When itinerant Methodist minister James McGee brought his family to Clearfield County from Centre County in 1826, they essentially built their own small village, focusing it around a sawmill and a gristmill. To the southeast, below the level of the U.S. 219, the West Branch Susquehanna River is the town's backyard. A group of frame houses scattered about the intersection of U.S. 219 and PA 36 housed many of his eight children as they married. The handsome Greek Revival house set back from the intersection was built by his oldest son, Thomas McGee, c. 1835. Following Township Road 322 south leads to the McGees Mills Covered Bridge, also built by Thomas McGee (1873) and the last remaining covered bridge on this branch of the Susquehanna. The 105-foot Burr arch truss bridge of white pine is a photographer's favorite. Back at the highway, the gable-roofed building with a wraparound porch (12931 U.S. 219) is probably the hotel referred to as “newly built” in 1887 when the Bell's Gap Railroad came through town. It is rare to find such a small village with so many of its original components intact.
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