Matoaca Mill Site

Originally named the Providence Manufacturing Company, Matoaca Manufacturing (Mill) had its beginning here late in the 1700s on land then known as Olive Hill Plantation. Initially operated as a grist mill, by 1838 it was producing cotton cloth and paper. The mill contained 4,000 spindles and 170 looms. The paper it produced was used by publishers in Petersburg and other southern cities. The mill reached its highest number of employees by 1880, the majority of whom were women and children. Early in the 1880s, the mill modernized its plant equipment by adding auxiliary steam engines.