Lane's Mill Historic Buildings

Lane's Mill was a gristmill, sawmill and fulling mill on Four Mile Creek in Section 31 of Milford Township, within two miles of the present corporate limit of Oxford, Ohio.

History

The abandoned mill is on Lanes Mill Road, north of Wallace Road. The original mill was built about 1816 by Isiah Bryant and John Wallace, who also operated the mills for several years. It was rebuilt in 1850 by William Elliott (or Elliot) as a three-story mill, and its owners included James Smiley and later his son-in-law, William L. Lane of Oxford, whose name remains attached to the mill and the road. The Lane's Mill Historic Buildings, 3884 Wallace Road, were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The web site of the Ohio Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historical Society says: cquote|Lane's Mill Historic Group is a significant embodiment of 19th century mill activity in rural Butler County. The mill building, constructed 1848-1850, is also significant as being one of the few and probably the finest representations of stone mill architecture in south- western Ohio. Lane's Mill occupies a site that has been devoted to mill operations since 1816, and by 1837 was a locally important focal point for the processing of grain and wood. Butler County, in 1850, was the state's largest producer of Indian corn. William Elliot, cognizant of the demands to process this raw material, constructed the large, handsome mill in 1848. It was an undershot variety, powered by a race constructed for the previous mills. In 1853, Elliot erected the frame farmhouse; soon thereafter he was killed in an accident at the mill. The mill acquired its present name from William Lane, who owned the mill until 1898.

The Manrod family owned and operated the farm complex after the 1880s.