I spend a lot of time around the site of the Olde Grist Mill during kayaking season, especially now that the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust has provided a Yakport kayak launch, making it so much easier for my friends and family to join me on the historic Kennebunk River.

I cannot be there without imagining the operational 1749 Perkins Tide Mill. I was never lucky enough to dine at The Olde Grist Mill Restaurant. Were you? I would love to hear about your experiences there and what the ambiance was like. Did it feel like a mill?

Arthur and Louise Perkins Lombard first opened it as a tearoom in July 1940 after Louise’s father, James C. Perkins, the final miller, retired. The editor of High Tide made note of the new business opening in the July 6, 1940, issue. Today, some of the images I am sharing are photographs of the restaurant taken by Jack E. Boucher in August of 1965.

As you may remember, The Olde Grist Mill burned to the ground in 1994. The Kennebunkport Conservation Trust purchased the property in 1997. During a 2011 archaeological survey conducted by Crane & Morrison Archaeology of the remains of the mill, samples were taken from one of the grist mill’s support timbers. Tree ring tests conducted at the Cornell University Dendrochronology Lab determined that the tree the timber came from was cut down in 1736, leading the archaeologists to wonder about the grist mill’s 1749 construction date.

A document from the Abner Perkins Collection rules out a 1736 build date since “lately built” would not describe a 13-year-old building. Also, a 12-year-old Eliphalet and his 8-year-old brother Abner would not have been much help in the dam and mill construction in 1736.

In 1736, other mill privileges were advertised for sale nearby on Bass Cove. Historian William Barry believed a sawmill was subsequently built at Lower Falls, across from where the golf course clubhouse now stands. Perhaps that mill failed and its timbers were reused at the gristmill. See newspaper ad from a 4-1736 New England Weekly Journal issue.