Plans for historic mill grind slowly

Despite preservation grant, future uncertain for Souther Tide

By Robert Preer, Globe Correspondent, 10/16/2003

The Souther Tide Mill, a rare preserved 19th-century mill once powered by tide water, sits in limbo at the edge of Quincy's Town River. The board of the nonprofit organization that owns the empty building has not met in about two years. A support group, the Friends of the Souther Tide Mill, appears to have disbanded.

"The tide mill is a tough one," said Quincy Mayor William Phelan. "It would take a significant amount of money to renovate it."

The head of the Souther Tide Mill Historical Associates, the mill's nonprofit owner, said last week he is trying to find an investor to develop the property as a historic or tourist site.

"Nothing is happening right at the moment," said organization chairman Lou Mazzini. "We are trying to put money into it."

Earlier this year, a state historic preservation grant was used to stabilize the wooden building, which sits along a busy commercial strip on the northbound side of Southern Artery (Route 3A). The structure had been in danger of collapsing into the water.

Water still leaks through the roof, though, and the building is vulnerable to vandals and other trespassers, according to Joseph Chetwynd, former president of the Friends of the Souther Tide Mill.

Chetwynd said the mill is hemmed in by a new CVS store on one side and a new Dan Quirk car dealership on the other. Development of the mill would be difficult and costly, according to Chetwynd, who helped with some of the stabilization work on the building.

Thousands of cars daily pass by the unassuming building, the only significant structure still left from an era when the Town River in Quincy was an important port for ocean-going sailing vessels and a center of shipbuilding, grist and lumber mills, and other industrial activities.

Built in 1802 by a Boston merchant to process grain grown on Quincy farms, the mill functioned by trapping water from the incoming tide in a pond. Water then was released from the pond to power the mill.

John Souther, a millwright from Hingham, purchased the mill in 1815, and he and his descendants operated it for many years.

The mill eventually was converted to steam power and then electricity, but parts of the original tide mill are still intact. It is the best preserved tide mill in New England and one of only a handful left anywhere in the United States.

Efforts to preserve the mill, which closed in 1983, began in the early 1990s, when former Quincy Mayor James Sheets began trying to acquire the building for the city. Sheets was unsuccessful in negotiations with the owner, Elizabeth Cottle, whose husband had operated the mill.

After Cottle died, her heirs in 1999 sold the mill and surrounding acreage to the CVS pharmacy chain, which built a large store on the site.

CVS donated the mill to the nonprofit Souther Tide Mill Historical Associates, which the Sheets administration established to own and develop the mill.

At about the same time CVS was building its new store, Quirk built a dealership at the site of the former Duane's salvage yard.

The tide mill property is now only about 3 acres, which would not allow much space for parking if the mill were to be developed as a museum or for some commercial use, such as offices or a restaurant.

Sheets's loss to Phelan in the 2001 city election was a blow to the tide mill's supporters, according to Chetwynd.

"When CVS did their deal, and Quirk did his deal, and the mayor was out of office, I think everyone just said the hell with it," Chetwynd said.

Phelan said recently that he would like to see the mill preserved and that he also favors opening up the waterfront along the Town River to recreational uses.

He noted that on the other side of the river in Houghs Neck, the Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to start restoration of marshland, a project that will create more access to the river.

John Goff, a preservation architect from Salem who in the 1990s did studies of the Souther Tide Mill for the city of Quincy, said he can envision the mill's being developed as part of a network of historic sites.

"I'm the eternal optimist," Goff said. "If you are confined for space, the best approach is to develop thematic interpretations and link it to other sites."