Milford, Pennsylvania

Not to be confused with Milford Township, Pennsylvania.

Borough of Milford
Borough
Pike County Courthouse, built in 1874
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
County	Pike
Elevation	499 ft (152.1 m)
Coordinates	41°19′27″N 74°48′10″W
Area	0.5 sq mi (1.3 km2)
- land	0.5 sq mi (1 km2)
- water	0.0 sq mi (0 km2), 0%
Population	1,021 (2010)
Density	2,042 / sq mi (788.4 / km2)
Incorporated	1874
Timezone	EST (UTC-5)
- summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP Code	18337
Area code	570 Exchange: 296
Location of Milford in Pennsylvania
Website: http://milfordpa.us/

Milford Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Forester's Hall, designed by Calvert Vaux and Richard Morris Hunt
Location:	Roughly along Broad, Harford, Ann, Catharine, High, and Fourth Sts., Milford, Pennsylvania
Area:	22 acres (8.9 ha)
Architectural style:	Late Victorian, Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals, Mid-19th Century Revival
Governing body:	Local
NRHP Reference#:	98000898
Added to NRHP:	July 23, 1998

Milford is a borough in Pike County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat. Its population was 1,021 at the 2010 census. Milford is part of the New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

History

Milford was founded in 1796 by Judge John Biddis, one of Pennsylvania's first four circuit judges, who named the settlement after his ancestral home in Wales.

Milford has a large number of historical significant buildings, some of which are separately landmarked by being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, while others fall into the NRHP's Milford Historic District. Of the 655 buildings in the district, 400 of them have been deemed to be historically significant. In addition, Grey Towers National Historic Site, the ancestral home of Gifford Pinchot, the noted conservationist, two-time Governor of Pennsylvania and first head of the U.S. Forest Service is located in Milford. Also nearby is "Arisbe", the home of logician, philosopher and scientist Charles S. Peirce. The Forester's Hall, Jervis Gordon Grist Mill Historic District, Hotel Fauchere and Annex, Metz Ice Plant, and Pike County Courthouse are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Pike County Historical Society Museum in Milford includes in its collection the "Lincoln Flag", which is the flag that was draped on President Abraham Lincoln's booth at Ford's Theatre the night he was shot. The flag was bundled up and placed under the President's head, and still bears his blood. It was kept by stage manager Thomas Gourlay, and eventually passed down to his daughter Jeannie, an actress who had been in the play, Our American Cousin, at the theatre that night; she moved to Milford and the flag was donated to the museum after her death.

In September 2007, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel named Milford second on its list of "Ten Coolest Small Towns" in Pennsylvania.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 0.5 square miles (1.3 km²), all of it land.

When Judge Biddis bought up the land of what was then known as Wells Ferry and laid out the lots for the new town, he generally followed the plan of Philadelphia, with High Street – the equivalent of what is now Market Street in Philadelphia – running to the Delaware River, while Broad Street runs perpendicular to High, creating a grid. At the intersection of Broad and High is a public square – just as there is at Broad and Market in Philadelphia – and most of Milford's official buildings are located there. Within the grid, East-West streets are numbered, Second through Seventh, with Broad Street falling between Fourth and Fifth Streets, while North-South streets are named after Judge Biddis' children: Ann, Catherine, George, John, Sarah and Elizabeth. In between both the named and numbered streets are alleys, named after berries and fruit.

In contemporary Milford, Broad Street is also U.S. Route 6 and U.S. Route 209. At its intersection with Harford Street, Route 6 continues north on Harford, while Route 209 continues south on the street.

Milford is located on an escarpment above the Delaware River, and all waterways there which drain into the river must fall the 100-foot (30 m) difference in height, creating what is known as a fluviarchy, a network of waterfalls, putatively the most notable one east of the Rocky Mountains.

Demographics

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
2000	1,104		—
2010	1,021		−7.5%
http://www.city-data.com/city/Milford-Pennsylvania.html.

As of the census of 2010, there were 1,021 people, 491 households, and 236 families residing in the borough. The population density was 2,042 people per square mile (797.7/km²). There were 580 housing units at an average density of 1,160 per square mile (453.1/km²). The racial makeup of the borough was 95.2% White, 0.6% African American, 0.5% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 1.4% from other races, and 1.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.5% of the population.

There were 491 households out of which 19.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.4% were married couples living together, 10.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 51.9% were non-families. 42.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 21.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.01 and the average family size was 2.79.

In the borough the population was spread out with 16.3% under the age of 18, 59.9% from 18 to 64, and 23.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48.3 years.

The median income for a household in the borough was $33,571, and the median income for a family was $46,136. Males had a median income of $40,500 versus $28,333 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $21,011. About 4.0% of families and 9.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.1% of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.

The Hotel Fauchére, established in 1852, has hosted guests such as William Tecumseh Sherman, Rudolph Valentino, Sarah Bernhardt, Andrew Carnegie, Mae West, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Babe Ruth, Robert Frost, Ogden Nash and Presidents Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. On the National Register of Historic Places since 1980, the hotel was restored in 2006.

"Grey Towers", home of Gifford Pinchot

Education, arts and crafts, camps

Milford is served by the Delaware Valley School District, and is home to Pike County Arts and Crafts, an arts education organization that was chosen by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts as winner of the 2007 Pennsylvania State "Creative Community Award.". Since 1950, Pike County Arts and Crafts has also hosted an annual art show each July in Borough Hall. Milford is also the home of Camp Nah-Jee-Wah, Cedar Lake Camp, and Teen Camp operated through the NJY Camps.

Annual events

The Black Bear Film Festival is an annual independent film festival, which takes place the weekend after Columbus Day in October primarily at the historic Milford Theater. It includes many free films and lectures in the Film Salon as well as paid feature films.

The Milford Music Festival takes place each June. It is a free weekend event sponsored by Altec Lansing, whose headquarters are in Milford Township. The 2009 Milford Music Festival was headlined by Vanessa Carlton, the Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/pianist who is from Milford.

Notable residents

• Louis Allen, a New York Army National Guard officer killed in a fragging incident in 2005 during the Iraq War.
• The science fiction authors James Blish, Damon Knight, Judith Merril and Kate Wilhelm (Mrs. Knight)
• Vanessa Carlton, singer/pianist
• Allyn Joslyn, stage and screen actor
• Writer Frank McCourt
• The family of Gifford Pinchot, including Mary Pinchot Meyer.
• The polymath Charles Sanders Peirce lived on a farm 3 miles from Milford, from 1887 until his 1914 death.
• Mary Pickford, silent film actress
• Al Pitrelli, guitarist

In popular culture

Milford served as setting for a number of silent films directed by D.W. Griffith in the early 1900s, including The Informer starring Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore. It was also the original location of the Milford Science Fiction Writers Workshop, founded in 1956 by Damon Knight, James Blish and Kate Wilhelm, all residents of Milford at the time.

Gallery

A view of Milford from "The Knob", looking east down Broad Street

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  Charles S. Peirce's house

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  "The Columns", home of the Pike County Historical Society Museum

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  The Tom Quick Inn

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  The Milford Theatre

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Pike County, Pennsylvania

The Milford Branch of the Pike County Public Library, located in the Community House

References

Notes

External links

• Official Borough and Township Website
• Pike County Courier, local newspaper
• Pike County Dispatch, local newspaper