Vintage Austin: Anderson Mill

Photo Credit: Austin History Center, ASPL_AR-Y-005-1761

This Vintage Austin photo from 1935 features Anderson Mill, which you can still visit today. Well, maybe not today, but you can visit it on the fourth Sunday of each month from March to October between 2:00pm and 5:00pm.

In the late 1850s, after moving to Texas from Virginia, Thomas Anderson and his two sons built a mill along Cypress Creek. In 1863, The Texas State Military Board tasked the mill with making gunpowder for the Confederacy. After the war, it was converted back to a gristmill, so popular that farmers sometimes had to camp nearby for several days waiting for their turn to have their corn ground into flour. Eventually, steam-powered mills forced Anderson out of business.