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The Avondale Mill was a large gable-front stone structure, three stories in height, and 10 bays long by three wide. It was located on the bank of the
Patuxent River
The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington, D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeas ...
in the city of
Laurel
Laurel may refer to:
Plants
* Lauraceae, the laurel family
* Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel
People
* Laurel (given name), people with the given name
* Laurel (surname), people with the surname
* Laurel (mus ...
,
Prince George's County, Maryland
Prince George's County (often shortened to PG County or PG) is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it ...
. It was constructed in 1844–1845 for Captain William Mason & Son of Baltimore. It was complemented by the neighboring
Laurel Mill built in 1811, S.D. Heath's machine shop, and Richard Israel's flouring mill. At that time it was provided with the machinery for the manufacture of fine cloth, running as many as 1,500 cotton
spindles with 150 employees. In 1845, industrialist
Peter Gorman was responsible for the first macadamized (paved) road in Laurel, Avondale Street next to the new Mill.
The mill was sold for $10,000 with a $13,000 ground rent in 1850 to S.P. Heath and James Arthur (Webb Heath & Co.). In the mid-1850s, it was converted to a
gristmill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...
. The waters of the Patuxent provided an 8–9 foot fall and gave the mill 60-70 horsepower to use, along with steam power fueled by coal from Cumberland as early as 1854. George William Brown purchased the 21.7 acre property and outbuildings from Benjamin F. Crabbs, but sold his holdings in a mortgage auction on 20 October 1897. By 1904, the mill employed only 4 people, but produced $10,400 in product annually.
[ Commissioner of Labor and Statistics, Maryland. State Board of Labor and Statistics, Maryland. Bureau of Industrial Statistics] Avondale Mill was the only one of Laurel's 19th century mills to have survived into the late 20th century. A devastating fire on December 19, 1991, destroyed the mill. The remains were then demolished and the site cleared for use as a community park.
It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1979.
See also
*
Laurel Mill
Gallery
File:Avondale Mill Site Plaque Laurel MD Jan 11.JPG, Avondale Mill Site Plaque, January 2011
References
External links
*, including photo in 1978, at Maryland Historical Trust website
{{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland
Industrial buildings completed in 1845
Buildings and structures in Laurel, Maryland
National Register of Historic Places in Prince George's County, Maryland
Grinding mills on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland
Demolished buildings and structures in Maryland
Burned buildings and structures in the United States