The torrential rains we witnessed over the summer of 2026 were nothing in comparison to the rains that deluged the region 93 years ago.  Last month's rainfalls varied in Berks, Bucks, Lehigh, and Montgomery counties from .17 to 4.5 inches.

Lumber Street, at the intersection of Gravel Pike and Main Street, near the Macoby Creek.

            In July of 1935, high water marks were shattered after four days of heavy rains.  Route 29 traffic was once again halted to the north at Millside, and to the south at Perkiomenville.  Our Valley was isolated by roads covered with several feet of water.  Cars and trucks stranded by water-covered roadways littered the area.  No dams broke, but a tremendous volume of rain fell in torrents and created a flow in local creeks that rivaled the force of the earlier floods. 

            The Perkiomen Creek rose to a depth of 15 feet above the roadway of Route 29 at Millside.  So deep and strong were the currents that it lifted the old Millside Tavern from its foundation.  A Town & Country account reported that the building was hurled

Gravel Pike at the Millside Inn in Upper Hanover Twp.

with a deafening crash against trees and accumulated debris.  The building then went to pieces.

            Just to the north in the Powder Valley and Hosensack areas, the usually peaceful Indian Creek became an enraged carrier of devastation as it tore apart dam after dam, virtually wiping out the mills that depended on the normally calm flow to power their wheels.  Almost 60 feet of Perkiomen Railroad track was left suspended in mid-air when the dam at Stahl's Mill broke, and the rushing water eroded the embankment where the track rested. 

            Among the victims of the Macoby Creek waters was the popular Shady Nook Resort.  Much of the park's equipment, along with sections of what is now Route 663, was washed away in that area of the Pennsburg-Geryville highway.

Heavy rain and flooding washed away 60-feet of the  Perkiomen Railroad bed near Hosensack leaving the rails suspended in air.

            The damage to farms was described as inestimable.  Many cultivated fields were awash in deep gullies as the fertile soil was carried away.  In corn fields, most of the drought-affected crops were too small to sustain a great loss from the heavy rain.  But the horror stories abounded about chicken coops, brooder houses, and other outbuildings that washed away.

            In Green Lane, the Macoby rose nearly to the top of the walls of the bridge Route 29 uses to cross it.  Five feet of water flooded the basement of the F. F. Sowers store.  Automobiles at Samuel Gerhart's Trading Post were covered with water.  Eighteen inches of water flooded the office of the Fred Kleinbach Coal and Lumber Yard.  At the H. S. Embody & Sons mill near Perkiomenville, a crib containing 12 tons of corn was washed away.

            The estimate of the destruction wrought upon our area in 1935 was $1 million (over $26 million today).  In the middle of our nation's Great Depression, this was

An aerial photo shows the flood-swollen section of the  Perkiomen Creek in Upper Hanover Township, south of Fruitville Road.

something the residents of our Valley were ill-prepared to cope with.    

            Electric and phone lines fell as the power of the raging waters washed away poles.  Gas mains broke when the bridges they used to span the waterways succumbed to the weight of the debris pushed against them by the rapid current.  County health officials issued warnings to local residents to "boil their water" to prevent a breakout of typhoid fever.  Local fire companies used their trucks to pump water from basements and fire police were stationed at flooded roadways to warn motorists of the danger ahead. 

            Employees from Philadelphia Electric visited the homes of area customers to turn off gas service on their entire line in East Greenville, Pennsburg, Red Hill, and Green Lane.  Sightseers clogged the roadways as the task of cleaning up commenced.   

            Pennsylvania Power and Light and the Philadelphia Electric Company repaired electric and gas lines in record time.  The main phone lines destroyed at Millside were quickly replaced by temporary lines.  By Wednesday afternoon, most public utilities were restored.  The roads and highways opened up soon after the waters receded, but some required extensive work to restore shoulders that were swept away.  With the bridge at Millside destroyed, state highway officials took the opportunity to rebuild and widen the span.  The State Highway Department hired about 75 additional workers to help patch and repair bridges and roads. 

            Flood damage shut down the Perkiomen Railroad line from Collegeville to Allentown.  The day after the flood of 1935, the Reading Company ordered all railroad carpenters from the New York and Philadelphia divisions to the scene of the damage in Powder Valley.  Sixty feet of railroad bed, washed away after the dam at Elmer Stahl's mill broke, needed to be replaced.  It took 75 carloads of fill and two carloads of lumber to accomplish the task.

            Oscar Bitler, owner of Millside Park, announced that even though his dance hall and tavern were washed away by the flood, his business would continue in the mill building for which the park was named.

            Farmers throughout the area were not as fortunate.  They would never be able to recover the fertile soil that washed away with the rushing waters.  Many of the dams that broke along the Indian and Perkiomen creeks were still used to power mills.  Most of those dams were never rebuilt, and many of the mills that relied upon them ceased operation.