Fetter Planing Mill - 78 Center Street

This view is from Center Street at the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad tracks, looking southwest. The top of the Milton Gas Works tank is visible in the background, in the center of the picture. The building was located between the two railroads. Jacob Fetter‘s home at 74 Center Street can be seen to the right. His son William became the proprietor of the business after his father died. William lived at 38 Filbert St. in 1910.

From Bell’s History of Northumberland County: Jacob Fetter’s Planing Mill, Center Street, occupies the former site of a furniture factory, the only building in this part of the town that survived the fire of 1880. When the work of rebuilding was begun it was converted into a planing mill and so used until 1881, when it was destroyed by fire. Two years later a local company erected a building upon this ground for the manufacture of a patent sash weight, but before its completion the enterprise was abandoned; Mr. Fetter purchased the uncompleted building, transformed it into a planing mill, and has since operated it as such.