Falls Mill was completed in 1873 for Robert N. Mann and Azoariah R. David. It replaced an older cotton spinning factory built here about 1840.

Women were primarily employed, working 6 to 10 months a year, and were paid $2 a week for a 72-hour work week in the early 1880's at the Falls Mills Manufacturing Company.

Bricks for the building were molded and fired on site. Timbers were sawed on an "up-and-down" sash sawmill, lap-jointed, and pegged together.

The headrace runs beside the mill and runs too the large waterwheel on the rear.

The ginning equipment was housed in another building, and the mill was used for power, bale storage, dances, and a skating rink. World War II brought and end to this enterprise. Looking down on the top of the waterwheel.

The mill has been restored and has been converted to a grist/flour mill, something it never was down through the years. The earlier grist mill had been in a different building, now demised.

Grain is actually ground with water powering the 32' waterwheel and mill products can be purchased at the mill store owned and operated by John & Jane Lovett, Spoom members. John is on the Board of Directors for the Spoom organization. Check at www.Spoom.org for further particulars about mill preservation & restoration.

A display in the mill of a waterwheel gudgeon. A gudgeon is the hub of the wheel on either end of the axle.

A few years after the mill closed in 1906, it was reactivated by the Lucas and Kieth families as a cotton gin. By this time the community of "Falls Mill" had grown around it, boasting a seperate flour mill, blacksmith shop, stores, and houses.

Cotton and woolen looms.GPS: 35D 5.93'N, 86D 15.69'W ele 833'/254 meters Huntland Quadrangle

A photo exhibited in the mill, digitally photographed by Bob Kinsey.

Mill products can be purchased at the mill store owned and operated by John & Jane Lovett, Spoom members. John is on the Board of Directors for the Spoom organization. Check at www.Spoom.org for further particulars about mill preservation & restoration.

Above see the date insribed on the door lintel, Man & David-1873.

A good view of the business end of the former textile mill turned grist mill.Jane Lovett/Manager134 Falls Mill Road, Bellvidere, Tn 37306 Phone: (931) 469-7161 - - E- mail: fallsmill@tnco.net - - Web: Open: Year round. Hours Open: Mon-Tues, Thurs-Sat 9am to 4pm, Sunday 12:30 -4 Closed Wednesday. Closed week of Christmas and New Year's.