{"nrhp_refnum":"72001024","name":"Barretts Mills","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"CR 1A and Rocky Fork Creek","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rainsboro","county":"Highland County","state":"OH","lat":39.20206697100008,"lon":-83.38711142099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-12-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Invention"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic mill complex southeast of Rainsboro in Highland County, Ohio, beside Rocky Fork Creek and a covered bridge. It includes an 1862 gristmill, a sawmill, a woolen mill and the Barrett house, on a nominated area of about 9.5 acres.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the gristmill as an example of how Ohio's milling industry evolved during the 19th century, from a water-wheel mill with buhrstones to a turbine-powered roller mill. The site is also tied to the oldest mills in Highland County and to Captain David M. Barrett, a prominent local citizen. The complex once included carding, fulling and woolen mills as well.","narrative":"Barretts Mills is a former milling village on Rocky Fork Creek southeast of Rainsboro, Ohio, next to a Long Truss covered bridge. The surviving buildings include a tall, gambrel-roofed frame gristmill dating to 1862, a frame sawmill moved about 100 feet from its original position, a largely intact woolen mill, and the large frame house built by Captain David M. Barrett after the Civil War. Barrett, a state representative and longtime superintendent of the Boys' Industrial School, led the construction of the new mills near the site of the oldest mills in Highland County, where Jesse Baldwin had built a gristmill in 1805 and 1806. The gristmill began with a wooden water wheel and buhrstones and was later converted to a turbine-powered roller mill able to grind 24 barrels of flour a day. It operated until 1957 and has since been restored. The woolen mill produced cloth until 1896. The complex illustrates a once-prominent Ohio industry.","period_of_significance":"1862 and later (19th century)","architect_builder":"Captain David M. Barrett (builder of the mills and house); earlier gristmill built by Jesse Baldwin, 1805-1806","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Gristmill closed in 1957 and has been restored to working order with turbine power; sawmill lacks its machinery and needs repairs; woolen mill is intact but unrepaired and its machinery is gone; Barrett house is in good repair. Plans call for restoring the mill buildings for public opening.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:10.131-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/72001024.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989361","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/highland-county/barretts-mills-72001024/"}