Q&A: Preserving Historic Mills

By Katherine Guenther
In our troubled time of budget cuts and sequesters, residents of the Village of Williamsville may wonder just how practical a multimillion-dollar restoration project on an old water mill is for the community.
The Society for the Preservation of Old Mills or SPOOM, is a non-profit group founded in 1972 that promotes the historical and societal values of preserving historic mills. The organization’s president, David G. Haines, and Northeastern Chapter President Don Woods explained why historic mills can benefit the community.

Q: Why should communities preserve old mills?

“Old mills are a special category of historical buildings,” said Woods in a joint statement with SPOOM’s Northeastern board of directors. Woods explained that a functioning mill made frontier life possible for many early settlers.
“Usually some of the first buildings built were sawmills to produce the building materials needed to start and grow the new settlements and grist mills to produce food products for themselves and their livestock,” he said. Haines explained that mills were also a technological advancement for the time that has helped shape modern life.
“The modern equipment in our homes and industries are built on adaptations, transformations and combinations of earlier ideas and technology,” Haines said.
“The ‘watermill’ is the single piece of complex technology that enjoys the longest running history the world has ever seen - at least 2,000 years - and has sired more offspring than any other. The mill family ranges from clocks to automatic transmissions, early calculators and the printing press. . .,” he said. According to Haines, many historically preserved mills were owned by some of history’s greatest leaders.
“We have a penchant to honor and remember our great heroes, even our famous millers,” Haines said,   “George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln,  Davy Crocket, [and] Sgt. Alvin York of World War I fame, all have their mills protected as national shrines.” Haines said that even common mills deserve the same treatment.

Q: Will restoring a historic mill benefit the community financially?

                 According to Haines, the community will benefit economically from restoring a historic mill. “A refurbished old grande dame can continue to add value to its home or region,” Haines said, “attracting people to share and enjoy an authentic model of life in an earlier time.  In the long run, historic treasures are far superior to parking lots and pizza shops.”
According to Woods, the loss of mills has created a shortage of industrial jobs.
“In addition, this country started losing our industrial jobs along with our industries to other countries. We are losing our ability to actually produce the physical things that we need.” Woods explained that revitalizing old mills can be a helpful step in establishing more jobs in the community.
“If we save our industrial workforce, industrial heritage, and industrial infrastructure, then there will be something for returning industries to come home to and for emerging industries to tap into and utilize.”
Another financial benefit to the community is the use of a building that would have otherwise gone to waste. “A practical benefit of saving an old and/or historical building is the reuse of existing infrastructure in a community,” Woods said, “If an old building is saved and reused, then resources, neighborhoods, and livelihoods can be saved. This is especially true if the building can be reused for its original general use.”

Q: How common are old mills?

“The number of active mills has dwindled in the latter half of the 20 century,” said Woods, “As an example, there were approximately 11,500 flour mills in the United States in 1920, and currently there are less than 250.”

Q: What challenges do historical buildings face?

According to Haines, the challenge of finding dedicated and “stubborn” volunteers to work towards a building’s preservation is the greatest challenge a historical building can face.
“Interested and willing people are the key to historic preservation,” he said, “Their examples, including, being willing to contribute and to ask others for money, are needed  to start and maintain a project that will often be several years long.”
Don Woods argued that the challenge of, “Overcoming the general perception that new is always better and less expensive than fixing the old,” is the greatest problem facing historical buildings.

Q: What is your opinion of the Williamsville Water Mill?

“I’ve visited over 600 mills and mill sites in the last 20 years, including the Williamsville Mill,” said Haines, “The mill complex, over its lifetime, is a historic gem . . . a sawmill for 102 years, lime works, cement company, a grist mill and cider mill, in an area with a War of 1812 history, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.” According to Haines, the Williamsville Water Mill is an extremely interesting piece of history that the community should hold on to.