Water Wheel Restoration

 

LET’S BRING IT BACK!

We have all the metal pieces and parts for the water wheel and are ready to start milling the white oak lumber and the assembly of what was once one of the largest water wheels in Maryland!

Your tax deductible donation can be made:

We are currently seeking sponsors for paddles, which includes an engraving of a custom message. You can be a part of history! A paddle sponsorship is $600.

Preservation Alliance of Baltimore County (PABC) is a county-wide 501(c)3 organization dedicated to preserving Baltimore County’s diverse and unique heritage of buildings, sites, landscapes, viewsheds, and neighborhoods.

Who’s involved in the Manor Mill water wheel project?

Robert Jones
Carpenter & Timber Framer

Camp Small
Lumber Providers

Angelo Otterbein
Manor Mill Proprietor

Derek Arnold
Welder

Frank Kammer
Mason

 

Follow the water wheel journey

March, 2024

We were pretty pumped to take a field trip to Camp Small, to kick off the next phase of the water wheel! As we search for places to source the thousands of linear board feet we’ll need of white oak to build the enormous 24’ overshot wheel, its amazing to think that many of the trees will be sourced right from Baltimore City.

Pictured above is Robert Jones, the timber frame icon of Northern Baltimore County, reviewing his hand-drawn rendering of the wheel and its dimensions with the two managers of Camp Small and admiring the big stack of white oak logs.

Run by Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks, Camp Small is a “wood waste collection yard” covering 5 acres in the Jones Falls Valley just north Cold Spring Lane. Started in early 2016, Camp Small is a collaboration with the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, which created the Camp Small Zero Waste initiative in an effort to sort and distribute the variety of wood products at the site.

APRIL, 2024

This 5', 6/4 14" piece of flat-sawn white oak came from one of the many white oaks that thrived in Baltimore City. The extremely knowledgeable folks at Camp Small shared that it was likely that this particular plank came from Druid Hill Park, and based on the diameter and ring size, it grew slowly and was likely over 200 years old when it came down. Climate change, soil degradation and the like have led to many white oaks dying or needing to come down faster than we'd like in and around Baltimore.

So much of Maryland's success came from the white oak -- an entire shipping industry, for instance, relied on the white oak because of its strength, density and closed cell structure that makes it rot resistant. Today, Camp Small harvests those fallen trees and then repurposes the wood for everything from park benches to furniture to playgrounds ... and a water wheel!

In partnership with Baltimore County Historic Trust, we are just kicking off what will be a year-long effort to gather the wood and raise the funds to build the water wheel in 2025. Step 1: make a paddle!

May, 2024

The first paddle of the water wheel made it to it’s forever home, Manor Mill! The next step was to figure out how we could honor sponsors who donate over $600. Angelo had the idea to engrave their name, a short message, or the name of a loved one using the CNC Router onto each donor’s very own paddle. While this was an idea instantly loved by everyone at Manor Mill, trying to decide between a font size, or whether we should be engraving directly into the wood or getting small bronze plates stamped with each donor’s message or name is still a topic that we are debating every week.

JULY - AUGUST, 2024

Because of poor drainage and continuous saturation/dampness, large portions of the exterior mortar, primarily around the corners of the building, had washed out, in some cases deep enough into the cracks that even some of the larger boulders and rocks were getting extruded. Frank Kammer of Kammer Masonry had to shore this all up. This first meant figuring out a way to set up a scaffold in the wheel well, which needed to safely stand on an uneven dirt floor filled with water that in some places was 3-4’ deep. 

Frank and his team also used 100+ year old stones from the property and a matching mix of mortar to repoint and fill gaps, including around a new cylinder form to allow the axle of the water wheel to run freely. Finally, the Dutch door leading to the wheel well did not have a footing to stand on, which also had to be created and poured. All of this work took ten solid days of work.

September-October, 2024

The dynamic duo Shaun Preston and Nick Oster at Camp Small milled a slew of white oak logs into 16,000 pounds of White Oak boards, cut to lengths from the specification provided by Robert Jones. See our Instagram post about it!

November, 2024

The wood for the reconstruction of our beloved water wheel has arrived! This marks a significant step forward in restoring a cherished piece of history, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support and generosity of our community.