Colonial Springs Bottling Plant — Attraction in Schuylkill Township

Tucked away along the path of the Horse-Shoe Trail (Mt. Misery Trail) are the remains of the bottling plant. The trail has its ups and downs (no, not metaphorical) so leave the flip-flops at home. Thankfully the park has begun maintaining the ruins so hopefully the memory of the bottling plant and what little of its history will live on. I have not yet found much of its history or any stories about the souls that passed through, but I did find this little bit: General B.J. Fisher & Colonial Springs: In the 19th century the land tracts on the Mountain became smaller and more fragmented. Around the turn of the century, General Benjamin Franklin Fisher consolidated many of these plots into a single holding. The General was a civil war hero. After the war he set up as a lawyer, living initially on Valley Park Road in Schuylkill township. Fisher put together a tract of land that stretched from Colonial Springs down to Valley Creek in one direction, and across the mountain to the top of the Stirling’s Quarters Farm, the present Park boundary. Later he moved to a house across from the Colonial Springs. When the Park took over the area, it demolished the building. The foundations of the house can be seen opposite the bottling plant. It is not clear when Colonial Springs were first used commercially; but Fisher granted a lease to the Colonial Springs Company in 1908 to use the waters of Cold Spring. Prior to this agreement, in 1900 C. T. Chase agreed to purchase at least 5000 gallons of Cold Springs water a month from Fisher. General Fisher died in 1915. His heirs sold the property to Charles Hires, of Hires Root Beer fame. There is no evidence that the Hires company ever made root beer at the Springs. The Hires company main plant in the area was at Malvern. The Springs were purchased by the Valley Forge State Park...

Peter Long has done a very good job chronicling the spring site. I too have done quite a bit of sleuthing to find the history of this site. What I can add is that I can't find any hard proof of any direct to consumer bottling took place here. The contract was for an individual who sold to hotels and the like in Philadelphia. The water was transported in large carboys to the nearby Reading Railroad tracks and subsequently delivered into town. The General was highly protective of his springs. When Francis Bean began harvesting quartzite from Mt. Misery, he built a narrow gauge railroad to transport the stone to the processing plant next to the Reading Railroad tracks. The General was not happy about this and protested it's existence although no evidence exists it harmed the springs. In the Charles E. Hires days I can find no evidence that he put the springs to any commercial use. The Malvern plant Peter refers to was producing very large quantities of condensed milk. Although some stories point to some of the "Purock" water brand being produced at Valley Forge all hard evidence I have found was Hires produced a distilled drinking water product and a "battery water" product within the city of Philadelphia using that trademark. The amount of water this spring was capable of producing was negligible in the scale that Hires manufactured. When Hires purchased this land Valley Forge as a whole was in a sharp industrial decline. The forges that were the backbone of the economy of Valley Forge had closed. Isaac Smith's Woolen Plant (located at the intersection of rt. 23 and Valley Forge rd.) had relocated down the river to Bridgeport and the surrounding population shrank. I have read that at one point a trolly line existed where rt. 23 goes through the park. If anyone has any knowledge or pictures,...

I grew up not far from these ruins, and visited regularly during my childhood with my good friend and as often as we could after I moved away. We always called it “the Hires Plant” but couldn’t verify it’s history. The wildflowers and birds provide much room for reflection and imagination. Thank you to the posters who have filled in some of the historical gaps. I feel so lucky to have had Valley Forge Park literally in my...