Abandoned Potter Hill Mill | New England History

When exploring abandoned places, a ‘Grail” is a spot that hasn’t been touched by vandals, hasn’t been redeveloped, and still houses historic artifacts in their original places. Fortunately, We found one of those grails - a historic mill collapsing on a secluded river. It was abandoned in 1958 with nearly everything left inside.
Filmed/Edited by Jason Allard
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In order to understand why THIS mill is so special, we have to go back to the past, so let’s hop in my time machine here, which yes, is a del’s lemonade cup because, yeah time travel makes me thirsty, and yeah, maybe I want Dels to send me free lemonade.
Welcome to the 1700s which for context is after the 1600s but before the 1800s.
Back then people in England had their entire society built up around mills. It was their way of life and they brought it on the ships to New England - which I like to imagine they did literally…. so forgive me while I ignore “historical accuracy”
What were these mills used for? That’s a good question - the most well known were grist mills, which ground corn and wheat into flour, and saw mills, which cut up wood for construction. Then during the industrial revolution you had the textile industry exploding - there were fulling mills, which made cloth, carding mills, which untangled and cleaned wool fibers, dyeing mills, and coffee milk mills, where early Rhode Islanders would get their favorite beverage.
So through the 1800s businessmen and manufacturers built and they built and oh boy did they build those mills.
They brought jobs to the areas where they were built, and with jobs came economic and societal growth. Which on one hand was a good thing, but on the other hand they generally valued profits over everything. Workers were kept in perpetual poverty, and owners employed children to work in some of the most dangerous conditions in america.
I know, it’s pretty terrible, but don’t worry I wrote them a negative yelp review. so that should do it.
Mill buildings were simple and sturdy, built to withstand the strong vibrations generated by the water wheels… This mill followed the same trend but has one awesome design feature. This beauty was constructed with red granite, which makes for quite the striking view at sunset.
We made it to the mill close at golden hour, picking our way through the woods passing discarded farm and manufacturing equipment.
It’s really sad that this beautiful piece of history was left to just rot here on the river. It’s a reminder of a different era, and while significant places like this have been saved, this likely won’t be one of them. As of August 2022, the town plans to demolish the entire site by Spring 2023.
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