The frame 30'X 40' three story grist/flour mill was built from 1862-1878, by millwright Thomas J. Hannah for William & Joseph Elkins, using heavy hand-hewn timbers employing the mortise and tenon technique fastened with wooden pegs at the joints. The mill is sided with shiplap siding with vertical siding along the ground/water table level.

By 1875, proprietors, Joseph & William Elkins, were producing 160 barrels of flour/day. The Elkins Bros. were backers of the Willammette Valley & Cascade Mountain Wagon Road, the canal system, and railroading enterprises.

Some early millers were James Cowan, John Little, Jonathan Wassom, Luther Elkins, and Richard Creadle. Wassom 55 and his wife, Ruth, 53 and their two sons, W.R.Wassom, a 23 year old farmer, and O.A.Wassom 20, were from Pennsylvania.

Mary Kees 67, a sister-in-law to Wassom, and Philip Linebarger, a boarder from New York, lived with them.

Luther Elkins, a retired 71 year old Maine farmer, had a son Joseph 47 who was also a flour miller. Richard Cheadle, a 50 year old miller from Ohio, and his 45 year old wife, Louisa, had 3 sons and 4 daughters, between the ages of 28 and 3 years.

The mill was purchased some time in the 1994, along with the land belonging to it, by Linn-Benton Community College as a site to build a Lebanon center of the college.

The Lebanon Center and the East Linn Workforce Development Center Complex were built in 2003 with 44,000 square feet of classroom and office space for the LBCC Lebanon Center, DHS Community Human Services, the Oregon Employment Dept, and the Community Services Consortium.

A 2,500 square foot Annex was also built as a visitor center for the restored mill featuring rest room facilities, a kichen and several meeting rooms.

The Annex also contains an area of displays featuring the mill next door that LBCC exteriorally restored also in 2003 as part of the complex. Kudos to LBCC.

*Update: The mill has been stabilized and exterior windows, doors, etc. replaced. The mill has been painted and a more secure access provided. The interior is essentially empty. Martin Thompson 02/03/2008*