Abel Stevens, a British Loyalist from Vermont, settled here with several families in 1794 – drawn by the water power potential of the rapids at Delta. In 1796 he was granted the land that is Delta today and had a wooden sawmill built and later added a wooden gristmill.
In 1808, William Jones bought the land and mills from Stevens. At some point after this, perhaps in 1809, the wooden mill(s) burned down – this may have sparked the need for a new mill (or Jones may have just wanted a better mill).
In 1810, William Jones, in partnership with Ira Schofield, had construction started on the Old Stone Mill. The 3 ½ storey Georgian architecture stone design was that of an Oliver Evan’s automated mill. The mill was built on solid bedrock, to the north of Steven’s old mill. A new channel from Upper Beverley Lake was constructed to the head of the mill. A wooden sawmill, adjacent to the stone mill, was also built. That sawmill may also have initially housed a carding mill. The Old Stone Mill, built using local stone and timber, was completed likely sometime in 1811 and was in operation by 1812.
The mill operated as a custom mill, taking 1/12 of the wheat from the farmer, returning the rest to the farmer as flour. The Old Stone Mill was the only grist mill in the area, leading to the development of Delta as a regional service centre (blacksmiths, inns, merchant shops, roads leading to Delta).
The mill went through a series of owners and fell on hard times (heavily mortgaged). In 1850, a new owner, Walter Denaut took over the mill. He invested heavily in renovations, bringing the mill back to profitability. In the early 1860s he built the turbine shed and switched the mill’s power from a waterwheel to two turbines. He re-built the wooden sawmill adjacent to the turbine shed. He also built the adjacent mill drive shed (for horses and carriages). It is likely Denaut who switched the mill from a custom to a merchant mill, buying wheat from local farmers and selling it (locally and for export). He also introduced feed milling (producing animal feed in addition to flour).
Likely in the 1890s, the next owner of the mill, George Haskin, switched the mill from using millstones to using roller mills for flour production. This was a more cost efficient way of producing flour. The mill remained profitable.
The last mill owner, Hastings Steele, continued milling flour up until the early 1940s. The mill then continued to produce animal feed up until 1949. In 1949 both the feed mill and the sawmill stopped operating. Steele continued to keep the mill open as a feed store up until 1960, when it closed.
In 1963 he sold the mill for $1 to four trustees, who then formed the Delta Mill Society (DMS)(incorporated in 1972). Rescue rehabilitation was done in 1972-74 by the DMS and in 1983 the mill was opened to the public. The DMS had extensive conservation renovation done in 1999-2004 to create the beautifully restored mill that we see today. High quality interpretation signage was also added. A waterwheel was installed in 2008 and in 2010, on the mill’s 200th anniversary, operating millstones were installed.
Open:
Daily from Victoria Day Weekend (Saturday) through to Labour Day weekend (Monday) from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Thereafter by appointment only.
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