The Zirkle Mill in rural Forestville, Va., will not be dismantled and moved. (Zirkle Mill Foundation)

After a two-year struggle to save a c. 1760 grist mill in Forestville, Va., two descendants of the structure's builder have stepped forward to buy the Zirkle Mill.

Robert Andrews and his sister, Sherryl Belinsky, who are descendants of Andrew Zirkle, paid $225,000 for the two-acre site last week. They plan to work with the local nonprofit Zirkle Mill Foundation to restore the building and open it to the public.

Former mill owner Gordon "Sonny" Bowman sold the mill to the Zirkle descendants after another controversial deal fell through. Bowman had a contract to sell the building to the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Va., which intended to dismantle and relocate the mill to its grounds, upsetting many Virginians, including Andrews.

"I was outraged because it was a stupid thing to do to this kind of structure," Andrews says. "My family settled the area in 1755. They built this mill, and the town grew up around the mill."

Last summer, Virginia Gov. John Warner intervened, denying the state-owned museum's request to move the National Register-listed mill. Bowman put the property back on the market for $250,000 but agreed to Andrews' price, selling it on Jan. 5.

Andrews plans to have the mill evaluated and stabilized and perhaps returned to a working grist mill. "That's what everyone wants to see," he says. "The mill was in operation in the early 90s, so I'm pretty sure it can be put back into operation."

The Zirkle Mill Foundation says the grist mill can work again. "It was thoroughly rebuilt and restored in late 1980s, so it's very well preserved right now. However, it's not in working order," says Denny Zirkle, the foundation's acting president. "If the objective is to get it in working order, there would be quite a bit of restoration involved. We're interested in that."

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