Evening star., 1941-12-07
By BEN Fl. PEARSE.

Trldelplla. ghost town which sank
below the raging waters OF the
PatuXent River twice during its 1877
year history. is about 10 go down for
the third and last time.
When the new Patuxent River
dam, recently started by the WASH
ington Suburban Sanitary Commis-
sion 81 miles below the Tridelphia
toWnSite, is completed, what re-
mains Of a once-prosperous mill
town of some 300 persons will be
from Is TO 20 feet under water.
All that is left of the community.
which once lined both sides of the
PatuXent a few miles north of Sum-
shine, Md. and which took its name
from the three brothers -in-law who
established il. are two houses. one
stone and one brick. frame church,
log cabin and ruins.
The stone and brick houses are
now being torn down to make way
for the rising waters. which OH this
last occasion will represent progress.
The new Sanitary Commission dam.
30 feet high, is being constructed to
imopund reserve supply of water
for Prince Georges and Montgomery
Counties.
DESTROYED BY Flood.
From the time it was established
in 1904 until the Civil War. Tridel-
phla was a thriving community
Cotton hauled from Baltimore and
grain from nearby farms fed the
mills. When the war shut off the
supply of cotton. that mill shut
down. Plans were being made to
start up again after the war when a
disastrous flood burst the dam. swept
away most of the houses along the
low banks and so badly damaged the
mill that it was never placed in
operation again.
The grist mill continued operat-
ing, however. and. although re-
duced to a handful of residents.
Tridelphia was still a center of some
importance. The dam was partially
rebuilt and until 1889, the year of
the famed JohnstoWn food there
was still post Office in one end of
the long brick building that now is
being torn down. Then another
flood finished what the first had
left undone.
Only the two houses along the
bank, the log cabin higher lip on
the road to Sunshine and the
church situated on a little knoll,
which became a refuge whenever
the waters threatened. survived.
Early Steam Heat.
Thomas LanSdale. father of
Richard H. Lansdale. chairman of
the Board of Assessors of Mont
gomery County. was once manager
Of the cotton and the flour mill, as
his father, Thomas Franklin LanS-
dale. had been before him. 1t IS
believed to have been one of the
first mills in the country to be
heated with steam.
A four-story structure, about 50
by $50 feet, the cotton mill has
furnished stone for many hCme
in the vicinity. A few years ago
the bronze bell which summoned
the mill hands to work was bought
by the Sandy Spring community
and is now in the tower of the
Sherwood School nearby.
Richard Lansdale was 6 wears
old at the time of the second flood
and remembers that he carried a
chair and chicken to higher
ground around the church while
others in the community we're max
ing efforts to get out their belong
ings ahead of the rising waters,
Why he chose a chair and chicken
to carry to safety he does not recall
Roads To Be Moved.
Sanitary Commission officials an
nounced that even the road from
Tridelphia to Sunshine will be aban-
doned. since the bridge which con.
nected the two parts of the township
along the north and south banks OF
the Patuxent will be submerged with
the remainder Of the community