- Mill
- Water
- 1876-1983
- DeKalb County
- Location approximate
Houston's Mill (South Fork Peachtree Creek)
Washington Jackson Houston's 1876 gristmill on South Fork Peachtree Creek, converted in 1900 into DeKalb County's first hydroelectric plant. From 1903 the company he headed supplied electricity to Decatur and Agnes Scott.
The record
The DeKalb History Center says Houston ran the mill as a gristmill until 1900 and was president of the newly formed Decatur Electric Light, Water, and Power Company, which supplied electricity to Decatur and Agnes Scott beginning in 1903. H. J. Carr bought the property in 1922 and finished the Houston Mill House in 1925; Emory bought it from Mrs. Carr in 1959, and she kept a life estate until her death in 1976. Emory asked in 1973 to demolish the mill, which finally came down in 1983; its millstone went to the DeKalb History Center in 2001 and is displayed on the north lawn of the Historic DeKalb Courthouse.
Today: Emory's Houston Mill House and Hahn Woods, where remnants of the estate survive.