Historic Sites of Industry in the Jones Falls Valley
Tour Description
The Jones Falls provided the power that fueled manufacturing in Baltimore in the 19th and 20th centuries. The string of mills built in the valley along the river had an indelible economic and social impact on the surrounding areas, the effect of which can still be felt to this day.
Locations for Tour
Mount Washington Mill
Mt. Washington Mill—historically Washington Mill, part of Washington Cotton Manufacturing Company—is one of Maryland’s earliest purpose-built cotton mills. In the early nineteenth century, the Napoleonic Wars and the Embargo Act disrupted imports and…
Woodberry Factory and Park Mill
John Payne, in his comprehensive 1798 tome, A New and Complete System of Universal Geography, noted the flouring mills along the Jones Falls near Baltimore. At the time, wealthy abolitionist Elisha Tyson owned two of the ten documented mills: one at…
Poole & Hunt Foundry and Machine Works
At its peak in the late nineteenth century, the Poole & Hunt Foundry and Machine Works employed over 700 people, making it one of the largest employers in the Jones Falls Valley after the textile mills. The company manufactured an impressive…
Meadow Mill
Baltimore industrialist William E. Hooper built Meadow Mill in 1877 during one of the most prosperous periods for industry in the Jones Falls Valley. Designed by architect Reuben Gladfelter, the structure represents the finest of Baltimore mill…
Hampden Branch, Enoch Pratt Free Library
The doors at Branch No. 7 of the Enoch Pratt Free Library opened to patrons on July 2, 1900, seventeen years after industrialist Robert Poole and fellow businessmen established Woodberry’s first community library. In 1899, Poole donated land across…
Whitehall Cotton Mill
Before the rise of textile mills, the fast-flowing water of the Jones Falls instead powered gristmills supplying Baltimore's lucrative flour trade. Whitehall Mill was established as a gristmill in the late 1700s and owned by James Ellicott, a member…
Mount Vernon Mill No. 1
Mill No. 1 sits on the site of Laurel Mill, a late 18th-century flour mill originally owned by prominent businessman and abolitionist Elisha Tyson. In 1849, the newly chartered Mount Vernon Company built a textile mill on the site. Mill No. 1 stood…
Mill Centre
Mount Vernon Mill No. 3 was once part of the network of mills owned by the Mount Vernon Mill Company. The village of Stone Hill, adjacent to Mill No. 3, was built around 1845 to house the growing workforce. Families housed in the cottage-like stone…