Biscuit City

[Tmac02892]

While not well-known, there was a fairly extensive mill at Biscuit City in Kingston, RI.  Below the mill pond are a number of foundations and walls/channels.  They go down quite a ways, ending with the large foundation of the original mill.  I was about to call it a day when I noticed a large hole lined with stone.  Upon closer inspection I discovered an underground room.  It was about 20 by 8 feet with a 6 foot ceiling.  Most of the stone was freestanding, but I found a few spots that had what appeared to be mortar in them.  After 100 years or more, it crumbled like sand.  My guess is that it was probably a root cellar.  I'm just not sure what they would store in it at a mill.

Above the mill pond is the Great Spring, as the Indians called it.  It still flows at a steady rate, and was the water supply for Kingston from 1901-1966.  It is covered by a small building now, which is periodically broken into.  The few times I went in I saw a water tank in the first room, and the second room contained the well, which was pretty much a hole in the ground in a dark room.

The entrance:


A cozy little place:


Detail of the stonework:


Artistic shot:


The building housing the spring:

[Kabli]

I found it this weekend. It looks like it was an old farm complex as opposed to a mill. There is a 18th century farm to the south of this spot. It was owned by the Tefft family. Joshua Tefft men holds the honor as being the only person to ever to drawn and quartered in the United States. He was found to be supporting the Narragansett during King Philip's War.

[Tmac02892]

Yeah, it's a cool spot.  Biscuit City was essentially a small town, but part of Kingston.  There are at least two house foundations, as well as a grist mill.  There are pictures of the mill in the Kingston, RI book by Images of America. 
And yes, the Tefft family has some pretty interesting history.  My dad remembered one of the houses was still standing there in the 1970s.  I believe the cellar hoels might even date to the late 1600s.

[Kabli]

Thanks for the update. i'm suprised local kids havent discovered the root cellar and used it for other purposes.

[kurtix07]

i live in newport and i would like to check this area out, however i don't know where it's located. can anyone give me directions of where to go after i reach kingstown. GPS doesn't recognize bicuit city lol

[Tmac02892]

I sent you an email, but for others looking for it search for Biscuit City Rd.  You'll see the small pond on Google maps.

[insanebeaver]

dark times are coming....lol epic underground location good job. you are king in the castle :S

[dawkstar]

This excerpt from "The Jonny-cake papers of 'Shepherd Tom' Thomas Robinson Hazard, Rowland Gibson Hazard"
may shed some light on this old mill if it is in fact the same mill in this thread.

http://books.google.com/books/reader?id=B2IEAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader


"Note 12, page 133. This cotton manufactory, long since forgotten, was a small affair, even for those days. It stood on the westerly slope of the hill south westerly from the Court House, near a beautiful spring of water which still gushes from the earth near what is now called Biscuit Gty. This spring gave a supply of water, used on an overshot wheel, some say thirty feet in diameter. The owners of this factory formed the first corporation in New England for the cotton manufac ture."