The Mispillion River has played a
vital role in the development of downtown Milford. In the late 18th
century Reverend Sydenham Thorne built a dam across the Mispillion River
to generate power for his gristmill and sawmill. This served as the
catalyst for Joseph Oliver to subdivide a part of his plantation,
providing the first building lots for the city of Milford. Soon the
banks of the Mispillion were crowded with homes, businesses and wharfs.
In the early days the Mispillion was Milford's "highway" providing the
easiest means of travel and freight transport to Philadelphia and other
coastal cities. Shipbuilding became a major activity and continued to
grow in importance throughout the 19th century. The river also was vital
to the development of tanneries and canneries which required abundant
amounts of water.
The Mispillion's role in
transportation began to decline after the railroad come to town just before the Civil War, and its role in commerce dwindled after the
wood shipbuilding industry went into decline after World War I. In the 20th
century, as buildings in the downtown crowded the street fronts, the
river become less visible and accessible. Fortunately, in recent years
Milford has regained its river vistas with the creation of the Mispillion Riverwalk. This riverside greenway, which will eventually
extend from Silver Lake through downtown to Goat Island, has
fundamentally changed the downtown landscape and restored the Mispillion
to its role as the centerpiece of downtown Milford.
Click
here and view the master plan for the Mispillion Riverwalk by
Landscape Architectural Services, LLC
(and visit their website at
www.las-llc.net).
