John and Jane Lovett, Falls Mill and Museum owners, invite everyone to the last event for their 150^th-anniversary-year celebration of the mill on Oct. 14.

The last event will be a celebration of their one-room log schoolhouse. Everyone is invited to hear interpreters John Lovett, Christy Anderson and Sunday Perkins in 1890s schoolmaster and schoolmarm attire presenting a program from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. highlighting a typical day for a student in the 1890s.

Visitors are urged to tour the reconstructed log structure featuring furnishings from the period.

An exhibition of contra dancing by the Flat Creek dancers of Shelbyville will begin at 12:30 p.m. This family-oriented group consists of a large group of teenagers. The blacksmith shop will also be open.

Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students and $3 for children. All proceeds go to the nonprofit Museum of Power and Industry at Falls Mill for restoration and exhibit development.

About the old schoolhouse

The one-room log schoolhouse was constructed by John Lovett and John Bush’s local contracting company from logs donated by B&W Growers.

The logs came from a corn crib near Kelso in Lincoln County. The schoolhouse contains late 19^th -century furnishings, including desks, slate boards, maps, books and lunch pails as well as many other articles from that period.

About Falls Mill

Falls Mill operated as a cotton and wool factory until 1906. The cotton gin on site continued to process area cotton until World War II.

The surrounding village included a mercantile store, a blacksmith shop and several residences. After the war, the mill building was converted to a woodworking shop, then restored in the late 1960s as a grain mill.

John and Jane Lovett bought the mill property in 1984 and continued the grain-milling operation until 2015. They also established the nonprofit Museum of Power and Industry at the mill. Property has been added over the years, and the site is now owned by the Lovetts’ museum trust.

Falls Mill was the first site in Franklin County to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. In 1987, the area was designated the Falls Mill National Register Historic District.

During the time the Lovetts have operated the mill, they have acquired a large collection of 19^th-century textile machinery similar to the original equipment in Falls Mill. Much of this machinery has been restored, and some is operated for group tours and special events, all powered by the mill’s 32-foot water wheel installed in 1906.

Jane also demonstrates hand-spinning and weaving during group tours, and John operates the blacksmith shop and provides a brief educational program in the log schoolhouse.

The Falls Mill property includes almost 100 acres of scenic waterfalls, woodlands and farmland. There are picnic areas and hiking trails, a picnic pavilion and a bed-and-breakfast log cabin which was opened for visitors in 1989. Four other log buildings have been moved and reconstructed on the property, including the schoolhouse, a corn crib/carriage house and a smokehouse now used as a blacksmith and project shop.

The Lovetts live in a large, log stagecoach inn next to the mill building. The mill itself includes a sizable collection of textile and grain-milling artifacts, as well as numerous antique items and memorabilia of special interest.

Printing is demonstrated on a 1904 rotary press and a circa-1885 Washington-style hand press, the latter of which was formerly in one of the Winchester newspaper offices.

A country store is on the second floor of the mill, and the third floor houses a rare and enormous yarn-spinning machine known as a mule. One of the most popular items is a dog-powered treadmill used to operate a butter churn and other household devices in the 1880s.

The mill is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from early April through the Thanksgiving weekend.

The bed-and-breakfast cabin is available year round. A nominal admission is charged to tour the mill and grounds and support the various restoration, exhibit and maintenance projects carried on by the museum.

The museum has always been funded exclusively by admissions, donations from individuals and a few small grants from private foundations. During this 150^th-anniversary season, the museum has sponsored three events. The first was a textile arts exhibition, the second a blacksmith demonstration day and the third the yearly museum members’ picnic. This year, about 90 members attended the picnic.

 The museum sends out a biannual newsletter to about 350 recipients and includes it on the website at fallsmill.com.

Falls Mill is a longtime member of the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills. The principal goal of this organization is to assist in preserving the remaining historic mills in the United States and Canada. These include approximately 4,600 surviving old mills, with about 500 of this number in an operable condition. The great majority of these are grain mills.

Falls Mill is the only known operating water-powered textile factory in the United States built before 1875, and it houses machinery representative of that period. It is a unique and important historical attraction in Franklin County.

For more information, visit fallsmill.com or call 931-469-7161. Falls Mill is located at 134 Falls Mill Road in Belvidere.