The Earliest Marple Map of 1816

History Spotlight by Doug Humes

Photos courtesy of the Marple Historical Society

In 1816, the Pennsylvania legislature authorized mapmaker John Melish to make detailed county maps for Pennsylvania. What did he find notable enough to include on the Marple map?

Marple is divided into uneven quarters by its two oldest roads, the West Chester Stage Road (running east-west) and Springfield Road (running north-south). At the south, the Springfield Quaker Meeting is indicated by “QM,” and nearby is one of the earliest schools, which today would be in the Sts. Peter & Paul cemetery.

Old Marple Road runs west towards Crum Creek and a bridge. Eagle Road runs east to Darby Creek, where a saw mill and grist mill were located. Further north on Springfield Road, Crum Creek Road runs west to the creek; and today’s Reed Road runs east and down to the same mill complex on the Haverford side.

The 1816 Melish Map of early Marple

Lawrence Road is in place, connecting the West Chester Road to Springfield, at the Lawrence family home at the top of the hill. Paxon Hollow Road runs west to the Jones grist mill. Springfield splits at the current location of the library. The right branch crosses the West Chester Road at present day Broomall. If you go straight, you head down Marple Road towards Haverford, while if you turn left, you continue down today’s Sproul Road to the Jones saw mill. The left fork of the Springfield Road meets the West Chester Road as today, at the shopping center.

To the north, two roads run from the West Chester Road – Malin Road and Barren Road – and connect in an area that at the time was called the Barrens, an area “perched on a knob of serpentine” with poor soil for farming. However, in that area, a spring came out of the ground, and an entrepreneur named Burns had opened Byrnes Mineral Springs, where he touted his bathhouses, the medicinal qualities of his springs, and that “LIQUORS of the best kind will be provided.”

Part of legend identifying the mapmaker

The Marple of 1816 was a farm community of about 669 people. The two oldest roads took you out of Marple; the rest of the roads were laid out to take you to places a farmer needed to go: a grist mill to grind his wheat or corn, and a saw mill to obtain lumber to build his house, barn and sheds. The post office, Presbyterian Church, a tavern and a general store, were all still in the future.

For more on the history of Marple, visit the Marple Historical Society website and Facebook page, and join the Society to keep up to date on coming events: www.MarpleHistoricalSociety.org.