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The Haviland-Davison Grist Mill was built in the late 1600s; it is rare for a building this old to still be standing on Long Island. The timber-framed building is two and a half stories tall and has been enlarged twice, now forming a T-shaped footprint. The mill was in use until 1920 and contained the second telephone installed in East Rockaway. The mill building was moved to the northeastern corner of Memorial Park, on Woods Avenue near the intersection with Denton Avenue, in 1963. The restored building has housed a museum for decades. Parts of the roof and museum exhibits were destroyed in an arson fire in 1990. After several years of rebuilding, the museum reopened in 1993. The Haviland-Davison Grist Mill was added to the National Register in 1998.

2014 photo of Haviland-Davison Grist Mill Museum in park (DanTD)

Plant, Sky, Building, Leaf

Plan sketch of building episodes; original mill (A) & later additions (B, then C, then D) (Shaver and Studenroth 1998)

Rectangle, Slope, Font, Parallel

E (left) & N elevations of Haviland-Davison Grist Mill Museum in 1997 photo for NRHP (Studenroth)

Plant, Building, Sky, Window

W (left) & S sides of grist mill museum in 1997 photo (Studenroth)

Property, Building, Sky, Window

View inside oldest portion of grist mill (NE corner of Section A in NRHP plan sketch), facing E (Donald Krendel 1998)

Building, Wood, Door, Tints and shades

View inside second floor of Section A of grist mill, looking N into Section C (Krendel 1998)

Monochrome photography, Monochrome, Composite material, Building material

East Rockaway vicinity on 1909 topographic map, Hempstead, N.Y. 15-minute quadrangle (USGS)

Ecoregion, Map, World, Slope

Haviland-Davison Grist Mill (green circle) on 1859 map of Near Rockaway area (Walling)

Font, Map, Parallel, Paper

The construction date of the original core of the Haviland-Davison Mill is estimated to be 1689. John Haviland built the mill in what was then called Near Rockaway (now East Rockaway). There were about 25 water-powered mills by 1700 on Long Island in what is now Nassau and Suffolk Counties. The Davison family ran the mill from 1818 to 1920 after it was purchased by Robert Davison. The next operator was Robert's son, Alexander I.

The mill was inherited by three sons of Alexander Davison upon his death in 1868. One of the brothers (Alexander II) sold his share to the other two (Oliver and Charles), and the mill was renamed O. and C. Grist and Saw Mill. Sometime between 1868 and 1889, the rear addition was added to the original part of the mill. In 1882, Charles bought out Oliver's share of the operation. Charles sold lumber, timber, moldings, and wooden shingles; the grist milling took place on the second story. The Davison Ship Dock and Lumber Yard was south of where Atlantic Avenue now runs.

The last addition to the mill building was constructed around 1900. After the mill was no longer in use, the building was moved to opposite the Pearl Street Bridge on Ocean Avenue and was used as a warehouse by the Atlantic and Pacific Company (A & P). The mill building was in a deteriorated state and about to be demolished when the Village of East Rockaway purchased it from the Davison family for a dollar, at the urging of the village attorney, Wesley C. Hill. The roof of the building was removed on February 27, 1963 before beginning the move to Memorial Park, so the structure could fit under electric wiring. The building moved slowly through the town atop a house-moving trailer, crossing the railroad tracks on Ocean Avenue to Atlantic Avenue, west on Atlantic, and then north to the park. The mill was placed on a brick foundation that had been constructed at a corner of the park. The park was platted by the Village of East Rockaway in 1915 and has no ties to the mill's history.

A Grist Mill Museum Committee included an architect, Douglas Wilke, to guide the restoration process. Historical artifacts were gathered from community members, and the museum opened in June 1965. One of the main exhibits was an antique fire fighting hand pumper machine from 1893 nicknamed "Tootsie." Ironically, the machine was badly burned in the 1990 arson fire (a still-unsolved crime) and it took several years for it to be rebuilt by Amish craftsmen in Pennsylvania.

Shaver, Peter D. Studenroth, Zachary N. NRHP Nomination of Haviland-Davison Grist Mill, East Rockaway, N.Y.. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1998.

Sympson, Patricia C. East Rockaway. Charleston, SC. Arcadia Publishing, 2009.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haviland-Davison_Grist_Mill#/media/File:Haviland-Davison_Grist_Mill-5.JPG

New York State Cultural Resource Information System (NYS CRIS): https://cris.parks.ny.gov/

NYS CRIS: https://cris.parks.ny.gov/

NYS CRIS: https://cris.parks.ny.gov/

NYS CRIS: https://cris.parks.ny.gov/

NYS CRIS: https://cris.parks.ny.gov/

https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/img4/ht_icons/overlay/NY/NY_Hempstead_139681_1903_62500_geo.jpg

https://www.loc.gov/item/2013593266