Before canal days, Samuel Rufe's gristmill at Narrowsville ground local farmers' grain. From 1829 to 1833, as contractors built the Delaware Canal's locks and aqueducts, the millstones were used to grind lime into hydraulic cement, a new product that hardened under water. Lime came by boat from limestone quarries a few miles upstream on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River, and the Narrowsville mill produced most of the cement used for masonry on the canal. The mill later resumed operation as a gristmill until the early 20th century. Lock 20 at Narrowsville also brought more people and houses, creating a village that later disappeared. About one mile below the lock, the Narrows Hotel served boatmen five-cent tin pails of beer called blickys, while canal boats docked in the basin south of the hotel and nearby stables, a barn, and a blacksmith shop cared for tired mules.