Hanford Mills Museum

An operating mill site since 1846, Hanford Mills has harnessed the waters of Kortright Creek to support itself and its surrounding community for nearly 200 years. For the last fifty years, the mill has fulfilled this mission as a museum and historic mill site. By bringing to life historic choices and processes, the mill inspires exploration of the intersections between historic and current stories of community, energy, technology, and natural resources.

Its significance as one of the last nineteenth century mills to survive intact earned it a place on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The mill now operates seasonally, open on Wednesday through Sunday from mid-May to mid-October.

The mill was a rural industrial center between 1860 and 1945, first run by David Josiah Hanford and then his sons, Horace Hanford and Will Hanford.  In the 1890s, they began to supply residents of the surrounding community with electricity and continued to do so until NYSEG took over the responsibility in 1927.