Millvale / Ellerbe's Mill

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Millvale, built around 1830 by Garner Sanders, is a two-and-one-half-story pine clapboard building mounted on wooden pilings situated on a 90-acre millpond. The grist mill, in operation since before the Civil War, is a functioning example of an essential nineteenth century industrial process. Its water power is derived from internal chutes and a turbine rather than a wheel. Modern equipment has been added to the grist mill – working parts were replaced in 1880 and the interior was remodeled in 1928. The building was once a center for social and political interaction in rural Sumter County. Ellerbe’s Mill and the nearby store (originally built before the Civil War but replaced in 1910) once formed the chief commercial center for a 10-mile square area. In addition to the mill and store, structures on the property include a ca.1890 house, several tenant houses, and a dovecote. The two-story white clapboard house was built by W.C.S. Ellerbe, nephew of Sanders, and features a first floor veranda with square columns and gingerbread scroll saw-work and a second floor partially screened porch with a Victorian vine-bracketed balustrade. Listed in the National Register