Did You Know? – #1 The Guilford Industrial Historic District Mill
Did you know that the Guilford Industrial Historic District dates back to at least 1744 when the first record of at grist mill in Guilford appeared which was owned by Alexander Warfield, son of Richard? That was about 275 years ago in our community!
Over the next 100 years, Guilford Mill, operated as a grist mill. In 1830 James Owings took over the mill from Zachariah Polton and rebuilt it as a cotton mill about 1833. It operated as a cotton mill until it burned down in 1890.
In an interesting note, William Baldwin first tried to purchase Guilford Mill in 1845 before he became the owner of Savage Mill in 1859.
There is still a small wall left of that Guilford Mill just to the east of the Patuxent Branch Trail parking lot. Not only that, but upstream we still have a 100 foot intact section of the mill dam on Columbia Association open space that is more than 150 years old. Please see our photos of these sites in the gallery.
Wayne Davis is a 26-year resident of Kings Contrivance, amateur historian and a professional environmental scientist. He also started a Facebook Group for the Friends of the Guilford Industrial Historic District at https://www.facebook.com/groups/FriendsGuilfordHistory/