Question: For quite a number of years the buildings in the photo contributed significantly to the prosperity of the Baldwinsville area. Do you know where they were located? How did they contribute to the economy?
Last week’s answer: Last week’s photo was taken in 2005 and shows the wooden skeleton of what had been a village landmark and Baldwinsville’s oldest industry, a red grist mill built in 1828. Run on water power for most of its almost 175 years, the mill had been known as Mercer Mill since 1912.
Belts, pulleys, wooden chutes, historic mill stones, hand hewn beams and thick, well-worn floor boards were all part of its fabric. They were set against the thunderous clunk and rattle of the well-oiled old machinery that turned grain from local fields into high quality flour for Baldwinsville larders.
The old mill adapted to changes in technology, transportation and markets but was eventually crippled by the limitations of its location. It was locked into a parcel bordered by a paper mill/boat yard on the west, the Barge Canal on its south, the Seneca River on the north and Syracuse Street on the east.
In 1972 the active mill was sold to Bill Colton and renamed the Mercer Mill Company. Eventually all milling operations ceased. Specialty animal feeds were developed and mixed at the site. By the turn of the century the firm was handling more than 100,000 pounds of grain daily. Large trucks were maneuvering in the small paved lot and entering and exiting Route 48 day and night. The site could no longer support the business.
In 2002 Mercer Milling Co. relocated to neighboring Liverpool and has expanded five times since then. It now occupies a 60,000-square-foot facility and is a leading feed manufacturer of the northeast.
The now-silent old gristmill was sold for $220,000 to developer Jim Orlando, who envisioned turning the property into “The Inn at Mercer Mill.” The village planning board approved a site plan for an upscale 37-room hotel with a fine dining restaurant, banquet room, outdoor lounge and valet parking. Cost of redevelopment was pegged at $5.5 million. The skin of the building was removed but the project came to a standstill. The once robust throbbing mill was now a fragile skeleton in the middle of the village.
In 2005 the property was once again on the market. It was purchased by Jay Bernhardt and Jake McKenna, who proceeded to stabilize the structure and develop the property into a hotel that preserved the site’s historic significance and complemented the village’s needs and amenities.
Opened in May 2006, the Red Mill Inn offers 32 guest rooms and a conference center. The interior layout was designed to preserve as many of the structure’s pre-existing features as reasonably possible. Bustling activity and local landmark status have returned to the parcel nestled between Lock 24 and the Seneca River.
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at 434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by 5 p.m. Friday (please leave the information in the message; we are not generally able to return calls regarding History Mystery responses). If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo before the deadline, your name and guess will appear in next week’s Messenger, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
