Trading Post

Our family is exploring preservation-minded options for our water-powered mill in southwestern Virginia, which has been a community landmark since it was built in 1864 and has been in our family's care for more than a century.

Although the mill has not operated since 1942 and would require significant restoration for it to run again, the structure remains standing and retains much of its original milling equipment, including a corn mill with large millstones, a feed mill with smaller millstones, a freestanding roller mill, and a freestanding buckwheat mill. (We still have rights to the water source, but it would be hard to enforce them with government entities.)

As our family considers the property's future, we hope to find solutions to honor the mill’s history and its place in the community. Do we... Document and sell the equipment? Sell the mill building and everything in it? Look for a preservation partner? Any thoughts or suggestions welcome!

— Rita Lewis (miller’s granddaughter and new member)

Rita -

If you can restore the mill it can become a community focal point, a site for activities, and a tourist draw, as well as an important historical site.

Have you looked at the web site for Roberson Mill in Floyd Co.? It might give you some ideas, and you can use the email link to get in touch with the staff to ask questions about how they have gone about their restoration. Roberson was in much worse shape than your mill.

https://robersonmill.org/

Dale H. Cook, Mill List Coordinator, The Society for the Preservation of Old Mills

Photographer and researcher of standing mills and mill sites

https://plymouthcolony.net/photos/pages/mills.html