The Historic Barren Creek Springs Presbyterian Church

             In 1834 Joshua Brattan, prominent farmer and landowner of Barren Creek springs gave an acre of land, for "the love of literature and Religion," to a board of ten Presbyterian trustees to establish a school, cemetery, and church "on the county road between Barren Creek Mills and the Springs." In 1842 the congregation built a church building which also housed the town's only school.

    Although built by Presbyterians in 1842, since then it has been used also by Episcopalians, Methodists, and Baptists. By ca. 1860 Presbyterian  membership in Barren Creek Springs Church had dropped to ten and preaching was conducted only on alternate Sunday mornings. In 1887 the congregation dissolved. Over the next six decades various groups and congregations - even the Boy Scouts -- used the building. The Presbytery sold the building to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Gunby, who in 1988  donated the church building to the Westside Historical Society Inc. The next year the task of restoration was begun. Through the hard work of its members and the generosity of friends and supporters the work largely was completed in 1997..

      Today, most of the windows and all of the pews are original, as is the plain wood flooring. Iron tie-rods lend structural strength. The hanging oil lamp chandeliers and tall pulpit lamps also are original to the church, but new lamps, electrified, have been placed on the side walls to replace the original ones which were lost at some time in the past. Through the generosity of friends of the Church, an organ, antique chairs, tables, and liturgical accessories also have been donated to take their place alongside the original furnishings. In 1985 the American Presbyterian Church named the building Site #4248 on the American Presbyterian Reformed Historic Sites Registry. It continues to remind all who visit of the history of this special place.

     In 2005 Mr. and Mrs. Simpson Dunahoo donated an original "Mason - Dixon" marker stone to be placed on the grounds of the Church. The stone is marked with an M on one side and a P on the other, for Maryland and Pennsylvania, which in 1765 included the three lower counties of Delaware.

The Barren Creek Springhouse..

      Near the entrance to the restored Barren Creek Springs Presbyterian Church is the historic Spring House, donated to Westside Historical Society, Inc. in 2002. The springhouse was on the property of the original Barren Creek Springs Hotel, which was a haven for travelers from ca. 1790 until it burned in 1913.  The town for many years took its name from the area's natural springs which constantly fed Barren Creek. Native Americans reportedly drank from these springs, and encouraged the first white settlers who came in the late 1600s to partake of this distinctive mineral-rich water.

      From the 1830s through the early 1900s the spring was an especially popular feature among hotel patrons who came from as far away as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and Norfolk to "take the health-giving waters." About 1860 a wooden octagonal structure, twelve feet across, ornamented with "Victorian gingerbread" at the eaves and around the base, was built.  It had a brick floor and benches around the inside low walls. An artesian well was dug in the center of the springhouse to tap into the spring, and a runoff pipe fed a small cistern.

Visitors could sit in the Victorian structure and soak their feet and drink from the constantly-running spring.

     Edward Austin, an enterprising citizen, in the 1890s built a small plant beside the Springhouse in which they bottled the water and then shipped cases of it by railroad throughout the mid-Atlantic region. After the old hotel burned in 1913 Austin's son built a new building on the site, operated it as a bed-and-breakfast, and continued to ship the water. The Great Depression hit hard, however, and tourism, as well as the bottled water business, soon came to an end. In 1946 the entire property was sold and the new owner made extensive repairs to the house and spring house. Most visible was the application of a brick veneer to both buildings, so that today the spring house has no vestige of its original Victorian appearance. He also created a separate deed for the spring house and property on which it sat, and tore down the remains of the bottling plant. Later, the properties passed to his relative who wished that the Springhouse be preserved as an important piece of the history of this area. Accordingly, they made the donation to Westside Historical Society in spring 2002, and it was dedicated on July 15, 2002. Today, the spring still runs, but the water is not potable. A brief rest in the coolness of the Springhouse harkens back to a quieter, less hectic lifestyle.

Barren Creek Heritage Center & Museum..

 In the Barren Creek Heritage Museum, more than thirty permanent exhibits tell the story of the Barren Creek area & the town of Mardela Springs from 1660s to ca. 1950, and highlight specific aspects of life in the local area .          

        Visitors entering the Museum step into a large exhibit gallery, and stroll through 300 years of the area's history.  Puckamee (Nanticoke) Indians,  tobacco planters who shipped their crop from the Barren Creek warehouse,  grist millers and sawyers & farmers, enterprising shipbuilders & seamen & merchants, hotel keepers and spa operators & distributors of mineral water, free black pioneers and spiritual leaders --- these were the brave and daring ancestors who created a life along the banks of the Nanticoke River and the creeks feeding into it. These exhibits reveal their tenacity, their ingenuity, and their faith as they grew and prospered.  Their story unfolds in pictures, maps, and bits and pieces of our tangible past.

      In other rooms in the Museum are exhibits reflecting other facets of life in this lower Eastern Shore. One room recognizes the craft of the seamstress and features costumes, textile production, quilts, and needlework. In another room we portray Granny's Kitchen  of the early 1900s, complete with iron cook stove, hand pump, and kitchen accessories.  The Evans Parlor is centered on the parlor furnishing of the Thomas Evans family, and also includes an old phonograph, stereoscope, and kerosene lights. The area's love of baseball is depicted in a room dedicated to Sports and Leisure from the early 1900s; the early settlers' spirituality is highlighted in one room; and an exhibit about the development and growth of the town's Banking business is in yet another room. The Hall of Heroes honors those local men and women who have served their country in the military since the days of the Revolution.  The history of other nearby communities, from Sharptown to Hebron to Bivalve, Nanticoke, Whitehaven and Vienna also is told.

Collections Policy

     The Museum seeks to collect those historical artifacts and papers which clearly reflect the social, cultural, economic, and political heritage of the area around Mardela Springs and western Wicomico County from the 1600s through the early to mid-1900s. In addition, the Center accepts those objects which also reflect the heritage of the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland and lower Delaware, and the Chesapeake Tidewater, primarily in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Items will be accepted only as outright donations; no items will be accepted on long-term loan basis

Double Mills...

Double Mills as it looked in 1950.

From colonial times through the mid-1900s grist mills were a major factor in the economy of this peninsula. On Barren Creek alone there were, during the first two centuries of settlement, probably a dozen grist and/or lumber saw mills.

From early beginnings when grist mills were almost the only form of industry, converting locally grown corn and other grains into commercially valuable products, they also were often the center of rural social as well as economic life. Farmers came to the mill with their grain, and while waiting for it to be ground would exchange news, views, and gossip, and frequent the little general store. Mill dams, by virtue of colonial legislation, established the chief road system in the area.

Millers ground grain in the mill on Mockingbird Pond for more than 200 years. At some point in the late 1700s or early 1800s it began to be called Double Mills, perhaps because the Venables family who owned it also owned Barren Creek Mill less than half a mile downstream, or perhaps because they also operated a saw mill on the other side of the same mill race.

By the mid-1800s a general store was built next to the mill, and the miller's house was enlarged. Although damaged by storms or simply the wear of time, the mill was twice renovated and expanded between the late 1700s and early 1900s. After a major storm severely damaged the mill race and parts of the mill building in the 1930s, new owners completely renovated the mill race, repaired the damages parts of the building, brought in a new pair of mill stones, and double the size of the mill building to include large storage rooms. They began a major commercial operation, producing specially formulated feeds for poultry and swine and distributed truck loads of these water-ground grain products up and down the Delmarva Peninsula. Only the rise of the major poultry companies, vertically organized, in the post-WWII era, brought the demise of this local grist mill business. In the 1950s, the mill reverted to serving local farmers and producing primarily a fine quality corn meal for use by local cooks in Lower Delmarva.

Double Mills as it looks today.

Even when a great storm washed out the pond and dam in 1979, a local miller continued to run it part-time for a while, by using a gasoline engine. Today, Double Mills remains the last turbine-powered mill remaining on the Lower Eastern Shore.

In 2007 a new organization, Double Mills Inc., was formed to try to save this important piece of our heritage. In the fall of 2007 the owners of the mill property, Ed and Dick Wright and their wives, gifted it to Double Mills, Inc. Efforts to make emergency repairs to stabilize the mill have begun and plans for a full restoration to its early-1900s existence are underway. Anyone who would like to contribute to this effort with a donation of time, talents, or money can contact: Double Mills Inc., P.O. Box 120, 25815 Grist Mill Dr., Mardela Springs. MD 21837. President of Double Mills Inc. is Leland Smith and he can be reached at P.O. Box 239, Mardela Springs MD 21837 for more information.