The Cedar Hill Improvement Partnership aims to protect the town’s most notable attraction – its old mill.
Anytime you Google Cedar Hill, which has a population of 1,875, the first image to appear is the mill, said Laura Massey, founder and president of the CHIP organization.
She said it’s important to pay tribute to the town’s history, which largely centers around the mill.
“I’ve lived out here since I was a child and my family’s lived out here for generations,” Massey said. “We’ve watched the town go through a lot of changes, some good, some bad. We’ve lost a lot of our history and a lot of the buildings we all remember meeting friends and family at.”
The mill, which is about 150 years old, served the Cedar Hill community as a grist mill, ice house and food manufacturing plant before sitting vacant for the past 40 years.
Massey said CHIP’s goal is to raise enough money to transform the mill into a museum and eventually into a community center.
Massey said CHIP received 501(c)(3) nonprofit status two months ago, and a fundraising event at the Lalumondiere Mill & Rivergardens in Byrnesville on Oct. 8 raised $6,500 for the organization.
The Lalumondiere Mill, now used as a wedding venue, is 4 miles north of the Cedar Hill Mill.
Massey said it was important to hold the fundraiser at the Lalumondiere Mill because its owners also own the Cedar Hill Mill, and the event showed attendees what a refurbished and preserved mill could look like in the Cedar Hill community.
Massey said CHIP has entered into an agreement with the mill owners, Jim and Jeannie Lalumondiere, to acquire the Cedar Hill Mill.
“This couldn’t happen without them,” Massey said. “They are just fantastic people who put their heart and soul into the other mill. Unfortunately, 45 years later they don’t have as much heart and soul to put into this mill.”
Massey said the CHIP board has five members and is devoted to the proposed Cedar Hill Mill improvement project.
“The owners have shored it up enough to give us this opportunity,” she said. “I’ve already had an engineer in there who is going to do a site plan. We need everything from siding to roofing to electricity to plumbing. I don’t see us stopping for at least five years and maybe longer than that because we’re all very committed.”
Jim Terry, former Jefferson County District 7 councilman, is the board treasurer.
He said CHIP’s first priority is to get the mill rezoned.
“It’s currently zoned residential and that’s because it’s been out of operation as a mill for so many years,” Terry said. “We’ve got to make it a planned commercial. It’s been an empty building for many years, you can kind of imagine the degradation, but structurally it’s sound.”
Once the property is rezoned, the organization will work to rehabilitate the building, he said.
Terry said CHIP aims to raise approximately $1 million for the project.
Local historians
Massey said the CHIP group also has begun acting as historians for the mill and town.
“People are bringing in all kinds of pictures we can put in there and be proud of our history,” she said.
Massey said the mill is the centerpiece of the Cedar Hill community, and there could not be a better place for a local history museum.
“We’re looking for any help people can give us, and not just donations, but also if anybody in the county has any kind of memorabilia, photographs, paintings or stories, we’d like to preserve that for the future,” she said.
CHIP is currently holding a raffle to raise money for the project. The prize is an Indian Motorcycle, Massey said.
In addition, anyone interested in supporting CHIP may purchase a brick with his or her name on it, which eventually will be displayed on the path leading to the mill.
Massey said those who want to enter the raffle or purchase a brick may visit her coffee shop, Good Deeds Coffee House at 8528 Red Rose Court. Those looking for more information may call Massey at 314-691-2580.
“We formed CHIP to do anything we can to better Cedar Hill, and we think that this will hopefully have a ripple effect throughout the community,” Massey said.