A Humorous 18th Century Story

In the heyday of Ambler's mills, only one road led to the Fulling Mill where woolen fabrics and blankets were produced. That road was called Fulling Mill Lane, however, most people referred to it as the Dam Road, because the water dam necessary for the operation of the mill ran alongside it.

One day, a stranger to Ambler stopped to ask directions to the Fulling Mill of Mrs. Reiff, a prominent mill owner's wife. She said she "never recovered from the humiliation she felt when the stranger" accused her of using profane language when she told him to take "the Dam Road."

Ambler's Street Names

Ambler's mills, once the engine of this thriving town, live on only in the street names of today.

Reiff's Mill Road is the diagonal running north from Main Street to Mt. Pleasant Ave. The short street between Hendricks and Reiff's Mill at the top of the map, is the unmarked Grist Mill Lane, near the other dead-end street in the same area, projecting from Tennis Ave., Fulling Mill Lane.

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Follow this link to a Civil War tale about a fugitive slave and his lucky sojourn in Ambler.

Source: Early History of Ambler by Dr. Mary P.H. Hough, 1936.