Plimoth Grist Mill — Attraction in Plymouth

Amazing working grist mill! Very impressive & fascinating to watch. So much history in a lil corner of Plymouth. I highly recommend a visit! The Plimoth Grist Mill (formerly the Jenney Grist Mill) is a working grist mill located in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is a reconstruction of the original Jenney Grist Mill, and it stands on the site of the original mill. John Jenney, a Pilgrim who arrived in Plymouth in 1623 on the ship Little James, erected the original grist mill in Plymouth in 1636. Jenney died in 1644, leaving the mill to his wife, Sarah. Sarah operated the mill until her own death. One of their sons, Samuel, eventually sold it in 1683 to Charles Stockbridge, the owner of another mill in the nearby town of Scituate. Stockbridge died shortly after purchasing the Jenney's old mill, leading his widow to sell the mill again, this time to Nathanial Church, brother of Benjamin Church. The Church family operated the mill until ownership was split up amongst numerous people beginning in the 1720s. In the mid-1840s, a fire engulfed the entire building.[1]

Afterwards, the property saw the construction of other mills mostly dedicated to manufacturing rather than food production. During the middle of the 20th century, Plymouth underwent a number of urban re-development projects in the area, culminating in the re-constructed Jenney Grist Mill upon the same location as the original in 1969, with some parts, including the millstones, having been salvaged from a 19th century mill...

We ended up at the Grist Mill at the end of our day in Plymouth and we were pleasantly surprised. We were behind a group of cub scouts and after they moved down to the room where the gears are we came in just at the end of them grinding the corn. The miller, Matt tossed a little more in there so we could see and he could explain how it works even though they were technically done grinding for the day. My guy is an engineer and he was very interested in how the whole thing worked. He told us they were going to take the stone apart and that was a neat thing we shouldn’t miss, but made sure we went downstairs for a minute to see the gears moving before he stopped the mill. We came back up and got to watch Matt and the great crew take it all apart, being very informative and entertaining. We hadn’t been able to go to our hotel yet after landing from Colorado at 5 am this morning and were very tired at this point in the day, but ended up staying in Plymouth an hour later than we had planned to just because of the staff here! The woman in the gift shop was...

It doesn't look like it from the outside but it's a REALLY solid museum. The first part in the upper portion of the mill was really interesting. The guide, Frank, knew a ton about the mill as well as the surrounding area and history from when the area was settled. He gave a lot of info insights that history books never mention. The bottom portion of the museum is setup to process the corn that the mill runs (the mill itself only runs on the weekend). The woman running that area knew a lot about what she was doing and did a nice job of explaining it and showing us all of the steps. Between the two guides you get a full understanding of how a mill works and the products it can produce. I would highly recommend you go if you're in the area since it's relatively inexpensive (especially compared to other museums in the area) and was a good place to stop when...