Health & Fitness
Mill Creek: Stream of Consciousness in Gladwyne
Luxury apartments have been an impending reality for Lower Merion's lushest of waterside settings.
GLADWYNE -- A weekday evening in high summer is a fine time to take to the back roads of Gladwyne and Penn Valley. Hang a sharp right off 23 onto Mill Creek Rd and follow the quiet road and creek through taller trees and downwards towards the Schuylkill.
On the left is the old Barker Mill, for 200 years astride Mill Creek and one-time home to a munitions factory, textile mill, work space and recording studio for Boyz II Men, etc...
Vacant for almost a decade and moderately dilapidated for age and unuse, it's a grand setting to snoop or set down by the creek and ponder new incarnations for the forested fortification. A parking turnout is directly across from the property entrance, which is unprotected by a collapsing fence. About halfway back is a portal down to a small but rewarding waterfall.
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The current owner, O'Neill properties had imagined morphing the industrial-sized, Class 1 Historic property into a 34-unit apartment complex. Given the breath-taking beauty and relative inaccessibility of the setting, this seems the most viable commercial enterprise. But the housing market collapse and other complexities of the project have seen O'Neill lose interest in the project and a buyer has been courted for nearly a year.
For now, the mill sits silent, and that's not a bad thing at all. Acres of Lower Merion parkland are directly adjacent to the site, including Rolling Hill Park, which features a great ridge-side trail that spills into the sleeping mill's parking lot. Climb the nearly two-mile trail that runs through woods and emerges into delightful hilltop meadows home to the Lower Merion Conservancy.
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Gladwyne and Penn Valley offer many homeowners million dollar views and opportunities to commune with a lushly vegetated and wonderfully eclectic topography. Perhaps someday Barker Mill will become that place for a charmed few more. Until then, the peaceful spot is pleasantly aloof and vulnerable to having its pleasures enjoyed via public access borders.
- Ted Gross, Ardmore-area Realtor with Prudential Fox & Roach and R5Realty.com News & Notes, published monthly.
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