" Mineral processing plants, lumber mills, and factories are highly specialized production centers that can exist only if linked transportation and communication systems with suppliers of raw materials for finished products." (Meyer 249)
The Hanford Mills were ideally located along Kortight Creek, which provided the water power necessary to run a rural industrial complex. The complex started with the most prominent feature, the mill, in 1846. The second most prominent feature is the transportation system; a railroad line runs through the site, an added benefit, for importing raw materials and exporting finished goods. When the Mill was in production ramps would extend out from every door to create direct lines of production in and out of the railcars.
It grew overtime, into a mill complex which made specialized goods for over 100 years. The mills and plantations in this era share similar singular purposed buildings spread along a rural complex. Although it does not share the same elegance of the plantations, where each building is perfectly aligned upon an axis. The mill has an elegance of it's own, laid out according to the rules of efficiency. The increasing specialization of the goods manufactured at the mills and the location of resources had a direct effect on the spatial integration of the new buildings placed on the site.
The Creamery was typically a one story rectangular buildings constructed of stone or wood, which incorporate a cooling moving stream or an accompanied ice house for cooling and storage of milk, butter and cheese. Roof vents would have been used to vent warm air. Typically production was on a small scale on each farm, but the Hanford mills built a farmer's co-op factory-sized creamery and nearby ice house which was built in 1902 but is no longer in operation and the buildings have been removed. It wasn’t uncommon for towns to build around a mill, and the community stores built an ice house on the site, between 1890-1910, which is also no longer on the site. But a replication has been produced for the museum and it is still in use for special events. Ice harvests were held in the winter and blocks of ice were insulated with sawdust in a double walled shed.
The Hanford Mills also had a chicken coop and smokehouse, located near the John Hanford Farmstead. Smoke houses typically were masonry structures, made of brick or stone and had small gable-roofed, windowless frame with a solid wood or sheet metal iron doors. Meat is hung over a smokey fire which seals its surface, but doesn’t cook it. Conveniently and efficiently located is the chicken coop , which is raised on posts and double walled for ventilation and insulation.
It's interesting to analyze the relationships of all these small buildings seemingly scattered among the site. With a closer view you can see how they are laid out according to the avalibilty to natural resources. The mill is situated to harness the water power of the pond, while its supporting ammenities are nearby, the lumbershed, feed mill and railroad tracks. Around the house there are more domestic functions such as the chickencoop and smokehouse. The barns and garages are situated to provide room for the animals but also allow easy access.
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