A Second Visit to Continental Village - The Mill Site

I promised in my first post on Continental Village that I would update it when I found an expert.  A week ago, I was lucky enough to have a personal tour of the area by local expert Ginny Gilbert.

Ginny lived in Continental Village for many years and was instrumental in preserving the mill sites.  She is the creator of the map I referred to in my first post (see page 9):  http://philipstown.com/cvinfoguide.pdf

When she resided in the Village, she would dig in the mill area to map the foundations and other site features.  When neighbors complained that she was trespassing, she bought the land.  The out-of-town owner had intentions to build a home there, but found too many obstacles to construct so close to the brook.  After some negotiations she and the owner arrived at an agreeable price.

Ginny has since donated the land to the Town to be preserved.

The mill ruins are best explored from Winston Lane.  We parked on the East side of the road on a narrow shoulder right in front of the Paper Mill Historic Marker.  See google map:  http://goo.gl/xK5oOD

From there you can look down the steep hill onto the ruins of the paper mill.  Access to the ruins is less steep if you walk up the road to a point where there is a gradual slope from Winston Lane to the brook.  To your left you will see part of the remains of the dam.  See below

Ruins of dam on Sprout Brook at Continental Village

Right next to the dam there appears to be a well for a water wheel that is parallel to the dam.

Possible site of Robinson Grist Mill, 1777.

The well is partially filled with leaves, tree limbs, and other debri.  It sits between the dam on the left and the rock wall on the right.  The picture is taken from where the mill race would have been.  Water flowed from the mill race over the water wheel to the brook.

Ginny believes this was the original site of the grist mill.  The mill belonged to Beverley Robinson prior to the revolution.  By 1777, Robinson had sworn his allegiance to King George and had raised a loyalist regiment called the Loyal Americans of which he was Colonel.  He was likely part of the force that destroyed Continental Village on October 9, 1777.  Interestingly, the Grist Mill was spared.

Stone steps lead up from the wheel well next to the dam.

Downstream from the dam many outlines of buildings are visible.  The records say that in addition to the grist mill there was a saw mill and a fulling mill at this location..

Outline of stone walls downstream from the dam.

Downstream from this first site there appears to be sites for additional water wheels.  See below.

Outline of another tail race parallel to dam?   Possible site of fulling mill or saw mill?

On the side of the hill that leads back to the road, the main mill race is visible.  Because the paper mill was in operation well into the 19th century, the mill race is probably not the one that existed in 1777. 

The red line shows the location of the millrace.  The water flowed from the dam (off to the right) down to the paper mill (ruins in the distance).

The mill race was covered with stones to either prevent freezing of the water in the winter or more likely to serve as a road for transport of materials to and from the mill.  At the point shown below, part of the mill race has become exposed.

The water in the mill race flowed from right to left.  One of the covering rocks is in the middle of the picture.

A view down the mill race.  The beverages and football were probably was not ones used by the soldiers in 1777 ;-)

At the end of the mill race sits the ruins of the Phoenix Paper Mill.  It was built on the site of the original Keating paper mill that was destroyed in 1777.  Ginny says that she found thousands of buttons around the foundation of a building that was just to the right of the paper mill.  The buttons were concentrated at regular intervals on the outside of the building foundation.  Her theory is that the rags used in paper making still had some buttons attached.  The workers would remove the buttons and toss them out the windows of this building, leaving piles at regular intervals corresponding with the windows.

Ruins of Paper Mill.  This is the rebuilt Phoenix mill that was in operation until 1873.  The mill race enters the picture at the upper right.

Outside the base of the paper mill is a small square foundation that contains charred brick.  Ginny thought this might have been a small forge that did iron work for the mills.

Area where rust and charred remains were found.  Possible forge?  Sadly I have no picture of Ginny, but her feet made it into this picture.   At the top of the picture there is a plastic wall from Ginny's shed where she stored excavating tools.  To the right of that is an iron lintel.  Ginny guessed it was from a window in the paper mill or adjacent storehouse.

The tail race of the paper mill does not continue parallel to the dam.  It takes a right turn and flows under large stones downstream.  The picture below shows where it exited close to the brook.

Exit of Tail Race from Paper Mill.