Part of the process of preserving Pennsylvania's history is well underway.
The nonprofit Susquehanna National Heritage Area purchased the Mifflin House in Wrightsville in 2023 and has big plans for the site, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
“We're working on developing a master plan for what to do and how we can turn this into this Susquehanna National Heritage Area and this discovery farm,” said project leader Peter Miele, a public historian who formerly worked at the Seminary Ridge Museum in Gettysburg.
The house itself was built around 1800 by newly married couple Jonathan and Susannah Mifflin. Susannah was descended from the first settlers, while Jonathan had moved from Philadelphia.
“As freedom seekers, more and more self-emancipating slaves appear at the Mifflin House,” Miele said, “and probably from 1810 to 1840 the house becomes a stop on the Underground Railroad.”
The Mifflin House is in the process of receiving a federal designation through the U.S. National Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. Among the sources the Mifflin House uses to prove it was a stop on the network is the 1883 book “History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania” by Robert Smedley.
The house on the Mifflin House site in Wrightsville, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
“He interviews people who were involved in the Underground Railroad and the descendants of those who were involved in the Underground Railroad,” Miele said, “including Samuel Mifflin, the son of Jonathan and Susannah.”
Kinsley Properties of York County previously owned the property with plans to preserve the outbuildings, historic house and a circa-1850 barn. But around 2017, the company decided instead to demolish the homestead and build a warehouse, prompting a local outcry from organizations like Historic Wrightsville.
“Preservation Pennsylvania is committed, a statewide organization committed to preservation,” Miele said. “Ultimately, Kinsley imposed a two-year development freeze to see if these partners could raise the money to purchase the property.”
Eventually, the Conservation Fund purchased the property to hold until the Susquehanna National Heritage Area could purchase it, which was in 2023.
The hope is that by spring the site will be ready to hold regular hours to bring people on the site to hear the stories, Miele said. This includes improving public access through the homestead with a new driveway, parking and sidewalk compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“This is a place where we will tell the stories of this unique bi-county heritage area,” Miele said.