Keystone Mineral Springs facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Keystone Mineral Springs
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 Location in Maine
Location in the United States
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| Location | Keystone Spring Rd., Poland, Maine |
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| Area | 3.5 acres (1.4 ha) |
| Built | c. 1885 |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| NRHP reference No. | 05001175 |
| Added to NRHP | October 19, 2005 |
Keystone Mineral Springs is an old place in Poland, Maine, where special mineral water was bottled. It's found on Keystone Spring Road. This site has two main buildings: a spring house built around 1885 and a bottling house from 1929.
These buildings are important because they are some of the only ones left from the early days of bottling mineral water in Maine. Another famous one is the Poland Spring Bottling Plant and Spring House. The Keystone Mineral Springs property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. This means it's a special historical site.
Contents
What Keystone Mineral Springs Looks Like
The Keystone spring house and bottling house are on Keystone Spring Road. This road is mostly dirt and grass. It runs next to Empire Road.
The Spring House
The spring house is a one-story building made of wood. It has a sloped roof and is about 20 feet (6 meters) by 40 feet (12 meters) in size. It sits on the west side of the road.
The front of the building faces north. It has three openings. The middle one is a large sliding door. There is a window on one side and a smaller, now blocked, doorway on the other. Inside, the building is quite old and some parts are falling apart. The spring water comes out of a granite basin in the floor. A pipe then carries this water to the bottling house.
The Bottling House
The bottling house is also a one-story wooden building. It was built in 1929 after an earlier building burned down. It looks similar to the spring house.
Inside, the bottling house is mostly unfinished. You can see the wooden beams that support the roof and walls. The southern part of the building has a large tank that holds about 900 gallons (3,400 liters) of water. This tank is lined with granite. There are also troughs where bottles were filled with water. At the northern end of the building, there was a room where the filled bottles were capped, labeled, and packed for shipping. Many of the original machines from the early 1900s are still there.
History of Keystone Mineral Springs
The Keystone Mineral Spring was a working business from 1885 until the mid-1990s. It mainly sold water to people in central Maine.
Starting the Business
Seriah M. Pratt was a farmer who owned the land. He noticed that the water from his spring was as good as the water from Poland Spring. So, in 1884, he started bottling and selling it. In 1885, his nephew, Edward Pratt, joined the business. Edward took full control of the business in 1896.
Growing and Changing Hands
The business was very successful. They delivered bottled water all over Maine, even as far as Portland. Some water was even shipped to places like Maryland and New Jersey. In the 1900s, different people rented and ran the business. It continued until about 1995. Sometimes, the spring would dry up, which would stop the bottling process. In 2004, new owners made plans to fix up the place and start bottling water again.
See also
