Cotton Mills of the Jones Falls
Rock Mill/Timanus Grist Mill Dam
(built c. 1792) Falls Road & Jones Falls Bike Trail
Timanus Grist Mill as it appeared between 1898 and 1933. (Hand-colored postcard from the collection of John McGrain)
Timanus Grist Mill dam in 2013.
The exact date Rock Mill was built is uncertain, but a 2-story grist mill with two water wheels owned by Thomas and Samuel Hollingsworth was here in 1792. The mill was rebuilt around 1840. Its name changed to D.C. Timanus and Brothers in 1882. E. Clay Timanus — Baltimore mayor from 1904-1907, after the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 — worked here from the age of 15 (Coyle 203–210).
The mill was rebuilt after a fire in 1898 and ceased milling grain sometime before 1915. It was torn down c. 1933 by the city of Baltimore to “aid flood control.” The mill dam is still intact, 1,000 feet south of Mt. Vernon Mills where the Jones Falls Bike Trail crosses Falls Road. There is a path down from Falls Road to an overlook above the dam, built by developers Bill Streuver and Ted Rouse (McGrain 593–595). It is surprising that the dam is intact given the damage sustained by the mill dam above Mt. Vernon Mill #1 just a few hundred yards away.