Sometimes when I stop and think about it, I'm amazed that any old houses (say, 150 years or more) are still around for us to enjoy. It takes a special combination of luck and caring ownership for a historic home to remain in excellent, near original condition. One such house that has benefited from just this scenario is the Hersey-Duncan house, on Duncan Road just off of Kirkwood Highway. This handsome Federal style fieldstone home not only has enjoyed caring ownership from a single family for most of its history, but its own history is directly intertwined with the history of the area.
The story actually begins at least 40 years before the construction of the current Hersey-Duncan House, in the 1760's. It was at this time that a man named Solomon Hersey settled in the area, and built a merchant grist mill along the Red Clay Creek. The millseat was so well positioned, in fact, that the site would see continuous industry from about 1765 until 2003, when a devastating flood closed the now Ametek-owned site for good.
