A rally to save an Underground Railroad site was to detail the latest on the efforts. The site is known as the Mifflin House. Teresa Boeckel, York Daily Record
The Mifflin House, in Hellam Township, with its a brick summer kitchen at left, is in jeopardy of being demolished. Historic preservationists, noting its connection to the Underground Railroad, want it saved.(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, File, York Daily Record)
Penn National Gaming Inc. is eyeing a site off the Wrightsville exit of Route 30 for a possible mini-casino, and if selected, the company would consider preserving the historic Mifflin House, which served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
"We understand the importance to the community," said Jeff Morris, a spokesman for Penn National.
Representatives attended a Hellam Township meeting last week and explained the company has been looking at three parcels in a commercial/industrial zone just off the exit.
During the meeting, township supervisors opted back in to allow a mini-casino to be built in the municipality. The vote was 4-0, said Galen Weibley, chairman of the board of supervisors.
"Some residents and myself expressed support that if the (Mifflin House) parcel is selected, that the house structure be incorporated into the development of the casino," Weibley said in an email. "I even used the example of the Lancaster Convention Center incorporating the brick structure of the Watt & Shand department store."
Randolph Harris, a preservation advocate, said he sees an opportunity. In Lancaster, saving the classic department store and the adjacent former home of Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith has proven fruitful. He said he's doing tours there frequently.
"I'm pleased to hear citizens ... expressing an opinion they'd like to see the Mifflin House saved," he said.
Preservationists have been working to retain the Mifflin House, which sits in a growing business park, from being demolished. Last year, Kinsley Equities II, an affiliate of Kinsley Properties, applied for a demolition permit, and the township denied it. The matter now is in the York County Court of Common Pleas.
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Preservation Pennsylvania has listed the house as an "at-risk" site for destruction. The house is historically significant enough to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
Katina Snyder, an officer with the Kreutz Creek Valley Preservation Society, and Melinda Crawford, executive director of Preservation Pennsylvania, could not be reached for comment.
Tim Kinsley of Kinsley Properties also could not be reached for comment.
A group gathered in Hellam Township to bring awareness to the impending demolition of a home built in the 1750s that was part of the underground railroad. Paul Kuehnel
Penn National is looking at numerous sites in York County to locate a mini-casino, Morris said. They include the York Galleria in Springettsbury Township, the current off-track betting site in Manchester Township and a site in Shrewsbury Township.
The Hellam Township site is of interest because it is equally distant between Lancaster and York and would offer easy to access Route 30, he said.
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A mini-casino could operate between 300 and 750 slot machines and eventually up to 40 tables. Resort casinos, in comparison, can have up to 600 slot machines and 50 gaming tables, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
Penn National is expected to narrow the field of candidates and select one site. The deadline to submit to the state is in July.
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