{"nrhp_refnum":"06000325","name":"Breneman-Turner Mill","other_names":["082-0023"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5036 Turners Mill Ln.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Harrisonburg","county":"Rockingham County","state":"VA","lat":38.525300737000066,"lon":-78.87503893899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2006-04-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-a-half-story brick, water-powered gristmill on a limestone basement, built circa 1800 in the Federal style for Abraham Breneman on Linville Creek, about 3.4 miles north of Harrisonburg in Rockingham County, Virginia.","why_significant":"The mill is described as the oldest surviving, fully equipped, pre-Civil War gristmill in Rockingham County and survived the 1864 burning of the Valley. It is significant under Criterion A for industry, representing early mill design and technology, and under Criterion C as a rare brick mill that has kept its integrity for over two hundred years.","narrative":"Built around 1800 for Abraham Breneman, this brick gristmill sits on Linville Creek north of Harrisonburg, Virginia. It rises two and a half stories above a limestone basement, with Flemish bond brick walls and a hand-planed, carved timber interior. A 16-foot water wheel drove three sets of stones, a hominy mill and elevators through belts and gears, and the mill ground grain until 1988. J. H. Turner, who ran it from 1933, kept it operating much as it had been originally. Machinery from several eras survives, including French burr stones, grain elevators, a centrifugal buckwheat cleaner and an outside sack-chain hoist. The mill is considered the oldest surviving, fully equipped, pre-Civil War gristmill in Rockingham County, and it came through the 1864 burning of the Shenandoah Valley. It was listed for its place in the region's flour-milling industry and as a rare brick mill that has kept its integrity for more than two centuries.","period_of_significance":"circa 1800 - 1956","architect_builder":"Abraham Breneman","architectural_style":"Early Republic: Federal","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Current function listed as vacant/not in use; the mill operated as a gristmill from circa 1800 until 1988.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.500762-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/15/6835/41683515/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/06000325.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06000325/0a1da8c269-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06000325/0a1da8c269-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breneman-Turner_Mill.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breneman-Turner_Mill.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683515","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breneman-Turner_Mill","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15204532"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/rockingham-county/breneman-turner-mill-06000325/"}