Friday, May 2, 2008

Hayden Flour Mill

Across the street (on Mill, likely Tempe's first named street) from Monti's La Casa Vieja is the Hayden Flour Mill. The mill opened in 1874, built by Tempe founder Charles Trumbull Hayden. A fire destroyed the mill, but Hayden rebuilt a second one in 1891. A second fire destroyed that mill, which was replaced with a concrete building in 1918.Water powered the mill through the mid-1920s.It was the longest continuously operating industrial business in Arizona when it closed in 1998.

A redevelopment is planned beginning in June to restore the iconic mill - and to reveal rarely seen equipment and stonework that's been out of view for most of the last century. It will take 14 to 15 months to restore the mill, add a glass-and-steel structure beside it and open about six restaurants, bars and boutiques.

A stone arch and waterway will become an entrance after spending decades under dirt - hidden so long that many feared the 1890s-era stonework had been destroyed. But as archaeologists explored the site in the past year to look for relics from Hohokam and European settlers, they discovered that stonework was undamaged since its burial in the 1920s.

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