Bartshire was established in 1747 by Samuel and Ruth Downing, a Quaker couple from Downingtown, PA. By 1776, it had become the commercial center of southern Lancaster County. On this location were a blacksmith, cooper, and leather shops, two mills powered by a double overshot water wheel, a store, a post office, and several houses and barns. Only the main house, barn, and store ruins remain, while the rest is locked in the soil of America’s colonial history.