Historic Yellow Springs

The history of Yellow Springs village spans nearly 300 years. Archaeological evidence suggests that Native Americans first used the iron rich "yellow" spring water thousands of years ago.

Historic Yellow Springs is a village in Chester County with recorded history back to 1722. It is the site of the only Revolutionary war Military Hospital commissioned by the Continental Congress. The village was a health spa before and after the Revolutionary War continuing to the Civil War when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania acquired the property and opened and Civil War Orphan School. This school remained open until 1912 when the property was acquired by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for a Summer School for artists. The school remained open until 1952 when the total village was acquired by Good News Productions, and used a site to produce and film Religious Motion Pictures. In order to finance these he made a number of Science Fiction movies including 'The Blob" featuring Steve McQueen in his first starring role. Good news continued to film on the property until 1974 when the village was sold to a group of local citizens who formed Historic Yellow Springs to preserve this site for posterity.