Every day on my morning drive to work, I pass by the last remaining example of what they call a Bollman Truss Railroad Bridge. It’s all that remains of a railway that ran through the area bringing goods up from the south. More often than not, the trains were loaded down with cotton by the time they got to Savage Mill in Maryland.

It used to be an institution.

The ruins of the old textile mill sit on the river’s edge — the same river that the truss bridge crosses over. From 1822–1916, Savage Mill took the cotton off of those trains and produced textiles used in sails that supported the ship-building industry in nearby Annapolis. It had a purpose. They used to make things there.

I stopped by the old mill one day to see the ruins up close. The giant stone structures had been built and stacked high to hold a water wheel that powered the machinery inside. It took a great deal of labor to build this mill and to keep it running. It was a place of business that, whether the employees of the mill liked it or not, they depended on.

For almost 100 years they made heavy canvas for different industries, during times of peace and during times of war, but one day the business closed. The workers went home, and the lights in the old mill were turned off for the last time.

When the mill closed, the owners had considered donating the land for a school under the stipulation that the land never be used for the consumption of alcohol, or for use by African Americans. It was the final spiteful decree from the man who stood watch over the business as it finally closed the doors, leaving the buildings to decay.

Even though times had hit the mill hard and forced its closure, the buildings still exist. The vestiges of the former purpose for the stone walls and wrought iron girders gave way to a new purpose. The buildings of the old mill, though changed by circumstance, lived to see a new generation enter its facade.

It has since been transformed into a rustic shopping space and now hosts modern businesses including one particularly good place to get a drink.

I don’t know if Savage Mill will be around forever. Is it too big to fail? I don’t think so. But it stands as a testament to the resilience of an institution. Modernized and re purposed, it has withstood. It has endured.