Kerr Mill

Last updated
Kerr Mill
2012-09-24 17-20-58 321 Kerr Mill.jpg
Kerr Mill, September 2012
USA North Carolina location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationW of Mill Bridge on Sloan Rd., S of NC 1768, near Mill Bridge, North Carolina
Coordinates 35°31′11″N80°25′21″W / 35.51972°N 80.42250°W / 35.51972; -80.42250
Area6 acres (2.4 ha)
Builtc. 1820 (1820)
NRHP reference No. 76001337 [1]
Added to NRHPMay 11, 1976

Kerr Mill is a historic grist mill building located in Atwell Township, Rowan County, North Carolina near Mill Bridge. It was constructed in 1823 by Joseph Kerr, a large plantation owner. The mill is a brick building with two-stories and three bay by two bay. It rests on a stone foundation and has a gable roof. The mill was operated commercially until the 1940s and has since been refurbished as part of Sloan Park run by Rowan County. [2] The mill and surrounding property are operated by Rowan County as Sloan Park. [3]

Contents

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. [1]

History

1833 map of Rowan County showing Kerr Mill on Chathy's (sic Cathey's) Creek west of Salisbury. Rowan County Map 1833.tif
1833 map of Rowan County showing Kerr Mill on Chathy's (sic Cathey's) Creek west of Salisbury.

The Kerr Mill was constructed by Joseph Kerr in 1823 on his 1,500 plantation, called Oakland, between Sills and Cathey's Creeks in Rowan County, North Carolina. After Joseph's death, the mill was run by his son, Dr. Samuel Kerr. Samuel Kerr was destroyed financially by the U.S. Civil War. After the war the mill was operated on a small scale from 18651872 for local tenant farmers. The mill and Kerr plantation were purchased by James Samuel McCubbins in 1872. The mill was then run using an undershot wheel fed by a long mill race and canal. In 1887 the mill was upgrade to a roller mill powered by a steam engine. The mill was purchased by John W. Page in 1895, Pleasant Owen Tatum in 1900, and James Wiseman Sloan in 1908. The mill was converted to run with a Bessemer diesel engine in 1925. The mill was sold to James W. Sloan's nephew, James Andrew Sloan in 1928. The mill was offered as a gift to the citizens of Rowan County in 1973 by James Sloan and his wife. It has since been restored and become part of Sloan Park operated by Rowan County's Department of Parks and Recreation. [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kannapolis, North Carolina</span> City in North Carolina, United States

Kannapolis is a city in Cabarrus and Rowan counties, in the U.S. state of North Carolina, northwest of Concord and northeast of Charlotte and is a suburb in the Charlotte metropolitan area. The city of Kannapolis was incorporated in 1984. The population was 53,114 at the 2020 census, which makes Kannapolis the 19th-most populous city in North Carolina. It is the home of the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, the Low-A baseball affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, and it is the hometown of the Earnhardt racing family. It is also the headquarters for the Haas F1 racing team. The center of the city is home to the North Carolina Research Campus, a public-private venture that focuses on food, nutrition, and biotech research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rowan County, North Carolina</span> County in North Carolina, United States

Rowan County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina that was formed in 1753, as part of the British Province of North Carolina. It was originally a vast territory with unlimited western boundaries, but its size was reduced to 524 square miles (1,360 km2) after several counties were formed from Rowan County in the 18th and 19th centuries. As of the 2020 census, its population was 146,875. Its county seat, Salisbury, is the oldest continuously populated European-American town in the western half of North Carolina. Rowan County is located northeast of Charlotte, and is considered part of the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iredell County, North Carolina</span> County in North Carolina, United States

Iredell County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 186,693. Its county seat is Statesville, and its largest community is Mooresville. The county was formed in 1788, subtracted from Rowan County. It is named for James Iredell, one of the first justices of the Supreme Court. Iredell County is included in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget with data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cabarrus County, North Carolina</span> County in North Carolina, United States

Cabarrus County is a county located in the south-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 225,804, making it the 9th-most populous county in North Carolina. The county seat is Concord, which was incorporated in 1803. Cabarrus County is included in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yanceyville, North Carolina</span> Town in North Carolina, United States

Yanceyville is a town in and the county seat of Caswell County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Piedmont Triad region of the state, the town had a population of 1,937 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wake Forest, North Carolina</span> Town in North Carolina, United States

Wake Forest is a town in Franklin and Wake counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina; located almost entirely in Wake County, it lies just north of the state capital, Raleigh. At the 2020 census, the population was 47,601, up from 30,117 in 2010. It is part of the Raleigh metropolitan area. Wake Forest was the original home of Wake Forest University for 122 years before it moved to Winston-Salem in 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yadkin River</span> River in North Carolina, United States

The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in the US state of North Carolina, flowing 215 miles (346 km). It rises in the northwestern portion of the state near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Thunder Hill Overlook. Several parts of the river are impounded by dams for water, power, and flood control. The river becomes the Pee Dee River at the confluence of the Uwharrie River south of the community of Badin and east of the town of Albemarle. The river then flows into South Carolina near Cheraw, which is at the Fall Line. The entirety of the Yadkin River and the Great Pee Dee River is part of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Sloan (architect)</span> American architect

Samuel Sloan was a Philadelphia-based architect and best-selling author of architecture books in the mid-19th century. He specialized in Italianate villas and country houses, churches, and institutional buildings. His most famous building—the octagonal mansion "Longwood" in Natchez, Mississippi—is unfinished; construction was abandoned during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Graham Ramsay</span> North Carolina politician and physician

James Graham Ramsay was a North Carolina physician and politician who served in the North Carolina Senate and Confederate States Congress during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scotch Irish Township, Rowan County, North Carolina</span> Township in Rowan County, North Carolina

Scotch Irish Township is one of fourteen townships in Rowan County, North Carolina, United States. The township had a population of 1,820 according to the 2010 census. By the requirements of the North Carolina Constitution of 1868, all counties in North Carolina were divided into townships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Ulla Township, Rowan County, North Carolina</span> Township in North Carolina, United States

Mount Ulla Township is one of fourteen townships in Rowan County, North Carolina, United States. It is currently the smallest township in Rowan County by population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleveland Township, Rowan County, North Carolina</span> Township in Rowan County, North Carolina

Cleveland Township is one of fourteen non-functioning county subdivisions (townships) in Rowan County, North Carolina that were established in 1868. The township had a population of 2,817 according to the 2010 census. The only incorporated municipality in Cleveland Township is the town of Cleveland. Residents are served by the Rowan–Salisbury School System and the township is home to Mt Ulla Elementary School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridgeton Covered Bridge</span> Two bridges in Indiana, US

The first Bridgeton covered bridge was a double-span Burr Arch bridge built in 1868 by a crew led by J. J. Daniels. It was closed to traffic in 1967. It was built to replace two prior open wooden bridges that had fallen in. After its destruction by fire, it was replaced in 2006 by a reproduction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hayes Plantation</span> Historic house in North Carolina, United States

Hayes Farm, also known as Hayes Plantation, is a historic plantation near Edenton, North Carolina that belonged to Samuel Johnston (1733–1816), who served as Governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789. Johnston became one of the state's first two United States Senators, serving from 1789 until 1793, and served later as a judge until retiring in 1803. Samuel Johnston died in 1816 at "the Hermitage," his home near Williamston in Martin County, N.C. The residence known as Hayes was completed by his son, James Cathcart Johnston, a year after Samuel's death. There are numerous other structures on the property, some predating the Hayes house itself, including the Hayes Gatehouse, which James Johnston lived in prior to the construction of the Hayes house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Railway Spencer Shops</span> United States historic place

The Southern Railway Spencer Shops are a former locomotive repair facility in Spencer, North Carolina. The shops were one of the Southern Railway's primary maintenance facilities. The shops were built in the 1890s and named after Southern Railway president Samuel Spencer. Following dieselization, the need for the Spencer Shops diminished, and the facilities were decommissioned in the 1970s. The Spencer Shops and associated land were donated by the Southern Railway to the state of North Carolina, which established the North Carolina Transportation Museum on the site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carson House (Marion, North Carolina)</span> Historic house in North Carolina, United States

The Carson House is a historic house and museum located in Marion, North Carolina. It was the home of Col. John Carson, and served as the McDowell County courthouse when the county was first organized in 1842.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thyatira Presbyterian Church, Cemetery, and Manse</span> Historic site in Rowan County, North Carolina, US

Thyatira Presbyterian Church, Cemetery, and Manse is a historic church at 220 White Road off NC 150 in Mill Bridge in Rowan County, North Carolina, ten miles west of the town of Salisbury. Presbyterians have been worshiping at this site since at least 1753.

Mount Vernon is a historic plantation house, farm complex, and national historic district located near Woodleaf, in Scotch Irish Township, Rowan County, North Carolina. The house was built about 1822, and is a two-story, three-bay, Federal style frame dwelling. It is sheathed in weatherboard and has a full-width, one-story shed roofed porch. The house was designated a post office in 1822. Also on the property are the contributing log smokehouse, large barn, "lighthouse" or Delco house, corn crib, gear house, woodhouse, spring house, mill site, shop, and plantation office.

Thomas Gillespie was a large plantation owner in mid-to-late 18th-century North Carolina and served as commissary of the Rowan County Regiment in the North Carolina militia during the American Revolution. He spent his early life in Augusta County, Virginia before migrating to Anson County, North Carolina in about 1750, where he lived most of his life on Sills Creek in the area that became Rowan County, North Carolina in 1753. He and his wife and son were the first white settlers west of the Yadkin River. He owned a plantation of over 1,000 acres on Sills Creek in Rowan County, as well as 6,000 acres in the area of western North Carolina that became part of the state of Tennessee in 1796. He was an early elder in the Thyatira Presbyterian Church in Rowan County, which had been established by 1750. Thomas was the great-grandfather of U.S. President James K. Polk through the lineage of his daughter Lydia, who married Captain James Knox and gave birth to Jane Gracey Knox, mother of the President.

Mill Bridge is an unincorporated community and populated place officially registered as Mill Bridge in 1874. It is located primarily in Atwell Township and Steele Township in Rowan County, North Carolina, United States. With part extending into Mount Ulla Township. The prominent features include the Kerr Mill, Thyatira Presbyterian Church, and Millbridge Speedway.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Joe Mobley and Charles Greer Suttlemyre, Jr. (April 1976). "Kerr Mill" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2015-02-01.
  3. Cheeseman, Bruce S. (May 14, 1979). "Historical Research Report, Kerr Mill and Mill Bridge Communities, Rowan County, North Carolina". North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  4. "Kerr Mill". Rowan County Parks & Recreation. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
  5. "Kerr Mill, Sloan Road (State Route 1768), Mill Bridge, Rowan County, NC Drawings from Survey HABS NC-148" . Retrieved July 6, 2019.