Dorn's Flour and Grist Mill

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Description 

Dorn’s Flour and Grist Mills is a two-and-a-half story red brick structure with projecting one-story wings. Constructed ca. 1898 as a cotton gin, the mill is an outstanding example of rural industrial architecture. The dominant feature of the exterior is a three-story brick wall of cross-shaped plan which was built in 1915 to support a water tower tank. The interior of the mill is its most salient feature. The extant steam engines and boilers date from the period when the building was used as a cotton gin, but the grist mill equipment dates from the 1920s. At one time many small towns throughout rural America utilized the services of mills similar to Dorn’s Mill. With the development of a more complex mill technology, many of these mills disappeared. Dorn’s Mill is significant as one of only a few such mills still standing—its steam engines, boilers, and most of its machinery still intact. In 1917, the property was conveyed to M.G. Dorn, J.S. Dorn, and Preston Findley who formed the Dorn-Findley Corporation. Its general purpose was to run an oil mill, cotton gin and grist mill. In the mid-1920s the Dorns hired a mill wright to put in the present corn and wheat machinery as well as a hammer mill. The mill operated throughout the years and ground commercial corn meal for sale in local and country stores, flour from wheat for local farmers (not for commercial sale) and chicken and animal feed. The mill closed in the 1940s. Listed in the National Register July 12, 1976. - SCDAH

Tags 

19th Century (36,286)
Brick (42,457)
Built during 1890s (7,169)
Have Street View (32,004)
McCormick County, South Carolina (28)
McCormick, South Carolina (10)
Mill (750)
Private owner (54,397)
South Carolina (2,077)
Tin (2,648)

Update Log 

• December 20, 2016: New photos from Michael Miller
• November 7, 2013: Updated by Michael Miller: Added "Description" & "Overview"

Sources 

• Michael Miller - michael_a_miller [at] yahoo [dot] com
• South Carolina Department of Archives and History
• National Register database - Reference number 76002158

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