Getting a printing press — and the paper, type, and skill to run it — across the mountains was no small feat on the early frontier, where books were scarce and precious. A Bible off a local press meant a community had crossed a threshold from raw settlement toward established cultural life.
Windber
Windber, PA · est. 1999
Founded in 1897 by the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company, Windber was a company town unlike most — a substantial independent center ringed by thirteen smaller 'patch towns' housing the miners. The company built landmarks like the 1914 Wilmore Building and the 1919 Arcadia Theatre, while thousands of immigrants poured in to work the bituminous seams, the largest output coming from Eureka Mine No. 40. Company mining here ended in 1962.
Windber Strike of 1922-23
Windber, PA · est. 2003
When Windber-area Berwind-White miners joined the United Mine Workers' national strike in April 1922, they were demanding not just better pay but recognition, civil liberties, and humane conditions. The walkout dragged on for sixteen months, and strikers' families were evicted from company-owned housing into hardship. A New York City inquiry publicized the grim living and working conditions of the coal patch and even called for nationalizing the mines.