Walker-Mills Plantation – Chester – Chester County

— Walker-Mills Plantation House, 2010 © Fred J Powell, III —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Chester, Chester County

  169 Pinckney Street, proudly perched on one of the seven hills of Chester (1)
  

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Oaks of Mamre (1)
  

• Current status – Privately owned and undergoing restoration in 2010 (1)
  

— Walker-Mills Plantation Parlor, 2010 © Fred J Powell, III —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• 1842 – House built by local carpenters for Rush Hudson (1).
  

• Circa 1848 – Josiah Walker purchased the plantation from Rush Hudson (1).
  

• Circa 1865 – At the end of the Civil War, Chester was located at the end of the railroad line and the house became a temporary hospital for small pox patients (1).
  

• 1878 – The plantation was sold for taxes on the steps of the Chester Courthouse to Patience Stringfellow Mills. Patience would call Walker-Mills her home until her death in 1938 at the age of 99 (1).
  

  A staunch Presbyterian, in an era before radio service, elderly Mrs. Mills paid for a telephone line to be run directly from the pulpit of Purity Presbyterian Church (about a mile down the street) to her front parlor so that she could follow worship on Sundays (1).
  

• 1938 – Patience's daughters Lucia and Kate would live at the plantation until their deaths in 1946 and 1964 respectively (1).
  

• ? – After Kate Mills' death, the house and surrounding land was sold to Springs Industries which built the Gayle Mill and mill village on it. The land was subdivided, new streets and roads added, and the Walker-Mills home was used as company housing for the mill doctors (1).
  

  From 1969-1972, Dr. James L. and Helen Harrison Hughes lived in the Walker-Mills home. Dr. Hughes practiced Industrial Medicine for Springs Mills, Inc. and worked with the federal government in establishing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (2).
  

• 1977 – Springs Industries sold the home and a city block consisting of 7 acres to Chap. Lt Col. Fred J Powell, Jr (USAF ret.) and his wife, Mary Brown C. Powell. It is still owned by the Powell family as of 2010 (1).
  

— Walker-Mills Plantation Dining Room, 2010 © Fred J Powell, III —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Land

• Number of acres – 678 acres; 7 acres in 2010 (1)

• Primary crop – ?

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 37 per 1860 census records (1)

  We are actively seeking information on the slaves who lived and worked at this plantation. If you find a resource that might help, please fill out this form. Thank you.
  

Buildings

• The two story house remains today. There had been six slave houses that were all destroyed by a cyclone in February 1888 (1).
  

References & Resources

1. Information contributed by Reverend Fred J Powell, III whose family purchased the house in 1977.
   

2. Information contributed by Rebecca Phillips Hughes.