Milling About in Aldie Virginia
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AOLBuilder
N 38° 58.528 W 077° 38.478
18S E 271189 N 4317372
The Aldie Mill complex today consists of four buildings: the merchant mill, the grainery, the country mill, and a small structure once used as a storehouse and later a residence.
Waymark Code: WMKV
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 08/27/2005
Views: 61
Charles Fenton Mercer, military officer, legislator, and advocate of the colonization of African Americans, settled here in 1804. He named his property for Aldie Castle, his Scottish ancestral home. The large merchant mill, constructed in 1807 by Mercer's partner William Cooke, survives as one of the best outfitted early mills in the state. The three-part complex includes what was a plaster mill at one end and a store at the other. The mill's twin overshot Fitz wheels, installed in 1900, are a unique surviving pair in Virginia. Overlooking the mill is the large Federal house, built by Mercer in 1810 as his residence. Behind the mill is the miller's house. Completing the grouping is an early stone bridge across Little River.
The mill operated into the 1970s. Mr. and Mrs. James Edward Douglas, whose family had owned and operated the mill continuously for six generations since 1834, donated it to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation in 1981. The Virginia Outdoors Foundation has been restoring the mill to serve as an operating example of an early 19th-century wheat and corn mill.
The Mill Today:
Gristmills once dotted the landscape of Virginia and rural America, but most of them have now vanished or stand abandoned as silent witnesses of the past. At Aldie Mill, a working mill owned and operated by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, the unique heritage of water-powered gristmills is remembered and preserved. The restored Aldie Mill, an imposing four-story brick structure with tandem metal waterwheels, offers visitors and students a glimpse of how life was lived in the rural South during a time when the Mill served as a vital center of the community.
Demonstration grinding and tours of the site take place on weekend afternoons. Historic research, archaeological investigations, historic preservation and restoration work, and educational programs form the core of the Mill’s mission.
An annual Art Show & Sale, held every June, is a major community event involving artists from around the region and as far away as Richmond and New York. Aldie Mill also participates in the Aldie Harvest Festival every October, when arts and crafts displays fill the village and crowds of spectators come to Aldie for a day of fun and celebration. The Mill is open from late April to late October: Saturdays, 12 – 5 P.M., and Sundays, 1 – 5 P.M. Special tours can be arranged by appointment during the week. Aldie Mill is located on U.S. Route 50, 1 mile west of the intersection of U.S. Routes 50 and 15.
Historic Aldie Mill is located at 39401 John Mosby Highway.
Current Status: Still In Use
Current Use: Not listed
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