Guest Blog by: Maria Thompson - pictured left in photo
Wawa Company Historian and author of “Images of Wawa”
As Wawa’s company historian, I have the honor of speaking about Wawa’s rich history and traditions and sharing a fascinating story that goes back over 200 years and traces just how Wawa came to be a convenience store chain of over 570 stores.
I also often get the chance to experience current company milestones that fast become part of Wawa’s legacy, and the newest chapter in Wawa’s story. Last week was one such event, when I attended Wawa’s 40th anniversary celebration of their Millville store. The event also celebrated Wawa’s recent donation of their Millville Mansion House to the Millville historical Society. During the in-store celebration, Wawa marked these special moments and Wawa’s ties to the Millville community, by recognizing loyal customers and associates and ceremonially transferring the Wood Family Key to the Millville Historical Society.
To understand the significance of the Mansion House and of Wawa’s ties to Millville for the past 100 years, I need to go back even further, to Wawa’s beginnings in this part of New Jersey. The company’s rich history dates back to 1803, transitioning from an iron foundry, to textile mills, to dairy processing and of course, to our current convenience and gas retailing. Today Wawa is owned by a combination of the founding Wood family and an Employee Stock Ownership Plan with 8,000 Associate owners.
Wawa and the Wood Family have had roots in Millville for more than eight family generations. For many years, Wawa used the Wood Family Mansion House as a Regional Office. As the Company’s needs evolved, Wawa felt the best way to contribute to the continued preservation of our history and that of the Millville community was to donate the house to the Historical Society to serve as their home.
The Woods were English Quakers who came to Philadelphia before 1683. Three generations later, the prosperous Quaker settlements of West Jersey drew the family across the Delaware River where they settled in Salem County before 1716. Richard Wood and a partner developed the Union Mill site in the 1740’s. The property changed hands several times but was repurchased in the 19th century and a portion of it remains in family hands today, demonstrating nearly two hundred years of family stewardship and a continued commitment to the community.
Despite that early association, the Millville connection really belongs to two brothers - David Cooper Wood (1781-1859) and Richard Davis Wood, (1799-1869). Both brothers were Philadelphia merchants and entrepreneurs who were born in Greenwich and came of age in their father’s store. David was 18 years older than Richard, so he had a head start in business. In fact, he seemed omnipresent in Salem and Cumberland Counties with ventures on the tidal rivers, including an iron works called Cumberland Furnace. In 1813, he and two partners purchased 600 acres of land along the banks of the Maurice River in the newly planned community of Millville. David built a two story house which today is the present Millville Mansion House. The house was part of David’s industrial complex called Millville Furnace that made cast iron products like stove plates and fire backs. He also produced iron pipe that was used in large city water systems and gas main projects. David Wood was an idea-a-minute man who was not always prudent in his investments. The financial problems of the 1840’s proved to be his nadir and much of his property was sold at sheriff’s sale. The purchaser was his brother Richard who, in the 1850’s, enlarged Millville Furnace, built a foundry, saw and grist mills, and laid the foundation for a cotton mill in 1853. The mill opened in 1856 and it was probably during this period of the early 1850’s that David’s house was greatly enlarged, taking on the appearance of the Columbia Avenue front so familiar to us. 
Richard’s son George moved to Millville as manager of the cotton mill in 1864. He lived at the Mansion House with his bride who described the house as old fashioned and unattractive. The house is a vernacular example of late 18th century Georgian style, which was very long-lived and suited the Wood’s Quaker taste. George liked building projects, so it is probable that the three steeply pitched roof dormers, with deep eaves, Italianate brackets, and round topped windows date from his tenure.
George oversaw the Millville Manufacturing Company and Manantico Bleach and Dye Works. The mill produced yarn and cloth, and the bleachery Red Star diapers and Glasgow linen. In 1917, over 1000 people worked for the company, many living in company housing in the Third Ward, so the place had the feel of a company town. An aerial photograph of the mill complex attests to its size and dominance of the landscape. 
Production continued through the 1950’s when increased cost of raw materials, falling demand for cotton goods, and the appeal of man-made fibers dramatically changed the industry. The company was sold in the 1960’s and the cotton mill destroyed by fire in 1976. But the Mansion House endured. For twelve years, from 1959 through 1971, the building was home to the Millville Historical Society. A copy of the cover of a program for an Open House in 1963 is shown here. Who said, “you can’t go home again?” During the intervening thirty years, the Mansion House served as a district office, training site and auxiliary office space for Wawa. Associates came to love the building
The Mansion House is a very special place. It has been documented by the Historical American Building Survey, with the third story windows dating from 1850-1870. The house caught the eye of the HABS staffers in the early 1970’s, when it was listed as the Wood Mansion (NJ-831), and it is also listed on the Cumberland County Register of Historic Structures and Sites.
All of us at Wawa believe the Historical Society will be a great steward of the home, and of the rich history of our company and founding family in this Region.