Freeman's Mill, the last operating gristmill in Gwinnett County, provided wheat flour, corn meal, and feed meal for county residents and their animals from the late 1860s to 1986. Its pond served nearby Alcova Baptist Church for baptisms, and the millhouse was a gathering place for the surrounding rural community. Grist milling was an important part of farming life in Gwinnett County, which had 33 gristmills in 1840 and 30 in 1880. Once common on Georgia's Piedmont rivers, mills like Freeman's Mill are rapidly disappearing. The well-preserved property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, acquired by Gwinnett County in 2002 with Georgia Greenspace Program funding, and recognized as the county's only surviving water-powered gristmill. In 2009, the mill was raised five feet in place above the 100-year flood elevation, and the building is to be renovated and preserved to allow interior tours in the future.