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We built the ice cream shop to promote the museum because we felt we needed something to draw people into the Mill. It was built in what was originally the loading dock for the Mill and the floor still had barrel rings from the molasses barrels. We served Perrys ice cream and we loved meeting all of the people who came to visit. The blackboard is from an old schoolhouse.

This is the creamery kitchen on the first floor of the Mill. The access to the molasses cistern has been boarded up and covered with green floor tiles. It had a three bowl sink, a hand wash sink, a stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator and two freezers, one of which we called robo-freezer because it was so big. It also had lots of shelving for food and dishware.

The 3000 gallon molasses cistern is located at the basement level. Perhaps you remember the valve in the basement (4/15/15 blog) and the molasses pump (4/4/15 blog). The access to the cistern was on the first floor under where we wanted to put the Creamery kitchen but the Dept of Ag wouldn’t allow a trap door in a kitchen so we cut a new access from the basement.

The hopper shown is in the basement of the Mill. You can see the chute to the right where the grain entered the Mill from outside. The hopper is suspended from the Fairbanks scale on the floor above so the grain could be weighed. The miller then pulled a control and the bottom of the hopper opened and the grain fell into a pit where it was picked up by the grain elevators and traveled to the fifth floor. The two 36 foot grain bins are located just behind the hopper. In the second picture the base of the smaller grain elevator is shown. Again the grain came in from the right where it was picked up by the buckets of the grain elevator and taken to the third floor.

The basement of the Mill was reasonably empty when we purchased the Mill in 2005. It contained one piece of machinery which is either a hammer mill or a feed chopper, I’m not sure. Some of the original wood columns had been reinforced with cement pillars. There was a large valve in the wall that led to the molasses cistern.

Nancy collected feed sack dresses and toys and quilts and displayed them at the Mill. There was even a seven minute video about the feed sacks on a kiosk by the door to the patio. Feed sacks (flour sacks) were made of cotton. My favorite story, we don’t know if it’s true, is that a size two dress is made from two feed sacks.

The Buffalo scale is located on the first floor near the 2nd street door and served the third floor grain elevator. This was the smaller grain elevator that we repaired and was operational. Unlike the Fairbanks scale that weighed the bin in the basement, the Buffalo scale had a platform on the first floor and you could still weigh yourself accurately on it- in bushels.

The seed blender was located on the second floor right above the first floor packing area. If you know what it was for, please let me know. The large motor was originally located (2005) on the cement dock to the left of the second street door. When we built the boardwalk we moved it to the SE corner under the boardwalk where it still resides. It is the largest motor in the Mill. What was it for?

The feed mixer is the newest piece of Mill equipment in the Mill. It was purchased in 1953. Its motor was on the second floor and its bearings were in the basement.