The Old Mill Museum, also known as the Alfred Wilkerson Grist Mill, is a historic structure located along the

River Raisin The River Raisin is a river in southeastern Michigan, United States, that flows through Ice age, glacial sediments into Lake Erie. The area today is an agriculture, agricultural and Industrial sector, industrial center of Michigan. The river flo ...

at 242 Toledo Street in

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. It was designated as a Michigan Historic Site on August 3, 1979. It was later listed as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

within the Dundee Historic District, which was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on August 20, 1990. Referred to as the oldest and most notable landmark in Dundee, it is the Dundee Historic District's only inclusion (along with the surrounding park) on the opposite of the river from the rest of the downtown area. While the facility itself was not built until the 1849, the dam upon which it is located was first constructed in 1827 and rebuilt in 1846. It is the largest of several dams located along the River Raisin — the majority of which are in nearby Monroe. Old Mill Museum0

The facility first served as a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

for the growing milling industry in Dundee. Later, the building was converted to produce hydroelectricity as the village's only source of power around 1910. As the oldest surviving structure in Dundee, it was almost demolished in 1934 after years of disuse. Automotive magnate

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

purchased the building and restored it at great cost as part of his

village industries Henry Ford's Village Industries were small factories located in rural areas of Michigan. Ford developed his Village Industries in part to provide farm workers a stable source of income during the winter months. Philosophy Ford strongly felt th ...

program. His only addition to the original three-story structure was the addition of a single-story structure on the side of the building. He converted the mill into a small factory to produce welding tips for his industry, and he was known to make many visits to Dundee. His interest in Dundee was an experiment to see if small towns could be used for his massive, global industry. After Ford's death in 1947, support for this small factory diminished, and it was sold in 1954 to the Wolverine Manufacturing Company, where the building was converted once more to produce paper products. The Wolverine Manufacturing Company used the facility until 1970, when they sold it to the village of Dundee for $1. The village revamped the structure and its surrounding 13.8 acres (5.6 ha) for public use as a museum and park. Although the property is praised for its historical nature, it is not listed on the

in its own right. The museum offers ghosts tours and paranormal investigations. The Old Mill Museum is also the location of the annual Old Mill ParaFest.

References

External links

Old Mill Museum
- official site {{National Register of Historic Places listings in Monroe County, Michigan Industry museums in Michigan Museums in Monroe County, Michigan Industrial buildings completed in 1849 Michigan State Historic Sites in Monroe County Grinding mills on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Historic district contributing properties in Michigan Ford village industries Victorian architecture in Michigan History museums in Michigan Mill museums in Michigan 1849 establishments in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Michigan