Fryer's Mill
Comprising:
- Ridge Road (formerly McKeesport Ridge Road)
- Mill Street
- Edna Street
- Fryer Street
- Ella Street
- Sunset Way
- As well as portions of Bower Hill Road (formerly Painter’s Run)
- And portions of McLaughlin Run Road (formerly McLaughlin’s Run Road)
History of the Fryer Mill -
McLaughlin Run Road, East Bridgeville, Pennsylvania
--Based on information collected by Miss Ella Jane Fryer in 1929, and provided by Jean E. Fryer Young in 1999
The history of the parcel of land known as Fryer Mill, on McLaughlin Run Road is as follows:
The original owner of the property was a Mr. John Herriott. On August 25, 1820, a property deed was recorded for the piece of land, stated as being located in Upper St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, PA (now Bridgeville, PA), consisting of 44 acres, 28 perches of land. For the consideration of $3,500, this property was duly transferred from the ownership of Mr. Herriott to one Mr. William Fryer. The record of the transfer was signed by Mr. Fryer in the presence of one Amos Holland, and was recorded in the Deed Book, 33-H-2nd, on pages 47-8.
Following the sale of the property, a flour mill and store was built on the property by William Fryer. William and his brother Samuel were engaged in the business as partners until the year 1851, when Samuel purchased the property from William. Recorded in the Deeds Book on May 8, 1851, the property—still consisting of 44 acres, 28 perches and now including the mill—was sold for $5,000. In 1927, a gas well was constructed on a portion of the property, and yielded an average of 1,706,000 cu. ft. of gas per day.
On February 25, 1848, John McDowell and his wife Jane Coulter McDowell, sold additional property, adjoining that of the Fryer Mill, to Samuel Fryer. For the consideration of $59.53, a further 3 rods, 7 perches was added to his holdings. On September 3, 1870, however, Samuel Fryer sold the 2 acres, 31 perches of land associated with the mill to David Nelsons Lea and Michael Drew. The mill and associated land was then sold to Adam Spohn and Michael Drew in 1874; sold yet again in 1876 to William Carlisle, a Fryer relative, for the sum of $4,500; and finally ended up in the hands of Adam Spohn and Milton A. Douglas in 1877, at the slightly diminished price of $4,000. This would be the last time the mill and attached store traded hands, as three years later, in 1880, both were burned to the ground.
The remainder of the Fryer property lingered on in the hands of the Fryer family, until lots were slowly sold off beginning in 1938.