Fredericksburg, Virginia.
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In front of you stood the Germania Mill, built in 1866 by Myer and Frederick Brulle. Both men were immigrant German confectioners who teamed up after the Civil War to became millers.
Fredericksburg’s upper canal powered this enterprise and Germania Mills Brand Flour was shipped as far as New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, and South America.
Business flourished well into the twentieth century and the concrete grain elevator was added in 1917. The days of water powered milling, however, were ending. More cost effective processing elsewhere relegated this once bust industrial building to use as a storage facility. A fire reduced it to a ruin in 1980 and it was fully demolished in 2010.
(sidebar)
Germania Mill, Inc
Manufacturers of High Class Brands of Flour and Meal From Choice Wheat and Corn
Choice Superlative and XXXXX
Extra Germania Flour, Family, Meal, All Water Ground.
—(Advertisement from The Daily Star, Fe, 28, 1917)
(captions)
This 1968 photo shows the old Germania Mill still intact on Caroline Street. In the foreground is the one story City Electric Light Works (inactive since 1919) and in front of that, the stone lined tailrace of the Washington Woolen Mills. (Image courtesy of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources)
This drawing by Gustavus Erickson depicts an 1876 fire that destroyed much of the original mill. Myer and Brulle quickly rebuilt and remained in operation for several more decades. (Image courtesy of the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center)
(Industry & Commerce • War, US Civil • Man-Made Features • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
In front of you stood the Germania Mill, built in 1866 by Myer and Frederick Brulle. Both men were immigrant German confectioners who teamed up after the Civil War to became millers.Fredericksburg’s upper canal powered this enterprise and Germania Mills Brand Flour was shipped as far as New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, and South America.
Business flourished well into the twentieth century and the concrete grain elevator was added in 1917. The days of water powered milling, however, were ending. More cost effective processing elsewhere relegated this once bust industrial building to use as a storage facility. A fire reduced it to a ruin in 1980 and it was fully demolished in 2010.
(sidebar)
Germania Mill, Inc
Manufacturers of High Class Brands of Flour and Meal From Choice Wheat and Corn
Choice Superlative and XXXXX
Extra Germania Flour, Family, Meal, All Water Ground.
—(Advertisement from The Daily Star, Fe, 28, 1917)
(captions)
This 1968 photo shows the old Germania Mill still intact on Caroline Street. In the foreground is the one story City Electric Light Works (inactive since 1919) and in front of that, the stone lined tailrace of the Washington Woolen Mills. (Image courtesy of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources)
This drawing by Gustavus Erickson depicts an 1876 fire that destroyed much of the original mill. Myer and Brulle quickly rebuilt and remained in operation for several more decades. (Image courtesy of the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center)
(Industry & Commerce • War, US Civil • Man-Made Features • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Desperate for economic growth, following the Civil War, Fredericksburg embraced the technological innovation of hydroelectricity. In 1887, a local firm converted an old grist mill near the Falmouth Bridge to an electric generating plant. In 1901, the local government built its own hydroelectric facility, calling it the City Electric Light Works.
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Heavy fighting erupted in this area on May 3rd and 4th, during the Chancellorsville campaign. On May 3rd, Brigadier General Cadmus M. Wilcox moved several Alabama regiments into the area (1) and confronted Federal forces at this canal (2). When the Union Sixth Corps broke through at Sunken Road (3), most of the Confederates retreated down the Telegraph Road, now called Lafayette Boulevard (4). Wilcox, however, chose to delay the Federals as they advanced out of Fredericksburg (5). The Sixth Corps pushed west as Wilcox fell back (6). Confederate reinforcements bolstered Wilcox at Salem Church, where they battled the Federal advance to a halt (7). The Northerners pulled back to a defensive position, which included these hills previously held by the Alabamians.
Along the VCR
In the 1850s, work gangs leveled this railway bed by cutting through hills and filling in valleys. They established culverts where the mounded earth would have otherwise blocked streams. To construct such facilities, they first laid down a bed of heavy timbers, which established the proper fall for the water. Two rows of large stones, capped with more stones, then created a solid tunnel through which water could drain.
To your left front is a ravine that leads up from Hazel Run to what was once the 230-acre farmstead of Walker Landram. In 1854, he had sold 6.5 acres on the southern edge of his farm to the railway company, where you are now standing. When the Civil War came to Fredericksburg, Landram owned 13 slaves and had become a reasonably prosperous farmer. The 1860 Census valued his land, tools, and slaves at $8,100.
Steam was used to heat the new cellblock and administration wing added to the prison in 1889. Though the boiler was only intended to serve the new addition it heated the entire prison (both cellblocks). Working beyond its capacity, the old boiler needed repairs by 1898. 
In 1877, the Fredericksburg and Gordonsville Rail Road began operations, with narrow gauge tracks connecting to established railways running through Fredericksburg and Orange. A series of companies tried to make this railroad profitable, including a company called the Virginia Central Railway, which upgraded the narrow tracks to the standard gauge in 1926. Still, insufficient traffic caused this part of the railway to be abandoned in 1938.
Along the VCR
The many culverts along this railway were established during its construction, before the Civil War. Where the land is little altered, these drainage features remain intact and functional. Stormwater flowing off of new roads, rooftops, and parking lots, however, has overwhelmed others and the additional water has invariably cut its own path. In this location the rail embankment eroded away and attempted repairs with concrete were unsuccessful.
The 1907 photograph to the left shows, from left to right, the boiler plant (foreground), broom factory, outhouse, blacksmith and candle shop, and kitchen extension. 
The original kitchen was constructed in 1873. The bakery ovens sat directly behind it. The extension to the left of the kitchen was added by 1894 and used for a variety of things: store room, icehouse, guards' dining hall, carpentry shop, and bakery. 
Fish Passage Program
This 13'8" propeller, weighing 7 tons, is from the S.S. BADGER, which was built by the Christy Corporation of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and launched in 1952. The SPARTAN, a twin of the BADGER was built at the same time. The two carferries bear the mascot names of the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan State.
