It has to be said that materiality is of importance when looking at such an old structure like the Hanford Mills Museum. As soon as you walk in the underground room, where the water wheel is kept and the gears grind, you can instantly smell the dampness of the wood and stone. These particular smells allow the history of this old but majestic mill fly up your nostrils to stir images of what it was like to build in the mid 1800's. In the mid 1800's most of the structure used for the construction of mills was wood and stone as steel had yet to be mas produced for the purpose of structure building. In terms of the Hanford mill the use of wood is evident and the stone blocks used for the foundation. The structure of the Hanford mill is quite complex and one can observe the different cuts and incisions made into the mood for the purpose of better fitting each wooden beam. Wooden nail like pegs can be seen holding a beam and column together throughout several joints in the structure of the mill. It is amazing to think just how important wood was to the structure of this building and how it still conserves so well today. I really want to learn more about the exact building process of an 1800's mill because it can give an insight as to why the current building process works the way it does.
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