Causey's Mill is a historic

grist mill 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 grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

located in Causey's Mill Park at

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an Independent city (United States), independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the List of c ...

. It was built in 1866, and is a small two-story wood-frame building originally supported by a brick and concrete foundation. It retains its original machinery and is one of the two last surviving grist mills on the Peninsula. The mill operated until nearly the 20th century. an
''Accompanying three photos''
/ref> In 2011, the mill was moved about from its original location away from the shore of the Mariners' Lake and set on a new foundation. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2008.

History

The mill is located in a 1.1 acre park on the shore of The Mariner's Lake just east of Warwick Blvd. (route 60) in Newport News. The site itself had been used as a tidal grist mill dating back to the 17th century. The mill property was purchased by William Causey at the end of the Civil War and he built his mill in 1866 on part of the original foundation of Langhorne's Mill which was at that time situated on Waters Creek. Causey's new mill incorporated lumber dating back to the 17th century but he replaced the existing machinery with a new state-of-the-art Leffel turbine wheel which produced superior water-ground corn meal. The mill had ceased to function by 1890 when

Collis P. Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested ...

purchased the land along with nearby tracts. Waters Creek was dammed in 1930 to create Lake Maury, now The Mariner's Lake, submerging the original

mill pond A mill pond (or millpond) is a body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Description Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam or weir (and mill stream) across a waterway. In many places, the co ...

and dam that served Causey's Mill. At that time the mill itself became the property of the Mariner's Museum. It is the only remaining grist mill on the lower Virginia peninsula that retains its original machinery. In 2006 the City of Newport News took over the property, leasing the land from the Mariner's Museum for 55 years. The city undertook efforts to maintain and restore the mill, including moving the mill back from the lake onto a new foundation in 2011.

References

External links

"Causey's Mill On the Move"
Grinding mills on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Industrial buildings completed in 1866 Buildings and structures in Newport News, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Newport News, Virginia 1866 establishments in Virginia {{NewportNewsVA-NRHP-stub