West Point Rice Mill
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The West Point Rice Mill is a former mill on Lockwood Drive in Charleston , South Carolina . It was one of three mills for rice in Charleston in the 19th century. The mill was built in 1861 to replace a structure that burned down the year before. It was in the on 20 January 1995 National Register of Historic Places added
history
Jonathan Lucas III. built a four-story brick building in 1840 , a steam-powered rice mill on the Ashley River . It was this mill that burned down on November 20th, 1860.
Construction of the new mill began quickly; Although construction was hindered by the Union's sea blockade in the southern states, the mill was fully operational at the end of 1863. After the occupation of Charleston by troops of the Union Army in 1865, the mill was used for distributing food.
After the Civil War , the mill resumed operations and increased production. The Charleston earthquake in 1886 affected the mill. It was damaged in the process and the gables collapsed. Sometime before the 1920s, the roof was replaced, with only the roof pillars and roof beams remaining.
Charleston's three mills ground more than 97,000 barrels of rice in 1890. Competition from rice farmers in the west and a series of hurricanes caused rice production in South Carolina to decline. The West Point Mill Company acquired an interest in Chisolm's Mill in 1888, and in 1894 West Point Mill and Bennett's Mill merged and then bought Chisolm's Mill. West Point Mill closed in 1920 and the company sold the mill's assets. Around 1925, the mill's steam engine was sold to the Henry Ford Museum . The mill was sold to the City of Charleston in 1926.
The US Postal Service planned in 1932 to establish a seaplane base at the site of the former mill. Although this plan was not implemented, the idea of a seaplane base took hold. The Civil Works Administration began building a municipal marina in 1933. The former mill building was rented to the American Bagging Company, who used it as a warehouse for jute that the company imported for its Meeting Street production.
The city government continued efforts to use the building as a seaplane terminal. In the spring of 1937, flights from Germany to Charleston were proposed. The Works Progress Administration began reconstruction work in the by James F. Byrnes named airport. Pan American World Airways commissioned the New York architecture firm Delano and Aldrich to plan the passenger handling.
The renovation work was carried out on the bottom two floors and on the outside. When the Second World War began in Europe , transatlantic flights were discontinued. The city sought a base for naval aviation, but this was set up in Jacksonville , Florida . The building that was responsible for the Charleston district of the Civilian Conservation Corps was housed. In 1941 the building was taken over by the administration of the Charleston Area Inshore Patrol of the Sixth Naval District, and in 1946 it became the headquarters of the Sixth Naval District Mine Craft Base. It was also used by the United States Navy in the 1950s and eventually transferred to the United States Army Corps of Engineers . From 1966 to around 1986 the building housed the Trident Chamber of Commerce and a few commercial tenants. Then the building was vacant again.
In the fall of 1989 the house was affected by a fire, and later Hurricane Hugo damaged the roof. After the repair, it was rented to the Bennett-Hofford Company. The company invested three million dollars in the renovation of the building before it was entered in the National Register of Historic Places. Since then it has been used for office buildings and restaurants.
architecture
The building was originally 43.3 m long, 12.8 m wide and had a gable roof . Although it was the largest rice mill in Charleston, the architectural details of the other two structures were missing. The in Flemish association masonry brick -Buildings has above the bottom three full floors and a mezzanine. Eleven yokes form the long side of the structure. The three middle sides on the west side facing the Ashley River protrude slightly. In the Palladian style with Doric pilasters made of stucco facade parts mark the three bays of the main portico . A pair of pilasters are located at the end of the north and south facade. Two-story side wings extend from the outer bays of the east facade. They have a length of 11 m and 8 m. The mill had two octagonal chimneys on the east side.
Wall anchors installed after the earthquake of 1886 are still visible on the structure and the side wings. The renovations carried out in 1937 were relatively minor on the façade, while the inside of the building was changed more.
The chimneys were removed and a new entrance was built on the east facade. The ground floor was rebuilt on a concrete slab. The masonry of the gable was restored but poorly put together. Gypsum stone window sills were installed on the windows on the first floor.
An entrance lobby was added in 1946 in front of the middle yokes on the west side. On the roof there was a balcony with an iron railing. After the fire in 1989, the railing was removed. An elevator system was installed at the entrance on the west side as early as 1960.
After the damage from Hurricane Hugo, the tiled roof was replaced by a copper roof. Four dormers were added on the west side of the roof.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Sarah Fick, Laurens, John: West Point Rice Mill ( English , PDF; 1.2 MB) In: National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form . National Park Service. March 20, 1994. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
- ^ National Register Information System
- ^ A b West Point Rice Mill, Charleston County (Jct. Of Lockwood Dr. & Calhoun St., Charleston) . In: National Register Properties in South Carolina . South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
- ^ Harriette Kershaw Leiding: Historic houses of South Carolina . B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1921, p. 109.
- ^ Walter Edgar, The Humanities Council SC : South Carolina Encyclopedia . University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina 2006, ISBN 1-57003-598-9 , p. 573.
- ^ Robert Behre: Rice mill breathes new life (English) . In: The Post and Courier , Evening Post Publishing Company, February 15, 1995. Accessed June 5, 2009. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 32 ° 46 ′ 44 ″ N , 79 ° 57 ′ 4 ″ W.