photographs of abandoned places #27

an old mill
 

 a window into the past

 Entrance to an old mill

There are four strong limestone walls remaining. The building is called Bieber's Mill. On the east bank of the Olentangy in Delaware County Ohio, in 1843-4 a grist mill was built, a wooden building. It was sold, and it was expanded with a saw mill of native limestone [an active quarry is nearby] was built in 1876-7. This building was three and a half stories high, with a basement. The first floor was used as the mil. Sometime after 1900, the wooden building caught afire, and the adjacent limestone building also. The wooden roof, floors, and beams went up in smoke, leaving the limestone behind. The property has had several owners, the current is Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

The settlement was originally called Middlebury in 1801, after Connecticut. It became Powell before the War for the Union.  The 1880 census, the population was 131. The censuses from 1950 through 1980 the population held steady at under 400. Then Columbus began to expand into the county. The last census [2010] pegged at 11,500. Currently a boom of vinyl clad mini-mansions are being built, one sign said starting in the "300s". Also a lot of new road work is being done. And the Columbus Pike, and elsewhere are the same chains of stores, and fast food restaurants that cover the rest of the state.

the Olentangy 

The river floods the mill, and over the years mud has covered much of the basement. 

The wall facing the river is largely in tact. The foto does not show some graffiti closer to the ground. The other three walls have crumbled somewhat.

The hulk is impressive. The regular geometry of the window placement pleasures the eye. It sits like a ruined bombed out church, or an abandoned abbey of ages past after despoilment. The woods have come back to the inside of the building. From the road across the river, it is visible; from the road it sits on it is virtually invisible even through bare trees.