Magnolias at the Mill Restaurant

Before the Washington & Ohio Railroad came to town, on the last day of March, 1874, Purcellville was a huddle of houses, a store or two, a blacksmith shop, and a small hotel and eatery. The building where Magnolias at the Mill now stands was also the stagecoach stop on the Washington to Capon Spring stage run. A New York Times correspondent, accompanying armies that invaded the town in November, 1862, wrote – adding an “s” to the community name – that “Purcellsville cannot be dignified with the title of village, consisting merely of a few straggling houses on the Winchester and Leesburg Turnpike.”

The first train, which arrived about noon that final March day of 1874, changed all that. A few days later, Leesburg’s Loudoun Mirror newspaper observed: “The running of the trains has set the little village aglow with activity. The scene around the depot on Saturday reminded us of accounts we read of towns and cities springing up as it were, in a night.”

The building that is the home of Magnolias at the Mill was built in 1905. Mr. W. H. Adams acquired the enterprise to provide local farmers seed for corn, wheat, other grains, and orchard grass. By the late 1930’s, with the advent of hybrid corn and the growing prominence of orchard grass, which fed the area’s many dairy cows, Mr. Adam’s and his son, Contee Adams, who had joined his father in business, began to concentrate on the cleaning of seed. Shortly he became known as “Mr. Orchard Grass” by the farming community of the Virginia Piedmont.

In 1943, Contee Adams decided to sell the milling portion of his enterprise to the Wilkins & Rogers millers, who also owned the still-going-strong Hamilton Mill. Mr. Adams agreed not to sell feed. Wilkins & Rogers agreed not to sell seed. Contee Adams then moved his seed-cleaning business across the street to the still-standing warehouse, built for John James Dillon in 1874.

Elizabeth Reed Johnson, who managed Contee Adams Seed from its inception in 1943 until its closing in 1993, recalled that during the Second World War the bulk of Virginia orchard grass seed was shipped to Europe, not necessarily for seed, but as packing for artillery shells and armaments.

Wilkins & Rogers remained at the mill, retaining its name, Loudoun Valley Milling, until 1967, when Contee Adam’s son, Contee Lynn Adams, Jr., took over his father’s enterprise, and bought back the mill building from Wilkin’s & Rogers.

The restoration of the mill into its present state of “Magnolias at the Mill” began in December of 2001 and was completed in February of 2004. Just as the former owners of “Magnolias” had worked to fill a need in the community our goal is also to serve the community as well. We hope you enjoy your time with us at our new venture in an old Mill.