Posts tagged ‘Emlenton Mill’
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.
Here are some parting shots of the third floor. The room beyond the Dekalb sign was used to store chairs but also had a 200 gallon backup water tank. The grain bin in the spotlight is a very small grain bin that still has gain in it. The only one I know of in the Mill still with grain. The last picture is of my friends from FAWM.
The first picture shows the studio in a grain bin room before the studio was installed. And beyond that grain bin was another room which we cut into. Since this bin was in the SW corner of the building we installed a window behind one of the louvers in the Mill facade. The window was the one closest to the bunkhouse at the third floor level. David is shown cutting out the reinforcing rods that held the bins together. Then we started installing a second floor in the grain bin. This is one of our unfinished projects.
February certainly turned out to be an interesting month. When I started this 28 days of blogging I had no idea that the Mill would burn five days into the story. I’m repeating the February first blog today because I’m now doing the Mill from Top to Bottom and the Recording Studio in the Grain Bin is part of the third floor. We thank all of you who have shown so much love and support over the last month. Spring is coming and with it rebirth. Please pray for us as we plan what’s next for the Mill. The Emlenton Mill, built in 1875, housed a mill museum, an ice cream shop, a bunkhouse hostel, an Emporium that sold antiques, crafts and books and a number of secrets. One of these secrets is a recording studio in a gain bin. Hidden away in a converted grain bin, on the third floor of the Mill, is a recording studio control room from the 1970s. It was originally located on the music practice floor of the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University. It was built by myself and some friends from the campus radio station WRCT. The Mill has a large number of grain bins which were used to store the different grains that were processed at the Mill. They vary in size from the size of a closet to the size of a railroad box car. The grain bin we chose for the studio is a small room located just off the main area of the third floor and required very little alteration. Most grain bins are built with sloped floors so the grain would gravity feed to the center of the bin where the output chute was located. This grain bin only required a new floor to support the studio.
At the bottom right of the picture of the 3rd floor cyclones and shakers (see 2/25/15 post) is a secret door which can only be opened from the fourth floor by spinning the Texas flywheel. Beyond that door is a grain bin and beyond that grain bin is the Mills tallest grain bin. At 36 feet tall it was the size of a railroad car on end. And in that grain bin we built a climbing wall. In the first picture you can see the wonderful old wood and the iron ladder. In the second picture you can see David flying in the grain bin as he installs the climbing wall. I would drop the sections from above on a rope and David would fasten them to the wall. The guys below, Ryan and Daniel, controlled his position and the safety rope.
The Emlenton Mill 