New Enterprise, PA ~ 19th Century
This 19th century Pennsylvania grist mill yielded thousands of board feet of reclaimed white oak lumber.
A classic old-school mill, the building sat on a stone foundation and housed custom water-powered drive wheels and milling equipment. Long since past any point of use and structurally unsound, the building had become an area safety hazard and needed to be torn down.
Years of weathering had turned the mill’s siding an uncanny matching gray, giving the building a distinctly monochromatic appearance. The windows, originally installed to allow for lighting in the pre-electricity age, were all damaged beyond repair.
A careful dismantling of the building yielded hand-hewn and roughsawn white oak beams, most of which were in fantastic condition with very little metal and limited checking. Some wind braces and decking boards were also saved from the mill.
New Enterprise, PA is perhaps best known for its eponymous corporation, the New Enterprise Stone & Lime Co. Originally founded in 1924, the company today operates quarries in Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware.
Our photographs before the demolition process
