Peirce Mill
historic mill building in Washington, D.C., United States
The Peirce Mill is a historic mill building located in Rock Creek Park, at Tilden Street and Beach Drive, Northwest, Washington, D.C., United States.
History
Issac Peirce, a millwright, built the mill either in 1820 or 1829.
Peirce rebuilt this mill according to Oliver Evans's ideas for milling, with much of the automated machinery on the upper floors. During the 1860s, as many as 12 wagonloads of wheat arrived for grinding. It was possible to grind 70 bushels per day per set of millstones. The last commercial load was ground in 1897, when the main shaft broke while Alcibiades P. White was grinding a load of rye. The building served as a public teahouse until the 1930s.
The United States Government bought the mill as part of Rock Creek Park in 1892.
Peirce Mill was restored as a Public Works Administration project, completed in March 1936, at a cost of $26,614.
Operation began on October 27, 1936, under the supervision of miller Robert A. Little.
“Peirce Mill” enters the record as historic mill building in Washington, D.C., United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Peirce, Mill and historic can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Peirce Mill” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Peirce, Mill and historic provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7160946. VIAF identifies the subject as 148030835. The Library of Congress control number is no91022361. Authority coordinates are 38.940, -77.052. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1820, 1829, 1897 and 1892.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Peirce Mill”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Peirce Mill primary sources, Peirce Mill archive and Peirce research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Peirce Mill” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.