Native Stone
Posted by: 
Markerman62
N 29° 00.545 W 080° 56.432
17R E 505791 N 3208993
Located off Mission Drive at the ruins west of New Smyrna Beach.
Waymark Code: WMXH34
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 01/12/2018
Views: 6
The mill ruins here are made of coquina-Spanish for "tiny shell." Quarried locally (and elsewhere in the Southeast), it contains mollusk shell fragments and quartz sand, bound together by calcium carbonate. Centuries after the Spanish first used coquina in Florida, frontier Americans chose this building stone for their sugar factory.
Durable as it looks, cut coquina is porous and surprisingly delicate. Today's earthtone blocks are attractive, but in the 1830s this mill had protective coatings of white lime plaster. Its roof sheltered valuable machinery from the West Point Foundry of New York-a pioneering industrial manufacturer in the United States.
Following the Seminoles' 1835 raid, these ruins faced years of rugged weather, destructive vegetation, climbing visitors, and misguided masonry patching. Finally, in 2007, preservation specialists properly repaired and stabilized the old coquina walls. Even so, the site remains sensitive to human disturbance.
What happened to the sugar factory's own white coating? Fires set by the Seminoles probably caused that plaster to fall off-though artist John Rogers Vinton still found some light areas to show in his ears painting of the ruins.
Marker Number: None
Date: None
County: Volusia
Marker Type: Plaque
Sponsored or placed by: Volusia County
Website: Not listed
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