Beverley Mill Restoration At Throughfare Gap Needs Funds
By Deborah Fitts
May 2004 BROAD RUN, Va.

An effort to save the ruins of Beverley Mill, the Civil War landmark at Thoroughfare Gap, has taken a major step forward with the start of stabilization of the six-and-a-half-story stone building.

But the project, barely begun, has run out of money.

The mill, prominently located next to I-66 where the gap splits the Bull Run Mountains, was gutted by fire in Octo-ber 1998. The soaring stone structure with its gaping windows has been condemned by Prince William County. But a nonprofit group is working to change that.

"It's become a symbol," said Eileen Vroom, executive director of the nonprofit Turn the Mill Around Campaign. "A lot of people love this mill. It's endearing to them. It's been here for over 260 years, and it's a big part of the history of this area."

The mill group won a $300,000 federal transportation-enhancement grant in 2000 to shore up the building as a stabi-lized ruin. But the amount is less than half the $700,000 to $800,000 cost of stabilization, Vroom said, and the group's application for a follow-on grant last year failed.

Nevertheless, last fall Turn the Mill Around carried out a first phase of the project: stabilizing the south wall and the south corners of the building, which front the four-lane highway. Contractors anchored the wall by drilling the stone vertically through all the stories and inserting stainless-steel rods

"It's been extremely successful so far," said Vroom.

The fire consumed floor joists and weight-bearing beams. The roof collapsed, and firefighters used streams of water to knock in the building's two gable ends with their distinctive circular windows.

"The building was basically held together by gravity," said Vroom. "If it hadn't been so well built, it wouldn't be standing."

The contractor, Cintec America Inc., also temporarily shored the window openings. But there the project has halted pending additional funding.

Vroom contacted mill supporters and raised $25,000 from about 200 individuals. "I'm in the process now of trying to get corporate support," she said, as well as possible foundation grants.

Even after stabilization is completed, the group will still need "another couple of hundred thousand dollars" to develop trails over the 5-acre property, install interpretive signage and rehabilitate a 1930s mill store as a visitor center.

Local residents formed Turn the Mill Around following the fire. Before the fire, fans of the mill had tried for years to purchase the site, and worried about youths hanging out in the abandoned building. After the fire, the owner donated it to the group.

"These people saw the potential for preserving the site despite its condition of just four walls standing," said Vroom.

The grist mill, powered by the waters of Broad Run, was built in the 1740s by the father-son partnership of Jonathan and Nathaniel Chapman. The mill was a focal point of the battle of Thoroughfare Gap, Aug. 28, 1862.

Significant stabilization challenges lie ahead. "We see evidence of significant inward bowing" of the walls at the gable ends, Vroom said, and the heat of the blaze was so great that much of the interior-facing stone is fractured and is flaking off daily.

Project manager for the stabilization is Conservation Solutions Inc. of Washington, D.C. Washington-based Cintec America is headquartered in Great Britain, where the firm carried out the restoration of Windsor Castle following a devastating fire several years ago.

More information on the project is available from Vroom at (703) 753-3273, or the group's Website at www.chapmansmill.org. Donations to the mill may be made to Turn the Mill Around Campaign, P.O. Box 207, Broad Run, VA 20137. Donors receive the group's annual newsletter.