The Newly Restored Waterford Mill Provides a Look Into an Industrial Past
The Waterford Mill has hosted part of its namesake Virginia village’s annual crafts fair since the 1940s. But the 3-and-a-half-story brick structure first became a hub of economic activity around 1819 as a merchant-milling operation that used water-powered stone grinding to process wheat and other grains. When the nonprofit Waterford Foundation acquired the mill in 1944, it had ceased functioning, and little original infrastructure remained. In 1975, the foundation placed the mill under a National Trust easement to ensure its preservation.
A $1.6 million restoration completed in August 2023 has brought the mill closer to a period of interpretation between 1855 and 1885. The project team took an approach of “exposing the traces of how the original mill would have worked,” says Susan Reed, director of historic preservation at Glavé & Holmes Architecture.
For example, three 4-foot-diameter circles inlaid in the main level’s wooden floor show the original millstone locations. Several stone walls were repaired. Outside, the team excavated 4 feet of mud and standing water to the approximate tailrace depth of the original wooden water wheel.
Ensuring the mill could stay dry inside was critical to preserving its most storied element: a wooden hurst frame designed to isolate the building structure from milling vibrations. Less than 25 percent of the standalone 28-foot-long, 9-foot-wide, 7-foot-tall frame, located in the basement, was salvageable, but the team found local oak trees that could provide replacement beams of the right length. Now rebuilt on site using historical methods and hand tools, the hurst frame is viewable to the public through a glass panel in the main-level floor above. “Even with our improvements, nothing would prohibit the mill from being further restored to a functional state,” Reed says.
The foundation is exploring future uses for the mill beyond the village’s annual fair, says Stephanie Thompson, the organization’s executive director. “We’d love for it to be a place where people can gather occasionally and become more a part of the community like it originally was.”
photo by: Virginia Hamrick Photography
A glass panel in the main-level floor lets visitors see the Waterford Mill’s hurst frame in the basement.
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