The 35'X 65'brick mill, 4.5 stories in height was built in 1864 by George Brinton as a merchant flour mill. A merchant mill ground wheat to flour not only for local customers, but for shipping to distant locations. The mill may have been built on the site of an earlier corn mill built by Francis Chadsey on the Brandywine as pieces of milling equipment were found along creekside excavations for the 1864 Brinton/Hoffman Mill.

The mill was well situated along a well-traveled crossroads and in 1858, a railroad line pushed in nearby. The mill sold in 1867 to Caleb Hoffman, then back to George, both going bankrupt in the process. I. Lawrence Haldeman, who had married Caleb's sister, bought the mill in 1871, and sold it in 1872 to Sellers Hoffman.

The mill then stayed in Hoffman family ownership through 1948, actually producing flour at that late date along with Brinton's Mill further upstream on the Brandywine and also Hoffman owned. The mill was operated by four turbines to take advantage of the velocity of water provided and not necessarily the volume.

The Oliver Evans milling system of automated production, as introduced earlier on the banks of Red Clay Creek a few miles to the southwest, was utilized from the beginning. By 1964 or thereabouts, the mill seemed headed for demolition, the land to become an industrial park.

It was saved from that fate, however, as it was purchased at auction by the Tri-county Concervancy, a local citizens group concerned with saving the meadow quality land along the Brandywines banks. The mill structure was kind of a tag-a-long in the deal.

Art exhibits proved quite popular and feasible in the old unrenovated mill, so it was decided to have architect, James Grieves design and restore the mill into a gallery for art exhibitions. In 1971, the Brandywine River Museum opened its doors for the first time. Check out this website for history of the mill and surrounding area. http://www.chaddsfordhistory.org/history/mills-hoffman.htm