The Port Perry Grain Elevator

Built in 1874 by influential grain merchant George Currie on the waterfront at the foot of Queen Street, the Port Perry Grain Elevator served as a grain storehouse. Standing 71 feet high, it was shorter but more rectangular in plan than western elevators, like most in eastern Canada. Its significant features include a 24-inch-thick stone foundation, a frame of huge pine beams, an exterior covered with 2 inch x 8 inch lumber to a height of 26 feet that was originally painted rusty red, and a cupola 13 feet high. The mill contained 18 large bins that could each hold over 2,000 bushels of grain, and it had eight owners over its history. Its last owner to operate it as a mill was Maple Leaf Mills (Master Feeds), from 1962 until it closed in 1979. It survived numerous fires, most remarkably in 1883 and 1884, when two major fires in less than a year destroyed Port Perry's entire commercial core while the grain elevator, only feet away from burning buildings on Water Street, escaped unscathed. That survival made it the oldest surviving building in downtown Port Perry. Known locally as The Old Mill, it was purchased by the Township of Scugog in 2009, completing township ownership of the waterfront block where it stands.

Ontario · Canada