Millrace Photo courtesy Graue Mill and Museum
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Graue Mill of Oak Brook
Designated an Illinois Historic Mechanical
Engineering Landmark, Graue Mill stands as a representative of an
important technology era in the history of America and its
mechanical engineering profession. Only a relatively few restored
mills remain as reminders of the many hundreds that exploited the
rich water resources and ingenuity of the early millwrights of this
country, making possible its preeminent growth in agriculture and
food processing -- despite the limited manpower available during
its westward expansion. Graue Mill boasted such original
engineering features as an undershot water-wheel, wooden gearing
system, belt power transmission, bucket elevators and associated
bolters and sifters.
Built and put into operation in 1852 by Frederick
Graue, the mill became an important early economic unit and
landmark in the community of Brush Hill now Oak Brook) and the
surrounding countryside. By the summer of 1852 Graue had completed
the brick mill, a building 45 feet by 28 feet in size, three
stories high with a basement. He put in two runs of buhrs and,
according to an early history, "has since run same mostly on custom
grinding." The present partial restoration of the mill and its
machinery in 1950 recreates some of the experience of these early
mills -- the sounds of water wheel, creak of wooden gearing,
rumbling of the buhrstones and the vibration of power. Run by the
Graue family for three generations, the mill ground wheat, corn,
oats and buckwheat and is still remembered vividly by older local
residents of the Oak Brook area as a leading economic force in the
community.
Project documentation comprises color photographs,
postcards, several brochures, a booklet of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers on the mill, a newspaper article, two matted
drawings of the mill, and a placemat handwoven at today's Old Graue
Mill and Museum.
Originally submitted by: Henry J. Hyde, Representative (6th District).
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