Taking a closer look at the Cooch-Dayett Mill
UD students envision a new future for Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site
Students from the University of Delaware learning what it takes to develop plans for a historic site will be sharing their thoughts with the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs (HCA), its supporters, and its newsletter subscribers through a series of articles the students penned about their time spent proposing ideas for the Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site near Newark.
The student authors are from a class taught in Spring 2024 by HCA’s Historic Sites Team Manager Daniel Citron and Engagement and Collections Manager Meg Hutchins.
Taking a closer look at the Cooch-Dayett Mill
By Abby Lichtenwalner
If you live or work around Newark, you’ve likely passed it before: At the corner of South Chapel Street and Old Baltimore Pike, a property of what appear to be abandoned buildings faces the bustling urban sprawl in one direction, and a quiet forest in the other. The property includes a large white house, a warehouse, abandoned train tracks, a field and one tall, industrial building. This central building’s use is unclear from a passing glance — a mesh of brick and metal, beams, pulleys and windows. So, what is it?
The property is known as the Cooch-Dayett Mill, once owned by the Cooch family and now maintained by the State of Delaware’s Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs (HCA). The first time seeing the property was in the dark, on a cold February evening. A small, warm light flickered from the mill’s interior. The first room I entered reminded me somewhat of a 1970s fire hall, the kind with wood paneling and warm, fluorescent lights. This office had been used as a meeting spot for various proprietors of the mill and local organizations for decades.
The actual mill, accessed behind that meeting area, opens into a musty room full of dark wood, old signage and rusty weighing stations. It is noticeably colder than the previous room, with a rich smell, indicating the age of the place. In one corner sits a roughly 10-foot by 10-foot model of the mill. All around it, the actual, once-functioning flour mill sprawls. Wooden transportation chutes, pulley systems, sifters and scales fill empty rooms. The walls are covered in antique posters, like those warning mill workers against smoking in the highly flammable conditions. Metal netting covers portions of the mill that would have been dangerous to workers’ hands.
The mill is somewhat of a maze. Navigating the interior of the mill requires moving through narrow passages and under once-moving belts. It is impressive to imagine former workers knowing these passages like the back of their hands, moving through familiar paths with ease. The mill goes up for three floors — the highest floor is warmer than the rest, and flour chutes beam down from the ceiling and through the floor below. During the day, bright daylight would enter through the windows lining the Georgian roof. One of the best parts of this visit, however, was not the impressive inner workings of the mill, but the evidence of a small occupant living in one of the flour reservoirs. Likely a raccoon, during a nighttime visit you can hear it traveling in and out of its wood-and-brick home.
This mill, a valuable part of Delaware history, is not yet open to the public. HCA is in the process of scoping out the space for renovations, and planning to make this a fully functional historic site. Even now, in this early state, the Cooch-Dayett Mill is a wealth of knowledge for processes many of us are no longer familiar with. The main mill was constructed in 1838, following various other mills built on the property even earlier. It has undergone many uses through the years: Once it produced flour for human consumption, during the mid-20th century it supplied products for animal feed, and now it is a testament to a past era of local, small-scale production.
The University of Delaware museum studies class that brought me here is focused on developing possible frameworks for the Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site to use in the future, providing more access to the public, students and educators. Possible mill renovations could include increased physical accessibility, self-guided tours and interactive mill demonstrations. The mill has endless potential as a historic site, and we are all looking forward to seeing how the site will interact with the public next.
Abigail Lichtenwalner is a senior at the University of Delaware majoring in art conservation and art history and minoring in museum studies.