Silver Lake Historical Timeline

The Lewisberry Mill was held in the hands of three families, first the Hermans, then the Kaufmans, and lastly the Clines. According to local historians operations were expanded to three separate mills, two for grain and one for flour. A late 19th Century York County map indicates that Lewisberry Mill was a grist and saw mill. Operations ceased c. 1933.

The lake, mill and surrounding land was sold by the Cline estate to William Grant Stonesifer. Stonesifer envisioned a community of seasonal summer cottages around Silver Lake, and subdivided the land accordingly. The land purchasers agreed collectively to pay 50% of the update of Silver Lakes dams and feeder streams, and Stonesifer would bear the other 50% as the mill operator.

William Stonesifer's son Guy was charged with preparing paths through the land to the east of Silver Lake for access to the many small lots created by his father. Between 1926 - 1930 Guy constructed present day West St., including the construction of brownstone retaining walls, supervised the refurbishment of the lake's spillway, and constructed approximately 15 summer cottages. Guy died suddenly at age 27 and the Stonesifer plans fell apart.

Early purchasers of Stonesifer lots, working together, formed the Silver Lake Improvement Company (SLIC) to protect their investments and purchased the lake and unsold lots from William Stonesifer in 1931, months after Guy Stonesifer's death. SLIC continued to maintain the lake and over the next 18 years sold off the remaining lots.

The Silver Lake Community Association (SLCA) formed to monitor sanitation, preserve the lake and maintain the feeder streams. It was the first incorporated community association in York County, pre-dating modern Home Owner's Associations. It purchased the lake from SLIC and assumed responsibility for lake maintenance. SLIC then desolved.

Spillway was raised one foot, earthen dam was reinforced, and residents began constructing sea walls.

Residents drew down the lake and completely replaced the spillway - on weekends, with volunteers. This spillway exists today.

The Lewisberry Area Joint Authority brought sanitary sewers to the cottages on Silver Lake and compelled the elimination of outhouses. Many cottages were renovated and expanded to include indoor plumbing, while others were simply razed and replaced with modern structures. The current shoreline of Silver Lake is a testament to this transformation. The Summer Colony evolved to a mostly year round community.

PA Department of Environmental Protection reclassifies Silver Lake from C4 (essentially a farm pond)  to C2 High Hazard. 

With new legal obligations and risks in play as a result of the lake’s reclassification by DEP, the Silver Lake Community Association voted to increase annual maintenance fees and to make them mandatory. It was made clear by DEP that the earthen dam was on borrowed time and plans and funding must be provided for its remediation or replacement. Failure to do so would result in an order to breach the dams, at the community’s expense. 

SLCA came into compliance with DEP mandated annual engineering inspections (~$2500 annually) and DEP Review Fees ($5000 annually), as well as developed and filed a formal Emergency Action Plan.

PA District Court rules in favor of SLCA on property owner challenges to mandatory fees and mandatory membership. The SLCA maintains that all owners of land fronting on or with deed access to Silver Lake share equally in the requirement to maintain the lake. Land owners with water frontage, according to PA DEP,  must pay for a voluntary or state-ordered breach. Owners of land without water frontage are challenging the District Court decision in the Court of Common Pleas.

Hurricane Ida dropped 10+ inches of rain in the Silver Lake watershed September 1 - 2 and the earthen dam overtopped for the first time in recorded memory. The Emergency Action Plan was implemented and PA DEP was notified. PA DEP ordered that Silver Lake's water level be lowered until such time that permanent, engineered upgrades were made to the earthen dam.

Costly emergency repairs to the earthen dam were made in late October 2021, and the SLCA Board of Directors called a Special Meeting for November 2021. At the November Special Meeting, a member suggested that the BoD consider various self funding models to raise the needed funds, including member interest free loans to the SLCA and  the possibility of limited annual maintenance fee pre-payment.

The SLCA held its annual meeting, and a special meeting, in June 2022 to discuss the status of permanent repair plans, as well as funding. At that time, at the urging of the SLCA BoD, the concept of self funding dam remediation was voted down.