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Starr’s Mill finally gets historical marker

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Officials from the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah traveled to Fayette County last week to unveil a new marker detailing the history of Starr’s Mill.

They were joined by members of the Fayette County Historical Society and the Fayette County Heritage Project on Thursday afternoon in unveiling the sign fronting Ga. Highway 85 South.

The black steel sign with silver lettering bears the seal of the Georgia Historical Society and explains that the first mill on the site was built by Hananiah Gilcoat sometime before his death in 1825.

At the time, the site on Whitewater Creek was less than a mile from the boundary between the Creek Indian Nation and the young state of Georgia.

Fayette County was carved from former Creek land ceded to the state in 1821.

Hilliard Starr owned the mill from 1866 to 1879 and gave the site its current name, the plaque reads. Two previous log structures on the site burned, and the familiar red clapboard building that stands today was erected in 1907. It continued to operate as a mill until 1959. For a time, the waterfall at the mill also operated a dynamo that produced electricity for nearby Senoia.

At one time, when Hwy. 85 was a major north-south route between Atlanta and Columbus, Starr’s Mill had a reputation for being one of the most photographed sites in all of Georgia.

Today perhaps, the mill is best known around the state for the name it shares with nearby Starr’s Mill High School, which opened in 1997.

The Starr’s Mill sign is just the fourth official state historical marker to be located in Fayette County, according to the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.

One stands on the Courthouse Square in Fayetteville and briefly describes Fayette’s beginnings. In Peachtree City, a marker identifies Holly Grove AME Church, and another stands at the Palmer Family Cemetery on Senoia Road just east of Ga. Highway 74 North in Tyrone.

The Georgia Historical Society began erecting markers in the state in 1998, after the Department of Natural Resources gave up the task. But funding is limited and adding new markers each year is done on a competitive basis by application. A review committee decides which requested sites are worthy of getting a marker, and then the $2,500 cost of manufacturing and erecting the marker is shared between the society and the local applicant.