Once Pride of the Village
A beautiful old Grist Mill stands abanonded but protected, surrounded by the last of the season's fall foliage color in Sussex County New Jersey. A stone pathway leads the eye through the scene where wagons once traveled to drop off and load cargo. With the sun low in the sky, its light warms the stone building and scene and creates long shadows across the path. Once a vital part of the canal village of Waterloo,the abaonded building stands among others in the village, as a reminder of the history of New Jersey and the surrounding areas. The mill, 3.5 stories tall, was built by the National Bisquit Company. The village is an open-air museum in Allamuchy Mountain State Park, open to the public from sunrise to sunset. Waterloo Village,which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is a restored 19th-century canal town.The community was at about the half way point along the journey along the 102 mile Morris Canal, which ran from Jersey City to Phillipsburg, New Jersey. The village had an inn, a general store, a church, a blacksmith shop (to service the mules on the canal), and a watermill. The trip along the canal took two-days and Waterloo was a convenient stop for canal workers to rest and get supplies before continuing their journey. .The village was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1977.