The Roslyn Grist Mill’s history emerged in a virtual lecture hosted by the Roslyn Landmark Society last week.

The Roslyn Grist Mill, which was built between 1715 and 1741, is a unique surviving Dutch-framed watermill. Today, it is ​​listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The May 25 presentation, “The Magic of the Old Mill,” focused on the mill’s time as a tea house from 1920 to 1974. The program featured a film of rarely seen archival photography narrated by Carol Clarke and Ariel Morabito.

“The voices you’re going to hear belong to individuals who knew the tea house intimately during the 50 years that it operated as the Roslyn Mill Tea House,” said Morabito. “They reveal little-known details about the mill and about the tea house.”

People interviewed in the film included former tea house proprietor Alice Titus and Peter Lynch, a one-time Nassau County fire marshal. Born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they spoke about their ties and stories of the mill.

In one excerpt, Eda Hicks Seaman, a Roslyn resident, shared a story about the circus passing by.

“I was told that the circus was moving from New York to the eastern end of the island. When the elephants reached the mill dam, they very gingerly put their foot out and felt the structure and refused to go over [the road],” she said. “They knew it wouldn’t hold them and they had to go around the ponds.”

Following the film screening, guests took part in a Q&A session.

During this, Jennifer Lister, the Roslyn Landmark Society’s executive director, offered a two- to three-year timeline. She explained how the structure, which had been raised eight feet above ground level years ago, was set to be re-lowered last week.

“We are now lowering it tomorrow about three to four feet to get closer to the foundation,” Lister said. “So that we can restore the timber frame and redirect all the timbers that we had been restoring off-site for the structure.”

She continued by saying that it will allow workers to better facilitate and navigate the timber frame.

Plans for the mill after the restoration was brought up. Lister described how it would be transformed into an educational center.

“We’d like it to have archival information. So the history of the grist mill and how it was used, how it produced grain and how it operated,” she said. “We’ll be working on restoring the wheel and the husk frame, which is the most historic portion of the mill. That will allow us to show and demonstrate how it operated in its earliest days.”

Lister also responded to a query about the space being used for an art gallery.

Because Nassau County owns the site, the landmark society has an arrangement to lease and restore it. She expressed confidence in the county’s willingness to do so.

The Roslyn Landmark Society is a non-profit organization that was created in 1961. They aim to educate people about the history of Roslyn and its surroundings.