Visitor Information
Past Events
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Jul 4, 2010
Celebrate Independence Day and Learn Our History! Free Admission -
Apr 8, 2010
Lecture on 18th-Century Architecture in North Carolina--SOLD OUT! -
Feb 16, 2010
Annual Meeting of the Joel Lane Historical Society -
Feb 4, 2010
Lecture on Slavery in North Carolina in the 18th Century -
Jan 21, 2010
Lecture on the Women of Joel Lane’s Family -
Dec 5, 2009 - Dec 6, 2009
Christmas Open House 2009 -
Nov 27, 2009 - Nov 29, 2009
Special Hours on Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving Weekend -
Nov 12, 2009
Lecture on Wake County’s Participation in the Revolutionary War, 1775-1783 -
Oct 29, 2009
Tavern Party -
Oct 4, 2009
Lecture on George Washington’s 1791 Tour of the South--SOLD OUT -
Sep 20, 2009
Lizzie Lane’s Colonial Tea 2009--SOLD OUT -
Jul 4, 2009
An Old-Fashioned July Fourth, 2009 -
Jun 15, 2009 - Jun 19, 2009
Colonial Day Camp at the Joel Lane Museum House -
Apr 23, 2009
Back by popular demand, Jim Jones will lecture on “Comitia Americana Medals.” -
Mar 13, 2009
Concert of Early American Music by Nationally Renowned Musicians -
Feb 19, 2009
Lecture on “George Washington’s 1791 Tour through the South” WAS SOLD OUT -
Feb 10, 2009
Joel Lane Historical Society Annual Meeting -
Dec 6, 2008 - Dec 7, 2008
The Simple Joys of a A Colonial Christmas -
Nov 13, 2008
Lecture on “Promoting Heritage Tourism Through the Preservation of City-Owned Cemeteries” -
Oct 23, 2008
Lecture on “The Anglican Church in North Carolina in the Colonial Era” -
Sep 28, 2008
Lizzie Lane’s Colonial Tea -
Sep 13, 2008
Volunteer Open House -
Jul 4, 2008
An Old-Fashioned July Fourth, 2008
Lecture on “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Water Mills of Wake County”
The Joel Lane Museum House is delighted to present a lecture on “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Water Mills of Wake County” by R. Doug Swords at 7 pm on Thursday, November 11 in the Visitors Center. Admission will be $15 for the public and $10 for members of the Joel Lane Historical Society. Refreshments will be served. Seating is limited, and advanced purchase is required. Please call 919-833-3431 with your MasterCard or Visa, or mail a check to P O Box 10884, Raleigh NC 27605. Be sure to include the names of all in your party; nametags will serve as tickets.
Doug is Director of the Grist Mill Location Project and is working in conjunction with the NC Division of Archives and History on the project. Many of the mills’ locations are not revealed to the public in order to protect what remains. He became interested in 19th century (and older) water mill sites as a professional photographer working for the State of NC. His responsibility was to photograph old and possibly historic structures, and during this work he came upon Heartsville Mill Dam, known presently as Mitchell Mill State Park. After completing his computer science degree and moving into the software industry he still searched for these old sites. It was his plan to locate and map as many as possible. His career kept him out of the country most of the time, and it was only in 2007 that he was able to return to this project. Doug was alarmed at how many of the standing mills had been destroyed by floods in the interim so his object then was to locate and photograph as many remaining sites as possible, with his son as the photographer and his partner. To date they have located more than 60 sites, but there are probably in excess of 100 still to be found. He is currently a member of the International Molinological Society and has contributed to their library of information as well as published papers in their journal. He has created a modern map of the located mill sites in Wake County that is currently on display at the Olivia Rainey Local History Library.
The presentation goes into the methods used to locate these sites, presents photographs of several of them, and delves very slightly into milling. Doug shows the location of the sites on the 1870 Fendol Bevers Map and the same locations on a modern map. He will show the differences in mill dam construction and discuss how we can determine when a dam was built (to some degree). It is amazing to see what is lying out in the open, sometimes in people’s back yards, and to realize that some of the original mechanisms of these mills have been lying in the same place for nearly 200 years. To see a photo, click here: Water Mills of Wake County
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