El Molino Viejo, Spanish California's First Grist Mill

by Robert Glass Cleland

65 pages California Historical Society; Revised Edition edition (1971) English 0378071114 978-0378071116 Product 8.5 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches Shipping 9.6 ounces

65 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a brief but useful overview of the history of one of the oldest surviving buildings in southern California. In California terms, it's so old that the actual construction date is a little vague, but documents have been found to verify that it was still being built in 1816.
The building was a grain mill for the San Gabriel Mission. For anyone not familiar with the area, it would seem odd that the mill was built several miles from the mission itself, but this was dictated by the terrain and the relative shortage of small rivers of the type needed to run a water-driven grain mill.
After its brief use as a mill, it was a residence of various kinds, and even the clubhouse for a golf course for a while, but since the 1960s has survived to serve in various historical capacities, as headquarters of a historical society and more recently as an art gallery.
The photos of the building at different times are nice. A longer, more detailed book would have been nice, but Cleland repeatedly hinted that much of the history of the building has been lost or hidden over time. Even legends about the building are inconsistent, so this may be all he could actually verify.