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In accordance with its obligation to preserve and protect the historic resources in the Georgetown-Silver Plume National Historic Landmark District, HGI has acquired an option to purchase the Centennial Mill, located on the corner of Third and Taos Street. The actual purchase is contingent upon the receipt of an acquisition and stabilization grant from the State Historical Fund. Without that fund, much of the preservation work in Georgetown over the past ten years could not have been accomplished. Built in 1929 with timbers from the c.1880 Griffith Mill near 12th and Biddle Streets, the reduction mill featured a flotation method for the processing of ore from the Centennial Mine properties. The silver industry had long been in decline, after the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893. However, the mining industry had not disappeared from Georgetown. The Western States Mining Company operated the mill, processing gold-copper ore. The Centennial Mill has been decaying for years, and the roof collapsed after last March's 77 inches of snowfall. The owners recently expressed an interest in selling the property. HGI signed the option contract on Friday, September 26, and delivered the grant application to the State Historical Fund by the October 1 deadline. Consulting architects and engineers believe that the building can be successfully restored. The Centennial Mill is the only remaining mill within Georgetown, and one of only three remaining in the Georgetown-Silver Plume Landmark Mining District. A few weeks ago, a visiting historian wrote, "Sitting (somewhat indiscreetly) on a hilly fringe of one of the town's most elite residential districts, the mill makes a dramatic statement of historic Georgetown's alpha and omega. Its industrial presence amid the fine homes communicates 'cause and effect' to visitors. More than that, its location speaks boldly of other times and other values, those that scorned the niceties of manicured living when confronted by a thundering, dusty money making machine. |
ENDANGERED HISTORICAL SITE: The Centennial Mill, viewed from the southwest, operated in the 1930's, processing copper-gold ore. A trestle from the right, now missing, carried ore carts from the mine head frame to the ore bin portal at the top of the bare wood sheathing. On its own, the mill is a muscular industrial relic that can be rescued from its certain fate and given new use without the loss of its purposeful, no-nonsense architecture. At the same time, its continuing presence in Georgetown, a building of hammers and rocks in the midst of tea cups and yellow roses, will drive home the historic business of the town, its exploitive energy and adaptable mores the essences of America in the late 19th- and early 20th- centuries, in a way no interpretive medium can equal." Located a mere two blocks from the opulent Hamill House, and three blocks from the Randall House, the mill was touted in the Georgetown Courier by editor Jess Randall as an important addition to the local economy. Acquisition and stabilization of the mill by HGI would permit eventual restoration and interpretation of the property for the benefit of future generations, although its specific future use has not been determined.
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