Hofwyl Dairy was established by Gratz Dent around 1915 and was operated by his sisters Miriam and Ophelia until 1942. During its most prosperous period, approximately 35 Jersey and Gurnsey cows produced 100-150 bottles of milk daily for delivery to nearby residences, and the dairy also supplied 40-50 gallons each day to millionaires vacationing on Jekyll Island during the winter season. The dairy closed in 1942 after the Dent sisters paid off the family debt and reached a financially comfortable state. In the dairy barn, cows were brought in from the fields, washed with water from a large metal tank outside the barn, divided equally on both sides, chained to feed troughs, and milked. Electric milking machines were installed in the 1920’s, but some manual milking was also done. In the bottling house, fresh milk from the adjacent dairy barn was brought twice daily in five gallon milk cans to be processed, weighed to record each cow’s daily output, cooled by removing animal heat with an aerator, bottled in one pint bottles, and capped by a bottling machine. Originally, the bottled milk was stored in a large cooler with an ice locker on top, and later a refrigerator operated by a gas generator and electricity was also used. A circular stone structure formed the foundation of a silo used during the dairy years.