Sloat's Dam and Mill Pond
Sloat's Dam and Mill Pond is a weir between Waldron Terrace and Ballard Avenue in Sloatsburg , United States . The approximately 60 m long weir dams the Ramapo River to a mill pond.
It was built in 1792 by Isaak Sloat and was the first of three impoundments on the river in what is now Rockland County , with which water mills were operated. Today it is the only one that is largely intact, although the mill has not been in operation since a fire in the middle of the 20th century. The complex was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 with some associated structures .
description
The weir, the mill pond and the associated buildings are located on an approximately six hectare , rectangular property that now belongs to the county. Most of it is covered by the mill pond. The weir is located directly west of Waldron Terrace, is about 60 m long, at the highest point 1.1 m high and is about this width. Today the original masonry is covered with concrete . At the end of a mill ditch on the west side of the dam there is a stone gate . The mill pond itself is a popular fishing spot for locals .
On the southwest corner of the property are some remaining gate posts from the Brown Estate , to which the mill belonged in the early 20th century. These are right next to a substation east of the Sloatsburg Metro North station. Since these are the most noticeable features of the ensemble, the National Park Service notice board is attached here. The posts have no direct connection with the mill system, but are still considered contributing components , as their age and the appearance of the stone carving match the contemporary renovations of the mill system structures. Little is left of the actual structures of the mill, most of it was razed to the ground in the 1960s and what is left is not considered to be a contributing factor.
history
Isaac Sloat, son of settler William Sloat, built the stone weir in the Ramapo River in 1792 to power a sawmill and tannery . Two more millers built two more dams above and below. Isaac Sloat's son Jacob reinforced the dam with concrete in 1815 before expanding the mill into a spinning mill.
The Sloats business prospered, further boosted in later decades by the nearby New York and Erie Railroad , expanding the mill several times before retiring in 1851. The Sloatsburg Manufacturing Company, which took over operations from him, expanded again in 1857, but went bankrupt in 1878 as a aftermath of the panic of 1873 . A new owner took over the facility four years later and began producing silk . Around 1900 the mill became part of Cappamore, the country estate of Nicholas Brown. The stone gate posts were built at this time. A few years later, the 1903 flood destroyed the other two dams and damaged Sloat's Mill so badly that operations had to be stopped.
The Ramapo Piece and Dye Works took over the facility in 1907 and carried out the first renovations in nearly a century. The company had a stone flood gate built instead of the wooden one, made of masonry similar to that used for the gate posts. Apparently the dam was also raised at this point.
In 1931 the company, now known as the Ramapo Finishing Company, had the older buildings at the factory demolished. The rest of the facility continued to operate until a fire in 1955. The following year, Brown's Cappamore estate was demolished as part of the construction of the New York State Thruway , and the remaining structures of the mill were leveled in 1966 for development that was never carried out. The mill ditch was filled in after a man drowned in it.
The property was purchased by the county government in the late 20th century, along with a few other properties on the river. The county and Sloatsburg Historical Society planned to use it to create the 45- acre Eleanor Burlingham Memorial Park.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Eugene Kuykendall: Brown's Gate / Sloat's Dam ( English ) Village of Sloatsburg. 2004. Retrieved March 21, 2009.
- ^ A b c John Bonafide: National Register of Historic Places nomination, Sloat's Dam and Mill Pond ( English ) New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . November 1999. Retrieved March 21, 2009.
- ^ A b Eleanor Burlingham Memorial Park ( English ) Rockland County Division of Environmental Resources. Archived from the original on June 2, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 21, 2009.
Coordinates: 41 ° 9 ′ 27 " N , 74 ° 11 ′ 20" W.