08/27/2026
Gristmill and East Main, Late Summer, c. 1900: The trees are full but not yet big enough to obscure the view, big puffy clouds are in the sky—it must have been a warm day, c. 1900. With a picket fence in the foreground and the metal bridge crossing the Mill River close, we are just up on Nash Hill, perhaps near #4, looking west southwest across the bridge on East Main. The gristmill on Mill Street is on the far left. The Hiram Hill house ( #10 East Main) is at center, and the Russell Hill house ( #11 East Main) is at right. Today, in 2026, this mill, built after the Mill River Flood of 1874 washed away the original building, is part of the Williamsburg Historical Society, and the Hill homes, both of which survived the Flood, are now beautifully renovated and restored private residences.
If you look closely at the lawn to the right button manufacturer Hiram Hill’s large house, you will see what perhaps looks like a woman in a white dress, and a dog lying in the grass. Who might they be?
This is one of a small collection of Henry Everett photographs taken in Williamsburg at the turn of the 20th century. In the 1980s his daughter donated a handful of photographs to the Meekins Library, and they are now part of the Local History Collection. Daria D’Arienzo, Meekins Archivist. ; .
