Austin-Magie Farm and Mill District

Along Four Mile Creek, a mile north of Oxford, Ohio, this 34-acre district preserves a working farm landscape and the remains of a large water-powered mill. The centerpiece is a two-and-one-half story brick farmhouse built in 1841, with a symmetrical five-bay front, Flemish bond brickwork and nine-over-nine windows. Nearby are a gambrel-roofed dairy barn, other barns and a corn crib from the 1920s and 1930s, plus a dilapidated early nineteenth-century braced frame house. Aaron Austin, who owned the land from 1815 to 1863, built the house, the frame building and the mill. Only the limestone foundation of the overshot mill survives, along with a millrace about one mile long, the largest earthen structure of its kind in Oxford Township. The mills operated from 1815 to 1916. Later owner David M. Magie became known for the large hogs called the Magie Breed, forerunners of the Poland China. The district was listed for its agricultural, industrial and architectural associations.