History & local legend
Newlin Grist Mill in Glen Mills is the landmark for a story about a stable boy and the mill owner’s daughter. Both versions of the legend begin with the pair falling in love and her father opposing the relationship.
In one telling, the father kills the boy in anger. In another, he forbids the couple from seeing one another, and the boy ends his own life in a barn. Either way, the boy is said to remain, crying for the young woman he lost.
When Ghosts of Delaware County published the account in 2009, readers familiar with the estate discussed which outbuilding belonged to the story. One identified a carriage house; another former resident questioned that location.
Sources
- Ghosts of Delaware County, The Grist Mill, Glen Mills, PA, with readers’ firsthand comments about living on the estate
- Philadelphia Area Archives, Nicholas Newlin Foundation records, historic mill complex and outbuildings
- Newlin Grist Mill, official address and visitor information
- OpenStreetMap, footprint of the museum mill
