In 1790, George Washington stopped in Roslyn on his tour of Long Island. He stayed with Hendrick Onderdonk, who owned the grist mill, in the house that still stands as Hendrick's Tavern. In his diary he wrote about the work going on at the mill just down the road. To Washington, the mill was a working machine. The wheel turned, the stones ground, and the village gathered around both.
Roslyn now has the building back. The machine is still missing. Anyone driving Old Northern Boulevard past Roslyn Pond this fall sees a mill that looks the way it did in the early 1700s, with no wheel on it. A modern stormwater basin sits on the spot where the wheel has to go.
The Front Wall Went Up in September
In September the Roslyn Landmark Society reported that construction had moved to the south façade, the side of the mill that faces the street. By the end of that month the weatherboard was finished. In the Society's words, the exterior now reflects the way the building looked when it was first built, for the first time in centuries. The trim and siding are reclaimed old-growth yellow pine. The Society chose it because its tight, slow-grown grain matches the character and durability of the original wood.
That finished the second phase of the restoration. Phase 2 rehabilitated the timber frame, rebuilt the south wall, added new windows and doors, and put a cedar shingle roof back on. The mill was built between 1715 and 1741. It is one of the few surviving examples of early Dutch colonial commercial timber framing in the United States.
The building has had several lives on this site. It was the community's economic center for more than 150 years. In the early 20th century it became the Roslyn Mill Tea House, run by Miss Alice C. Titus, which served luncheons, afternoon teas and Sunday suppers. Roslyn Landmark Society Trustee Howard Kroplick recently recovered original menus from those years. After that the building was a museum until it closed to the public in 1974. That means the mill has been closed for just over half a century, and most of that time it was the building itself that needed saving. The building is now saved.
What Sits Where the Wheel Goes
Phase 3 turns the shell back into a mill. It covers a new water wheel, putting the mill's historic gearing back inside, and an ADA-accessible public entrance. The Society's October account names one remaining obstacle: a stormwater basin that currently occupies the site where the water wheel must go. It says moving the basin depends on continued community and philanthropic support.
The public funding has largely arrived. In January 2025 the Society announced a $675,000 New York State grant for Phase 3. On April 25, 2026, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman presented the second and final $1 million installment of the County's $2 million capital commitment. The ceremony took place at 1347 Old Northern Boulevard and was joined by County Comptroller Elaine Phillips, County Legislator Samantha Goetz and Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jennifer DeSena. The Society's account of the ceremony records Co-President Howard Kroplick thanking the County Executive:
"We have been working on this for a couple of years, and this promise you made is a promise you kept."
Nassau County owns the mill, and the Roslyn Landmark Society manages and restores it. The partnership behind the work also includes New York State and the Village of Roslyn, with support from the Robert D.L. Gardiner Foundation, the Gerry Charitable Trust, and members and donors.
The Society expects the mill to open to the public in 2027. In September 2025, Newsday reported a projection of Phase 3 finishing in spring 2027, followed by an educational fourth phase by the end of that year. The October 2026 account still calls the basin an obstacle, so 2027 is the target, not a promise. Without a wheel there is no gearing to drive, and that is why the basin is the item most likely to set the timeline.
Bryant's Mill Already Has Its Wheel
Roslyn already has a restored mill with its wheel back in the water. It is at Cedarmere, William Cullen Bryant's estate on Bryant Avenue in Roslyn Harbor, and the story behind it shows what the village mill is still waiting for.
There has been a mill at Cedarmere since the 1770s, when Richard Kirk built up the pond embankment and put up a water-powered fulling mill. Kirk's mill later worked as a paper mill and a planing mill and was used to cut glass, until it burned in 1849. Bryant had the current Gothic Revival mill built in 1862, as a mill below and a summer cottage above. It never ground grain. It worked as a power train for the estate: lathes, saws and grindstones could be attached to its drive as needed. It also pumped water from the spring-fed pond through underground pipes to a reservoir on the hill across Bryant Avenue, which supplied the estate's water.
Bryant had Cedarmere's mill designed for use, and it was put to new uses over time:
| Roslyn Grist Mill | Cedarmere Mill | |
|---|---|---|
| Built | Between 1715 and 1741 | 1862 |
| Original work | Grinding the region's grain | Powering estate tools, pumping water |
| Later lives | Tea house, then museum | Turbine drive c. 1885, sculpture studio c. 1930 |
| Owner | Nassau County | Nassau County |
| Restoration | Exterior completed September 2026 | 2008 to 2012, then a new waterwheel in 2023 |
| Waterwheel | Not yet installed | New wheel finished summer 2023 |
Around 1885, Bryant's daughter Julia had the waterwheel replaced with a turbine drive. Around 1930 the main floor became a studio for the sculptor Frances Godwin. The Gerry Charitable Trust paid for a restoration from 2008 to 2012. The Roslyn Landmark Society managed it with the Nassau County Department of Parks and Recreation. Later the Friends of Cedarmere led an interior and waterwheel project, and a new wheel was finished in the summer of 2023. In Newsday's account, reprinted by the Roslyn Landmark Society, water was turning the wheel and flowing into Hempstead Harbor.
The same organizations keep appearing. Nassau County owns both mills. The Gerry Charitable Trust funded Cedarmere's restoration and backs the Grist Mill. The Roslyn Landmark Society managed the first and is running the second. The people now working on the village mill have already done this once, and the step they finished at Cedarmere in 2023, putting the wheel back, is the step the Grist Mill hasn't reached.
Sunday, the Mill Has Visitors
This coming Sunday, November 1, the Friends of Cedarmere host Bryant's 232nd Birthday Celebration from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Cedarmere Estate, 225 Bryant Avenue. The afternoon includes poetry readings by local poets, birthday cake, mill demonstrations and special tours of Frances Godwin's sculpture studio on the mill's main floor. The event page asks guests to RSVP and to bring a donation wrapped as a gift. It lists no admission price.
Cedarmere is owned and managed by Nassau County's Parks, Recreation and Museums department. The Friends are a volunteer nonprofit that runs the tours and events. The grounds are open year-round. Outside event days, small-group tours are booked by appointment for up to eight people, with a suggested donation of $15 per person. The Friends' pages list slightly different tour times, so confirm when you book.
The Bryant thread continues through the following week, and a few other dates fall into the same stretch:
- Wednesday mornings: the Roslyn Farmers Market runs from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Christopher Morley Park, 500 Searington Road, with a season scheduled through December 20.
- Thursday, November 5: Koyu, a 12-seat omakase counter from Noam Shemel and chef Marc Spitzer, opens to the public beneath Okaru at 1401 Old Northern Boulevard, a short walk along the boulevard from the mill.
- Saturday, November 7: historian and former Roslyn Landmark Society Trustee Harrison Hunt gives a lecture on William Cullen Bryant from 3 to 4 p.m. It also celebrates the Bryant books and materials he and his wife, Linda, donated to The Bryant Library's Local History Collection. Registration is required, and the library's listing describes it as an online event.
- Sunday, November 8: last day of Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist of the Gilded Age at the Nassau County Museum of Art. NYC Glam: The 60s–80s opens there November 21 and runs through March 7, 2027.
Once the Grist Mill opens, Roslyn will have two working mill wheels about a century and a half apart in age, both owned by the County and both restored by many of the same hands. The Roslyn Landmark Society is collecting support for the last step at roslynlandmarks.org.
At Fran Mazer, we follow stories like this because Roslyn's older buildings are part of why the village feels the way it does. If you live in an older Roslyn home and are curious how its history might be presented when the time comes, Let's Connect.
