In colonial Pennsylvania, the agricultural economy was driven by grain farming with a thriving market producing flour, processing fiber, and distilling. Millstones such as this did the hard work to grind the grains, and by 1771, Philadelphia was exporting five million pounds of flour. The Thompson-Neely farmstead benefited from their proximity to the city, and by the early 1800s had grown into an expansive enterprise -- with a grist mill, a saw mill, cooper’s shop, distillery, store, sawyer’s house, miller’s house, assorted barns and buildings, and wheat farmed on 500 acres of land.

The Thompson-Neely House
Washington Crossing, PA

05.21.20