{"nrhp_refnum":"83004175","name":"Water Mill","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Old Mill Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Water Mill","county":"Suffolk County","state":"NY","lat":40.90921231000004,"lon":-72.35632394199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-10-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story wood-frame grist mill on Old Mill Road in the village of Water Mill, Town of Southampton, Suffolk County, New York. It was built in 1644 by Edward Howell and moved a short distance south in the first half of the 18th century.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the most important historic resource tied to the early settlement and growth of the village, which took its name from the mill. It is one of the oldest surviving mills on Long Island. Despite moves and alterations, it keeps its heavy wood frame and utilitarian interior.","narrative":"Water Mill is a two-story, wood-frame grist mill on Old Mill Road in the Suffolk County village that took its name from it. Edward Howell built the mill in 1644 under an agreement with the town of Southampton, receiving forty acres in exchange for constructing a dam and mill. A settlement grew around it. William Ludlam bought the property in 1653 and moved the mill across the road to its present site in the first half of the eighteenth century. Over time it was refitted for spinning yarn, weaving and fulling cloth, then used for paper making by the Benedict family into the twentieth century. The Ladies Auxiliary of Water Mill bought it in 1942, and it opened as a museum in 1969. It retains a massive mortise-and-tenon frame, plank sheathing and unfinished interior space, along with some older milling elements. It is regarded as one of the oldest surviving mills on Long Island and a link to the community's earliest settlement.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Edward Howell","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in good condition; operated as the Water Mill Museum, open to the public in summer, with a working undershot water wheel installed in the early 1970s.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:42.601437-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/83004175.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83004175/43bd9d60aa-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83004175/43bd9d60aa-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Americasroof (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Watermill-ny1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Americasroof (talk)</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:Watermill-ny1.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75322303","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Mill_(Water_Mill,_New_York)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7973321"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/suffolk-county/water-mill-83004175/"}