History
A gristmill has existed on the site since the first decade of the 18th century, when John Robeson built on it. He in turn sold it to Jeremiah Williams, who is believed to have built the current mill sometime between 1715 and 1741. After another owner, it became the property of Hendrick Onderdonk, who already operated two paper mills in the settlement then known as Hempstead Harbor, in 1758.
He ran the mill profitably, and hosted George Washington, who mentions the mill in his diary, on a 1790 visit to the area. The Onderdonk family sold it in 1801 to Daniel Hoogland and Abraham Coles. They sold in 1849 to Joseph Hicks, whose family continued to operate it as a mill until 1916, when they converted it into a tea house and museum. That use continued until 1975, when the Nassau County parks department took it over.
Read more about this topic: Roslyn Grist Mill
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“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“The custard is setting; meanwhile
I not only have my own history to worry about
But am forced to fret over insufficient details related to large
Unfinished concepts that can never bring themselves to the point
Of being, with or without my help, if any were forthcoming.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)