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CECIL’S OLD MILL AND CECIL’S COUNTRY STORE

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c. 1900 mill, c. 1920s store. 20864 and 20853 Indian Bridge Rd.
  • (Alexander Heilner)
  • (Alexander Heilner)
  • (Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie)
  • (Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie)

This group of buildings including a mill, store, house, and modest church illustrates the presence of small-scale industry in the otherwise predominantly agricultural local economy. The mill, the last survivor of several situated near this location, sits on the site of Clifton Factory (c. 1826–1900), which struggled to produce textiles as well as milling grain and wood. John T. Cecil demolished the older mill and built a two-and-a-half-story wood structure, reusing portions of the foundation, main drive shaft, and gearing. The overshot waterwheel on the northeast side was supplemented by one of the first diesel generators in the region, in 1927. Now used as a retail space, the mill still displays original equipment for milling corn and flour, as well as exterior sawmilling equipment that remained in use until 1959. The early-twentieth-century store located across the road is a quintessential example, with a one-story shed-roofed porch along the entire front of the long frame structure. Reopened as a gift store, the interior includes the original post office fixtures.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie
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Data

What's Nearby

DRAYDEN AFRICAN AMERICAN SCHOOLHOUSE
OLD MARYLAND STATE HOUSE AND HISTORIC ST. MARY’S CITY
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J. C. LORE OYSTER HOUSE
AVONDALE

Citation

Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie, "CECIL’S OLD MILL AND CECIL’S COUNTRY STORE", [Great Mills, Maryland], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MD-01-WS3.

Print Source

Buildings of Maryland, Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022, 24-25.

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