So named because of its situation on the James River midway between Richmond and Lynchburg in Nelson County, the prodigious stone Midway Mill was built in 1787 for William H. Cabell, governor of Virginia from 1805 to 1808. According to tradition, the mill was constructed by Italian shipbuilders stranded in Virginia after the cancellation of a ship construction project. During the mid-19th century, the mill became a familiar landmark for travelers on the adjacent James River and Kanawha Canal. The canal traffic prompted the establishment of a small settlement here to serve the passengers and boatmen. Midway Mill remained in operation until ca. 1925. Although one of Virginia’s finest historic mills, and one of its few surviving 18th century mills, at the time of its listing the deteriorating structure had stood vacant and unmaintained for several decades. Dismantling of the Midway Mill began in early 1999, and it was delisted from the registers in 2001. The Midway Mill property is located adjacent to the James River Wildlife Management Area in the Warminster Rural Historic District.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia