The Wolcott Mill is a three-story grist or grain mill in the Greek Revival style. It is built of hand-hewn oak timbers clad with clapboard. A wide cornice with ample returns runs beneath the low-pitched gable roof. The mill originally had a high-breast waterwheel that measured 14 × 16 feet. It was probably housed next to the main structure and used the waters of the North Branch of the Clinton River. Now, two Leffel turbines are contained in a turbine pit under the basement of the mill. The mill was completely electrified by the Detroit Edison Company in 1948 and today can run by water or by electric motor power. Arad Freeman, who came in the 1820s from New York State to Macomb County with his father, Benjamin, a miller, built this mill. It is on the site of one of three mills set up by Benjamin Freeman in Ray Township in 1824. The Freeman family operated the mill until 1864. In 1878, the mill was acquired by Frederick Beech Wolcott. He, and later his sons, altered and added to the mill, and between them they ran it for nearly ninety years, until 1967. Today, the Huron-Clinton Metroparks interprets early milling and farm life at Wolcott Mill.
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Wolcott Mill Historical Center
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