Newlin Grist Mill

OUR TRAILS WILL REOPEN ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH! There are a few changes you need to be aware of before you visit: 1. Open hours are 7am to 5pm. New gates have been installed at the entrance to Newlin Grist Mill. These gates will be unlocked at 7am and locked at 5pm daily. Please keep this in mind when visiting the park. ... 2. Repair work is ongoing and not all trails are currently open. While the worst of the damage has been repaired, use caution and please be mindful of marked trails that remain closed while repairs continue. 3. The parking lot by the log cabin will remain closed or partially blocked off, as we continue to work on completing repairs. 4. Restrooms, visitor center, and historic buildings are still closed. Please be patient as we work to rebuild the visitor center and make repairs to our historic buildings. 5. Please be respectful of our staff and volunteers as they work on repairs throughout the park. We want to thank community partners MOR Construction Services, Inc, Visit Delco PA and Maguire Products for their support, and our passionate teams of volunteers for their many hours of labor. We also extend our thanks to the public for your support and your patience as we work together to #bringbackthemill

The weather is getting chilly but that doesn't mean we've been taking a break from flood cleanup and repairs! Last week, volunteers worked to repair bridge approaches along the Millrace and Industrial Trails. On Sunday, one of our summer camp friends celebrated her birthday by inviting her friends to help with leaf cleanup around the front parking lot, Visitor Center, and Miller's House. We appreciate all the help and are looking forward to even more improvements in the future! Interested in helping with future cleanup and repair? Please consider a donation at https://newlingristmill.org/donate-to-newlin-grist-mill/

Here’s one for #throwbackthursday ! A view of #newlingristmill in the late-19th century, when it was owned by the Hill family and operated as the Concord Flour Mills.

An Update from the Director -------------------------------- Dear Friends, ... As August comes to an end, I wanted to update everyone on the status of Newlin Grist Mill and to say thank you. The outpouring of support from our community has been inspiring at one of the most challenging times in our organization’s history. The back-to-back floods accomplished what the Rt 322 Project and the pandemic could not temporarily closing Newlin Grist Mill. The expression of support and offers of assistance are encouraging to everyone working at the Mill. Your generous donations are very much appreciated and have allowed us to stabilize the buildings and will help fix damage throughout the property. We are also grateful for giving us the time to assess the damage throughout the property and prepare a plan for dealing with this setback. The Visitor Center was hit the hardest with seven inches of water running through the first floor. The Archive received masonry damage and destruction of its mechanical systems. Both dams, the diversion channel, and millrace were damaged. There were over 165 cubic yards of materials washed out of the trails. The initial estimate is over $175,000 worth of damage, but that figure will increase as we incorporate stream stabilization and mitigation of future flooding into our assessment. Flood insurance will cover approximately one-third of these expenses; therefore, we are developing other strategies for raising the remainder. The Newlin Grist Mill and its surrounding park will remain closed until the trails and parking lots can be made safe for our visitors. This includes fixing the washed-out trails, replacing paving, removing trees and hanging limbs, replacing bridges, and fixing holes around the property. Our plan is to get the trails open as soon as possible but please be patient as there is a lot to do. We are working on ways to safely include volunteers into this process and will keep you informed. The floods combined with the pandemic mean that all events and in-person programs will be canceled for the remainder of 2020. We will continue to offer virtual programs and to develop more online content. Our energies will be focused on completing repairs and making the Newlin Grist Mill better when we reopen. We are all working hard to reopen the Newlin Grist Mill. The dedication of the staff and volunteers is inspiring as they labor to make the site safe and ready to welcome everyone back. If you want to contribute to the recovery efforts, please consider a donation, spread the word among your own networks, and stay up to date on all that's happening through our website (http://newlingristmill.org), here on Facebook, and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/newlingristmill1704). Together we will be able to #bringbackthemill ! -- Tony Shahan, Director Newlin Grist Mill

Our resident education toad, Tommy, seems to be channeling his inner Snoopy as he naps on top of his hide! #newlingristmill #easterntoad #toad

We're getting closer to being able to re-open most of our trails! This past week, we worked on getting the fencing back in place around the parking lots and installing our new front gate. Many thanks to all of the volunteers who are working hard on cleanup and repair right now. We could not do it without you! While we are almost ready to reopen the park, it doesn't mean that everything has been returned to pre-flood conditions. If you would like to help with the continuin...g cleaning up and repair, please consider a donation! https://newlingristmill.org/donate-to-newlin-grist-mill/ When you donate, you can receive a thank you gift from our friends at Wild Birds Unlimited https://glenmills.wbu.com/newlin-grist-mill-donation-volunt See more

The hard work of cleanup and repair continues! This week, our historic carpenter Gabe worked on a new beam, made out of white oak, that will be used to replace a set of stairs that was damaged in the Grist Mill. The staircase will lead from the mill door down to the grinding floor. If you would like to help with the continuing cleaning up and repair, please consider a donation! https://newlingristmill.org/donate-to-newlin-grist-mill/

A #bee enjoys #purpleaster in the Native Pollinator Garden at #newlingristmill we love our #nativepollinators !

We’re so happy to have our trails open againand so are our park visitors! Thanks to Cristina Dyer for sharing photos from her family’s first hike after we reopened. #newlingristmill #bringbackthemill

Autumn along Chester Creek at #newlingristmill . Our staff and volunteers have been hard at work repairing trails to #bringbackthemill we are in the home stretch, so watch for news about our reopening date!

Thank you to all of the volunteers have been hard at work over the last week, helping to repair trails in preparation for the park's reopening! Click through this series for some before and after shots. Making the main trails safe is just one small part of the flood recovery process. If you would like to help, please consider a donation to assist with covering the cost of cleanup and repair supplies! https://newlingristmill.org/donate-to-newlin-grist-mill/ When you dona...te, you can receive a thank you gift from our friends at Wild Birds Unlimited https://glenmills.wbu.com/newlin-grist-mill-donation-volunt See more

We hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! Staff and volunteers did take a break last week, but we did get most of the Log Cabin porch repairs done. The porch supports had been washed away and the area underneath was badly eroded (in fact, staff had to rescue fish stranded in a large puddle in the area after the flood!) Last week, staff and volunteers tamped clay back into the eroded spots and covered it with fine gravel. We're glad to see it starting to look like normal again!

Reproduction bottles by The Glassmakers for the Trimble House kitchen and pantry project at #newlingristmill . #museummonday

Our naturalist found this well-camouflaged Hitched Arches #caterpillar in the Native Pollinator Garden at #newlingristmill recently!

For this week's update, we want to highlight the amazing efforts of the volunteers who have been working so hard to get the park ready to reopen! Volunteers Todd and Abe cleared two whole bags of debris off of the stream banks. Meanwhile, other volunteers are busy repairing eroded holes in trails, cutting up fallen trees, and cleaning inside flooded buildings. Thank you everybody for your hard work! While volunteers are donating their time, we still have to purchase lots of cleaning and repair supplies. You can help support the process by donating here: https://newlingristmill.org/donate-to-newlin-grist-mill/ When you donate, you can receive a thank you gift from our friends at Wild Birds Unlimited! https://glenmills.wbu.com/newlin-grist-mill-donation-volunt

Don’t miss our upcoming virtual Newlin Series presentation with food historian Marc Meltonville. Visit our website or Facebook page to register for this free program! #newlingristmill #museummonday #history #historicfoodways #brewing @visitdelcopa @marcmeltonville

Here's a musical public service announcement about Spotted Lanternflies from our friends Edge Hill Rounders. Don't forget to squish the adults and destroy any egg masses you find! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ASP4nFj9Yk&feature=youtu.be

Don't forget to register for our upcoming program with Marc Meltonville!

Looking out at the Visitor Center from the main floor of the Grist Mill at #newlingristmill

October Update from the Director -------------------------------------------- Dear Friends, ... As I write on a crisp October day, I look around Newlin Grist Mill and cannot help but feel the loss, especially on what would have been our busiest day of the year - Fall Harvest Festival. Normally we would be welcoming demonstrators, tradespeople, performers, and our ever-expanding community for a day of fun and learning. Today the parking lot is torn up, the site is closed, and we miss our friends and neighbors. The pandemic and multiple floods have inflicted serious wounds to the organization but one of the biggest is separating us from members of the Newlin Mill family - our colleagues, volunteers, members, visitors, and our community. As I write on a crisp October day, I am very thankful! While damaged, the things that make Newlin Grist Mill a special place remain the buildings, trails, habitats, and open space. While we cannot gather at the mill currently, people in the Newlin Grist Mill community have shown us they are with us. The number of donations is inspiring and has enabled us to begin the cleanup and reopening process. Important donations have been received from Maguire Products Inc. and MOR Construction. The outpouring of volunteer assistance has been greater than we can safely handle. Support from our donors, members, and volunteers is making a real difference! As I write on a crisp October day, I am optimistic about Newlin Grist Mill’s future. The buildings have been stabilized and plans for repairs are in place. We expect materials to arrive soon that will allow us to begin repairing the trails. Work on repairing the front parking lot should begin next week. We hope to have the trails open later this fall. Our virtual programing is allowing NGM to reach larger audiences. We are using the challenges presented in 2020 as an opportunity to reduce future costs from flooding, use new technologies to connect with broader audiences, and evaluate all aspects of our organization and its programs. We are a long way from the finish and still need lots of help, but our progress has been amazing. Thanks to everyone who has contributed time and resources to help Newlin Grist Mill. We will be back soon! Wishing you all the best, Tony Shahan, Director Newlin Grist Mill

The park has been busy as we continue to make good progress on our trail repairs and site cleanup! This past Saturday, Boy Scouts from Troop 22 helped to clean and repair picnic tables and started the process of assessing the Frog Pond boardwalk frame for repairs and re-installation. Meanwhile, cleaning and repairs continue in the Grist Mill, Visitor Center, Blacksmith Shop, and parking lots. We've made lots of progress but could still use your help! Please consider a donation to help us cover the costs of cleanup, repair, and replacement. https://newlingristmill.org/donate https://glenmills.wbu.com/newlin-grist-mill-donation-gift-c

We were happy to see this fat #monarchbutterfly #caterpillar in the park! The Native Pollinator Garden sustained a lot of damage in the August floods, so this is a positive sign as we work to #bringbackthemill ! #newlingristmill #nativepollinators