In the NW corner of the Banquet room were two locked doors that led to the upstairs pantry. This is where we kept the restaurant supplies and equipment when the cafe was not in use and where food was kept when the cafe was in use. In 2006 Dan and I cut a new door opposite the 2nd floor bathrooms to access the pantry. This made it so food deliveries didn’t have to cross the Banquet room carpet to get to the pantry. There was another storage room connected to the upstairs pantry that also opened onto the second floor through a door half way up the wall.
I have very few pictures of the banquet room- at least I couldn’t find any when I looked today. Perhaps this is because it is what we didn’t want the Mill to look like. The banquet room is located just off the second floor two steps up. It has a hung ceiling and chandeliers and painted drywall walls. It was designed as an expansion area for the Cafe below it on the first floor. During that period it was fitted out with tables and chairs. When this picture was taken Debs was practicing for FAWMstock and we were sorting cafe china, etc.
Pictured is the second floor seed blender which is the only piece of Mill equipment on the second floor. Most of the grain bins were removed in the 1990’s for the antique mall and some of the equipment was sold to Zanella Milling in West Sunbury which still operates a mill. In the enlarged photo, you can or can’t see a number of interesting facets of the Mill. There is a small selector there and a hatch that opens to a passage that went to the third floor. The hatch was big enough for a person so I was planning a secret ladder here to get to the third floor. Also back in the SW corner of the second floor was a large grain bin we had converted to a storage room. Daniel removed the sloped floor and we filled it with Simplicity pattern cabinets from Joann fabrics. Directly behind the blender is the wall of the grain bin with the climbing wall.
The second floor also had a craft room which housed an interesting assortment of stuff. Nancy had bought a complete leather shop from Clair when she was selling Bridge Antiques. Later she purchased a stain glass studio from a high school that was closing. We also has a bunch of dressers and tables from one of the off campus housing units for Clarion U.
These are pictures of the second floor in 2010 when it was being used for hang out nights. We had bands and games and people played pool and generally enjoyed themselves on the second floor of the Mill.
Until last Fall, the second floor was used as a game room. We had two pool tables, an air hockey table, a ping pong table, basket ball hoops and they were open for use by the kids in the community. I have also included a picture of the top of the feed mixer that was located on the second floor.
As part of Nancy’s film making course, I remember at least two movies that were shot at the Mill. The one pictured here was made by Michael and his friends in the pool room on the second floor. There was another zombie movie I remember the same group making at the Mill but I’ll spare you the pictures.
One of the early, 2006, uses of the second floor was to do a series of Movies at the Mill for the home school coop. Nancy has taught film making for years and this was especially fun. I remember screening Citizen Kane here. Note the old oak workbench that came with the Mill.
A month ago, I said I would include some pictures of the fire in the blog so here are some. A before and after and one of the fire. I especially like the one of the fire because both the mill sign and the mill stone below it survived the fire.
Many people remember the Mill for its two floors of Antiques in the 1990’s. They even remember the outside staircase to the second floor and if they were a vendor they remember how cold the second floor could be. We used the second floor for many things but last Fall we moved the entire inventory of Bridge Antiques to the second floor of the Mill. Nancy carefully set up displays by different categories. We had toys and bottles and boxes and tins. We used the ping pong table, the pool table, the air hockey table and the subway booths to display items.
The Emlenton Mill 