Site of the First Alewife Mill, built in 1632/1635 that allowed the first settlers to become more self-sustaining as they now had the ability to mill grains and perform limited lumber operations. The mill would later move several hundred yards downstream as the old site was awkward to access with carts, and had limited power capability.
While at this location you should locate the old bridge and sluice gate with the path that used to go over the gate that blocked the brook. The path is called "Path to Olde Alewife Mill", but if you try to cross you will need to try doing so a bit further upstream (on the marked path) as the old bridge washed away several centuries ago. If you continue to follow this path it will cross the rail-road tracks and then dissappear deep into Dogtown ending up at Dogtown Square.
This location was actually part of the Dogtown communitee until the new railroad tracks cut it off from the "Commons" where the grains where grown, of course long before the railroad cut up Dogtown, the Commons Settlement was almost a ghost town.
During the prohibition era this site had a fairly impressive moonshine still in operation here. The outlawed liquor was then carried over the tracks to the "Dogtown Speakeasy", or to the old Quarry on the other side of the Alewife Pond where an old railcar saloon was parked on a spur. Liquor was also hauled to the drinking establishments in Rockport (much to the annoyance of old lady Jumper).
Be sure to visit my cache at the Old School house near here at the cache at the new Alewife Mill.