On January 13th, 2025 it was announced by Reading’s City Council that the bid had been awarded to demolish Bushong’s Dam, which sits along the Tulpehocken Creek just before the confluence with the Schuylkill River. The removal project is nearly two decades in the making, and is one of many dam removal projects completed in Berks County in recent years. The main objective is to turn the stream back into its natural state to promote trout and other wildlife resurgence.

Recent articles about the demolition claimed the dam to be built in 1892, but I have found it to pre-date that quite significantly.

An 1854 Map of Berks County places Samuel Bell’s Gristmill on the site. In 1866 brothers Benjamin and William Schwartz bought the property and converted it from a grist mill into a paper mill. At the same time a large covered bridge was constructed adjacent to the mill for easy access over the Tulpehocken.

George Bushong was already in the paper business when he acquired the property in 1868. George’s father Philip owned a paper mill in Reading in the area of Front and Court Street. At this time the Schuylkill Canal passed right by the Front Street mill and was the main means of transportation of goods in and out of the city. Bell’s Mill at the very end of the Union Canal where it met the Schuylkill Canal, which was the route into the city from the west. A March 25th, 1872 Reading Times articles states Bushong was about to enlarge his Paper Mill on the Tulpehocken.

In May 1876 a catastrophic boiler explosion occurred at the mill which ended up killing worker Daniel Rothenberger. It was repaired and reopened by late June. Notices which ran in the Times during the winter of 1878 indicated Bushong may have been having financial problems, as he signed over all of his assets to his brother-in-law to deal with creditors.

George Bushong died at Lancaster’s Cross Key’s Hotel in May 1878 at 41 years of age. He committed suicide by slitting his own throat with a pen-knife found in his hand. This led to a public legal battle over a life-insurance payout for his widow. The mill was sold in 1887 to George F. Baer, president of “Reading Paper Mills”, who apparently made some upgrades immediately after. An October 26th, 1889 Reading Times article described the mill, “only manilla papers of the best quality are made at the Tulpehocken mill, and jute from India, old rope and bagging are the materials used. The Tulpehocken mill is run partly by steam and partly by water power. There are twenty-eight employees.“

In 1936 Acme Paper Company bought the assets of Reading Paper Company who also operated the Van Reed Paper Mill further up the Tulpehocken Creek. The mill suffered a small fire in 1943.

Bushong’s Covered Bridge was going to be closed to traffic in 1953 due to safety concerns, but ended up being repaired to the tune of $12,450 by the County. In 1959 youths set fire to the structure and destroyed it completely.

In 1983 the Reading Redevelopment Authority awarded a contract to demolish the mill and prep the site for a bike pathway that became the Union Canal Trail. In a June 2nd, 1983 Eagle article, George Meiser IX explained the original grist mill on this site was built in 1816, making it one of the oldest still standing in Berks at the time it was demolished. Though, it had been heavily altered over the course of the mill’s history. The bike and walking path goes right through what was once the inside of the mill.

Improvement work is again being done along the Union Canal trail and in the immediate Stonecliff Park recreation area. Now the dam is slated to join the rest of the mill in the pages of our past.