{"nrhp_refnum":"82003462","name":"Guilford Mill","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SE of Oak Ridge on NC 68","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oak Ridge","county":"Guilford County","state":"NC","lat":36.16060751200007,"lon":-79.97795123399999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-08-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A water-powered grist and merchant mill on the east side of NC 68 near Oak Ridge, Guilford County, North Carolina, built in 1822 by Joel Sanders on a site where an earlier mill stood. It is also known as Bailes' Old Mill.","why_significant":"It was built as the first merchant mill in Guilford County and served as a community gathering place in nineteenth century Piedmont North Carolina. Its heavy timber frame, stone dam and holding pond, and wooden water-powered machinery embody a type of grist mill that has largely disappeared. The undisturbed site may also yield archaeological information about rural milling life.","narrative":"Beside a swift creek near Oak Ridge, this three-story timber-frame grist mill on a fieldstone basement was built in 1822 by Joel Sanders. It replaced a mill of about 1745 on the same site and became the first merchant mill in Guilford County, selling flour and meal as well as grinding local farmers' grain. Like many mills of its day, it also served as a gathering place for the community. An overshot wheel still turns the grinding stones, and the interior retains rough-hewn posts and beams joined with mortise and tenon, along with wooden hoppers, sifters and troughs of pine, cherry and oak. Later owners included the Sanders family, M. L. Hendrix, and businessman C. E. Bailes, who bought it in 1954. The mill closed briefly in the 1970s after having been among the oldest continuously operating mills in the United States. Its building, machinery and rolling site preserve a way of life largely lost in the Piedmont, and the site may hold archaeological remains.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Unknown (built by Joel Sanders in 1822)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","B","C","D"],"status_note":"Listed as occupied and in excellent condition; the mill still grinds with water-powered stones and sells its products, with some electrification added and the original conduit replacing the open race.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:56.486881-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/82/7205/47720582/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/82003462.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003462/472e3cf092-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003462/472e3cf092-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Rhpotter","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Guilford_Mill.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Rhpotter</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Guilford_Mill.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720582","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilford_Mill","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19462114"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/guilford-county/guilford-mill-82003462/"}