Willsboro Mills Circa 1912: Grist Mill, Saw Mill, and Paper Mill

My October 19, 2023 look at the Phoenix Mills (through the lens of “preservation by neglect“) incited some interesting feedback. I’m planning a post to pass along some interesting new tidbits including the building’s name. (Think about the concept of “phoenix from ashes“, a myth that resonates with me personally and that surfaces frequently in Rosslyn Redux posts.) The interest in this industrial artifact with which so many are familiar prompts to share a pair of followup posts. Today we’ll look at Willsboro Mills circa 1912 including W.D. Ross’s grist mill, the saw mill, and the paper mill. And a subsequent post will focus specifically on the Willsborough Grist Mill.

The inspiration for today’s post is this cinematic photograph of all three mills.

View from dam on the Bouquet River at Willsboro in the Adirondack Mountains. A saw mill, grist mill and paper mill line side of the river and a railroad can be seen running behind paper mill.

(Source: Digital Collections | New York State Archives, 1912, New York (State) Education Dept., Division of Visual Instruction, Instructional lantern slides, A3045, no. 10294)

Aside from the delightful water color (echoes of the Rio Bíobío?) and present day asymmetry with Willsboro’s industrial past, this perspective offers a unique glimpse into the robust riparian infrastructure in operation a century ago. In the near foreground is visible buttressing for the dam and what appears to be the upstream entrance for a sluiceway that may have directed river water toward the mills on the southeast side of the Boquet River. Just beyond the robust framing on the right side of the image is the gable end of a frame building, no longer extant. (I’m curious what took place in this handsome example of yankee barn vernacular.) And mostly obscured behind this barn and trees is the ghostly outline of the Phoenix Mills. If my guess is accurate, the near building on the opposite of the river must be the sawmill. And the paper mill with towering smoke stack is featured in the center of the image. The scale and sprawl of the paper mill is especially evident in the photograph below.

Note W.D. Ross’s Phoenix Mills near bottom center of the historic photograph. Now scroll back up to the first photograph (at the top of the post) and try to identify the ghostly silhouette of the same building just downstream of the barn located center right. Do you see it?

Here are three excellent photographs of the W.D. Ross mill that were taken during the summer of 2009. They’re similar to Phoenix Mills photos that I shared a week and a half ago.

Here’s the note that Don Argus, Jr. included with these photos (along with additional views and details available at Old Abandoned Buildings of Northern New York.

Ross Mill, on the Boquet River in Willsboro, Essex County. Ross writes that “It certainly warrants preservation and restoration, but it may already be too late – the brick gable looked unstable, and the floor timbers have rotted away.” Date Summer 2009. Photos by Don Argus, Jr. (Source: Old Abandoned Buildings of Northern New York)

I will endeavor to gather and share information about these additional Willsboro Mills. Please contact me if you can offer assistance!