The Southside Roller Mill

The miller's wife had waited long,
The tea was cold, the fire was dead;
And there might yet be nothing wrong
In how he went and what he said:
"There are no millers any more,"
Was all that she had heard him say;
And he had lingered at the door
So long that it seemed yesterday.

The Mill
By Edwin Arlington Robinson

In Mecklenburg County is an old town that dates back to being incorporated in 1873. As with many older towns it's life blood was the railroad. And when the rails aren't being ridden, the town... well things change.

The Southside Roller Mill was established in 1912 and produced "Wide Awake Flour" until 1981. In a news article in the "thenewsprogress.com" published in September 2016, and then updated in April 2018, the owner of the mill was going to sell it to a buyer who had plans to dismantle the historic mill. That was until locals formed the "Save Our Heritage" group and convinced Harry Click, the owner, to sell them the mill.

Preservation Virginia has described the mill as “a rare surviving example of an early 20th-century commercial/ industrial building with all of its functional interior elements intact, including: millstones, chutes, sifters, presses, and engines.”

The group even has a FB page for their cause.

This building is across the street. I have no idea if, and how, it might be connected to the mill operation.

That building across the street? Well I wanted to photograph the mill from a higher angel than the street, so I climbed those steps to shoot from the platform.

And look at what I found. Boys, if we need some moonshine I know where we can get it!