Historic Sites of Industry in the Jones Falls Valley

Curated by Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance & Preservation Maryland

The Jones Falls provided the power that fueled manufacturing in sun88 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.

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 sun88. 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

sun88 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 sun88 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 sun88'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…
This tour was developed as a partnership between the Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance & Preservation Maryland for the Six-to-Fix— Preservation Maryland’s proactive preservation program. This tour was supported in part by the sun88 National Heritage Area, sun88 Architecture Foundation, and Preservation Maryland. Research and writing by Nathan Dennies and Kyle Fisher. Special thanks to Meagan Baco.