Wrightsville Lime Kilns - Wrightsville, PA
Posted by: 
Janila
N 40° 01.735 W 076° 31.786
18T E 369471 N 4432087
From the historical marker at the Wrightsville Lime Kilns is the information that there were at least five sets of kilns operating in the community, assisting in making York County one of the largest producers of line in Pennsylvania.
Waymark Code: WMZKH4
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 11/24/2018
Views: 0
From an article in the York Daily Record (
visit link) :
"Walking back from the Susquehanna River, I noticed something I had not noticed before. Opposite the restaurant was what looked like the ruins of a structure. I could see there was some sort of marker there. The weed-covered, fieldstone-and-brick structure with five arches turned out to be lime kilns. The plaque, placed by "Rivertownes PA USA," stated: "Lime kilns such as these were used for burning limestone and turning it into lime. The lime was used for fertilizer, white-wash, plaster, and deodorant for outhouses. Quarried limestone was also used along with coal and iron ore to make pig iron furnaces, such as the Aurora Furnace, located just north of these lime kilns in Wrightsville. "The lime industry played a large part in Wrightsville's history. An 1894 bird's eye map of Wrightsville indicates at least five different sets of kilns were operating in the community." (Another history source I consulted said there were 23 lime kilns in Wrightsville prior to the Civil War.) Another paragraph gave the chemical composition of limestone and lime. The plaque concluded with: "During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, York County was one of the largest producers of lime in Pennsylvania." As much as I think I know about York County history, I didn't know that. Wrightsville is a unique community."
Another article can be found at : (
visit link) .