Title	Brown's Mill: exterior side view
Creator(s)	Staff at MTSU Center for Historic Preservation
Date	1990-07
Coverage	1990-1999
Property name	Brown's Mill
Property type	Commercial building
Community Name	Lascassas, Rutherford County, TN
Description	Color photograph of mill's exterior side. Two stories containing three bays of windows can be seen. Significant deterioration has occurred with the weatherboard and panes are missing from several of the windows.
Historical Notes	Construction on Brown’s Mill spanned from 1871 to August 1873. Robert and Annie Brown, the original owners, built the gristmill using no architectural plan. The architectural design, a square plan with steep gabled roof, reflects mill construction of the period in Tennessee. Located on the east fork of Stone’s River, Brown’s Mill was situated on a main shipping route in Middle Tennessee. Another mill, Magnolia Mill, sat just a few feet away as early as the 1820s-1830s. The turbine-powered mill played a significant role in the agricultural community by converting raw grain and corn into usable products. In operation for a century, Brown’s Mill witnessed two new additions: an attached lean-to roof over the porch and a one-story office attached to the building’s left side. The office, constructed in 1912, contained a telephone booth. The original 1912 telephone was still present at the time of the mill’s National Register of Historic Places nomination in 1975. The mill remained in working order until 1975, although at that point it had been out of the Brown family’s hands since the early 1940s. From 1945 to 1975, Keele McElroy served as the mill’s operator (although Daniel McMurray was listed as the owner on the 1975 National Register nomination form). In 1976, the city of Murfreesboro purchased the mill site and pond from McElroy. Plans were underway for the mill’s restoration, perhaps to house an observatory deck over the river, when the 118 year old mill collapsed on June 11, 1991. The mill’s stone pillars stand as the last remnants of the former gristmill, once Rutherford County’s tallest building at 85 feet tall from river surface to rooftop. Listed on the National Register in 1975, Brown’s Mill was removed in ca. 2002.
Collection Name	Southern History Documentary Projects
Subject-LCSH	Historic buildings -- Tennessee -- Rutherford County Gristmills
Subject-AAT	Mills
Subject-TGM	Mills Clapboard siding
Type	Still image
Medium	Slide
Extent	35 mm
Copyright status	Copyright of the creator. Reproduced with permission
Contributing Institution	Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University
Conditions for use	Credit Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University Reproduction permitted for non-profit educational and research purposes only
Digital Publisher	Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University

Brown's Mill: exterior side view

Description