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Peirce Mill
National Park Service Site
The mill is a restored gristmill near the Fall Line. Until the late 1990s, Peirce Mill was the sole survivor of a number of water-powered mills that were found along Rock Creek in the 18th and 19th centuries. After several decades of private ownership, the mill was returned to the National Park Service in 1933, and until the late 1990s, Peirce Mill ground cornmeal and wheat for sale to mill visitors.
Peirce Mill re-opened as an operating mill in 2011 with the help of a not-for-profit group called The Friends of Peirce Mill. This organization helped raise funds, secure grants and assisted the National Park Service with getting the mill restored to the point that it could once again grind corn. The mill now provides an opportunity for visitors to see and hear what life in the mill was like during the 1800s and the mill's heyday and school groups learn about engineering and local history on field trips to the site.
Projects to continue the restoration of the mill are ongoing. The Art Barn, located adjacent to Peirce Mill, shows artwork by local artists. Peirce Mill is open from 10 AM to 4 PM on Saturdays and Sundays and is also open on Fridays from April 1 through October 31. It is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
A dam across Rock Creek was built as part of Peirce Mill when it was operating as a tea house in the 1920s. The dam created a blockage for herring, alewife, and shad returning to spawn in Rock Creek. In the early 2000s, the National Park Service built a concreted fish passage around the dam across from the mill.
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Contact Information
National Park Service
3545 Williamsburg Lane
Washington DC 20008
202-895-6070
Website