When I first visited Hall County's last standing grist mill in 2016, I traveled down a little gravel road in Lula and felt like I had stumbled into a fairytale. It stood before me as a looming wooden structure with a large, metal water wheel, surrounded by a fence and covered in tarps. However, its peacefulness and historic charm showed through the tarps and stabilizing additions. So when I had another chance to turn onto White Hall Road and see Healan's-Head's Mill mill after some extensive repair, I took it.
While the restoration is not complete, the transformation is apparent. Gone was the chain link and tarp barriers; the sagging, tired bones of the building had been zinged into perfect posture after stabilization efforts; fresh siding and a white wash brightened the face of our last grist mill. The rusty, brown wheel popped against the light siding. It was almost as if the mill had been tapped with a magic wand, fairy dust adding the sparkle of life back in to the old mill.
Healan's-Head's Mill is lucky to have many people acting as fairy godmothers: community members, local leaders, government officials and kin of those who used to live there are backing this transformation. Their fairy dust is hard work, dedication and a love for community heritage and the magic wand is made of construction crews and historic preservationists.
For Becky Ruffner, seeing the mill change from her family's mill to a historic site was challenging, but she said it helped to remember that the way the mill was in her memory was not how it looked when renovation began.
"The condition it had become and the decay, being unstable, leaning towards the river and wildlife living inside; I feel like there's been a rebirth. I feel like there was an old structure, an old homeplace and old place from my childhood that was dying. And it now has been given new life. It's really beautiful, and it's a beautiful spot and I think now with the condition that it's in, it can withstand many years and bring joy to many other people and to school children and to picnickers."
Ruffner, who works with the Hall County Parks and Leisure Department, gave me tour of the mill, and she invited Tiffany Grindle to join us, another Healan family member. The two are second cousins and both remember playing at the mill as children, even sometimes riding in the buckets on the big wheel.
"Being able to grow up here, having a lot of history from my grandmother, Burnice Healan - unfortunately my grandfather passed before I was born - but when they bought the place they were able to antique here and really have it for family, have Boy Scouts here, have my aunt live here, just have all of that history right here in our family and then be able to share it with others is absolutely amazing.
"I think it's something my grandparents would be really proud of, it's something I'm very proud to be a part of along with my family," said Grindle. Grindle's brother is co-chair of fundraising alongside Grindle, and her father, aunt and cousins are all playing a part in the mill restoration.
The efforts to preserve have led the group to complete phase one, leaving the mill stabilized and phase two, acquiring acreage around the mill. Now in stage three, the goal is to get the mill wheel functioning properly.
"We actually started the preservation effort in 2015. It took about two years to actually stabilize the mill and prevent any further decay and literally prevent it from falling in to the river. A lot of the really heavy duty preservation work went on during those two years," Ruffner said. "Over the last year we've done touch up here and there, laid some walkways, done some landscaping."
Ruffner said they left as much of the interior of the mill original as they could, including beams and walls, however new doors, windows, steps and floors were added for safety and because the originals were not salvageable. The machinery that was inside the mill was also removed temporarily.
Three porches were recreated as well: the Saw Mill Supervisor's Porch, allowing supervisors and the miller to observe the operations below the mill and right outside, below the porch; the large Storage Porch stored bags of grain and other items, as well as serving as the place where customers or farmers could drop off and recieve ground corn or wheat; the Millers porch, which opens up to the mill wheel and allows the miller to work on the mechanism or grease it. The Saw Mill Supervisors Porch and the large Storage Porch were likely added on in the 1930's remodel, according to Ruffner. There is also a small balcony off the warming room, which could be used to observe the wheel and whatever was going on.
As for the wheel work, Ruffner said eventually they want the water wheel to actually turn eventually.
"We've already started the design work, we've already had the guys out here to take the measurements to determine exactly what we need: to restore the wheel, how we get water to the wheel so it can actually run again," said Ruffner. "We've been in conversations with a gentleman out of North Carolina, he's a millwright. We have worked with him, he's already designed us a plan and given us what he expects the cost to be. He's working with our team of construction specialists." Ruffner said they were fortunate to have specialists in the county so they wouldn't have to hire out a contractor or laborers.
And like a true fairytale, the final phase will bring activity back to the once-bustling mill and create enjoyment for generations to come with a visitor's and heritage center on the property.
"What we're hoping to do is get on the SPLOST ballot, along with some fundraising by the Friends of Healan's-Head's Mill Committee, we're hoping that what we'll be able to do is build a visitor's center on 365," said Ruffner, adding it was only about a quarter mile from the mill to the spot on 365.
Ruffner said the visitors center would also serve as an interpretive center, including a mill museum.
The county recently purchased 96 acres of land around the mill. "The plan is to develop hiking trails from that center, down to the mill. There will be other hiking trails across the road from the mill and up in to those woods, so the purchase of those 96 acres allows us to do a lot of things."
If you'd like to see the mill, you're in luck. The second annual Boots and Bows fundraiser is coming up May 19. Snag a table for $100 or a single ticket for $20. Check out the invitation here. Grindle said there will also be another, family-oriented event in the fall.
Oh, and would an old structure be complete without a resident ghost? Grindle told me about how a little girl has been spotted standing in a specific window, upstairs in the mill. Maybe you can spot her if you visit....
