Underground RR house should be saved (editorial)

YDR Editorial Board

The Mifflin House, in Hellam Township, with its a brick summer kitchen at left, is in jeopardy of being demolished. Historic preservationists, noting its connection to the Underground Railroad, want it saved.

Perhaps historians can be reassured by the Kinsley family’s track record of historic preservation.

Donald and Shelby Blessing are concerned about the future of the Mifflin House in which they live just outside Wrightsville – and understandably so.

It’s a wonderful old house with original wooden floors and other preserved features.

More importantly, it’s a historic house.

Popular Civil War historian Scott Mingus said it was almost certainly an Underground Railroad stop – though it is not officially listed as such on the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom, which does acknowledge the William C. Goodridge House and the Willis House in York as stops.

It was definitely in play during the Civil War assault on Wrightsville. Confederate cannons fired from the property.

It is simply an important and well-preserved piece of York County history. And the Blessings worry it could be endangered by development.

Donald Blessing’s parents and his aunt and uncle own the house and surrounding property, and they apparently plan to sell it. They’re in their 80s and “want to get things settled up.”

Agnes Blessing, Donald’s mother, said the family has been working with Tim Kinsley, vice president of development for Kinsley Properties. She said he wants to buy 25 acres that would include the Mifflin House and barn – and a warehouse is proposed for the site. She said she’d like to see the Mifflin House preserved.

A Kinsley spokeswoman did not comment on the company’s plan for the property or house.

That’s unfortunate. It would be good to hear from the company that this important piece of history will be preserved – even if it would be in the middle of an industrial park.

But perhaps local historians can be somewhat reassured by the Kinsley family’s track record of historic preservation and adaptive reuse.

Last year, Kinsley-affiliated LSC Design was honored by Preservation Pennsylvania with a Historic Preservation award. The organization lauded LSC Design for “Sustainability in Historic Preservation” for its corporate headquarters on North George Street in York. From the award citation:

“LSC Design’s new corporate headquarters is located in the former Thomas Somerville Building, a 1920s warehouse. The conversion of the building from open warehouse space to design and production studios with leasable street-level storefront space followed the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and achieved LEED Platinum certification.”

Robert Kinsley Sr. has a longstanding love of history. He built the new Visitor Center at Gettysburg. And Kinsley Construction was general contractor at the Zimmerman Center for Heritage on the Susquehanna River – which this year won an award from Preservation Pennsylvania.

It’s hard to imagine the company would just tear down a house of such historic significance.

It’s not just a neat old house. It’s a piece of our county’s heritage.

Can the home remain as part of the proposed industrial park project?

Could it be smartly incorporated into the design?

Could it be an example of adaptive reuse?

We certainly hope so.

The owners of the house and property certainly have a right to sell it, but it would be tragic to lose a local Underground Railroad and Civil War site in the process.