The Waterford Mill

Amos Janney's son Mahlon inherited the first mill in 1747 and soon improved it, then by 1762 built a new, larger mill of stone and wood on this site. The brick structure standing here today replaced Mahlon's mill in the 1820s. Grain from the surrounding Loudoun Valley was ground into flour for export to Baltimore, Washington, and beyond, and by the mid 1800s access to those markets was greatly improved by the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad along the Potomac River ten miles north of Waterford. In the 1880s, miller J.F. Dodd added a three-story frame and sheet-metal section at the rear, doubling the mill's size, and modernized its machinery by introducing roller technology to supplement the old grindstones. The mill operated well into the 20th century but could not survive modern competition and the Great Depression, and milling ceased in 1939. The machinery and rear addition were eventually sold for scrap. The newly formed Waterford Foundation bought the building in 1943 and has since used it to host the annual Waterford Homes Tour and Crafts Exhibit. In 1997, a set of roller-process machinery similar to that used during the mill's last 50 years of production was donated to the Waterford Foundation and installed in the building as a static display.

Waterford, Virginia · United States