19th-Century Flour Mill Unearthed in Northern Virginia

News October 3, 2017

(Alexandria Library)
SHARE:
Pioneer Mills historic photo 300x189
(Alexandria Library)

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA— The Alexandria Times reports that archaeologists are working at the site of Robinson Terminal South, a planned luxury condiminum and retail complex near the banks of the Potomac River. They have uncovered the foundation of a flour mill called Pioneer Mills, which dates back to 1854. At its height, Pioneer Mills produced thousands of barrels of flour a month, which were brought down the Potomac and out to the Atlantic Ocean for shipment up and down the east coast. After surviving multiple ownerships, the American Civil War, and Reconstruction, the mill was damaged by a cyclone and an interior fire in 1896. The space subsequently housed a grain warehouse, a shipbuilding facility, and an airplane engineering facility, among other ventures, before the Washington Post purchased the building. The paper sold the property to its current owners, the development company EYA, in 2013. To read more about archaeology in Virginia, go to “Letter from Virginia: American Refugees.”

  • Features September/October 2017

    Painted Worlds

    Searching for the meaning of self-expression in the land of the Moche

    Read Article
    (Courtesy Lisa Trever)
  • Letter from California September/October 2017

    The Ancient Ecology of Fire

    Lessons emerge from the ways in which North American hunter-gatherers managed the landscape around them

    Read Article
    (Justin Sullivan / Gettyimages)
  • Artifacts September/October 2017

    Gilded Copper Color Disc

    Read Article
    (Courtesy Illinois State Military Museum)
  • Digs & Discoveries September/October 2017

    White Horse of the Sun

    Read Article
    (Skyscan Photolibrary / Alamy)