Archaeologist Allison McGovern spoke at the Bryant Library on Feb. 19 about the process of uncovering local history at archaeological sites like the Roslyn Grist Mill. The event was hosted by the Roslyn Landmark Society.
In January 2020, the grist mill on Old Northern Boulevard was raised four feet above street level to construct a foundation. But before the foundation could be placed, McGovern worked to uncover artifacts buried beneath the mill before any potential damage could occur.
“Cultural resources are important, especially in this country, because they are major resources for us to document the undocumented past,” McGovern said.
The Roslyn Grist Mill was built sometime between 1715 and 1741, with the original grant from the Town of Hempstead to build a mill rewarded to John Robeson in 1698.
The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and hasn’t been open to the public since 1974 when a tea house located inside the mill closed after serving the community for over 50 years.
In January, the Roslyn Landmark Society received a $675,000 grant for phase three restoration efforts, which include reinstalling the mill’s husk frame and building a new water mill.
McGovern, who serves as the cultural resource manager at Brookhaven National Laboratory, said she hoped to find clues behind the mill’s Dutch architecture and building techniques, but the uncovered artifacts mostly dated from renovations that took place around 1916 just before the mill transitioned into a tea house.
The team, including preservationists, found beneath the mill an assortment of green and clear bottles, some etched in their bottoms with “Roslyn, New York. ”
McGovern also spoke about the importance of grist mills to early Long Island communities and how the now mostly forgotten buildings helped power the industry by grinding flour, wheat, and other grains in hamlets like Roslyn.
With the funding provided to the Roslyn Landmark Society, the next phase of restoration efforts is expected to start by the end of the year.
The lecture McGovern hosted was the first of the Roslyn Landmark Society’s 2025 speaker series. The next lecture will be “A Look Back at the Rich Equestrian History of Long Island in the 19th and 20th Centuries,” with Jerry & Rita Trapani at Trinity Episcopal Church on Northern Boulevard on March 23.
