Millstone Found in 1961 during construction of BMO Building

Part of Paris’ past was unearthed in April 1961 when a millstone was found beside the foundation of the old Paris Post Office, which came down a month earlier. The earthmover slammed into the large stone while excavating the site for the new Bank of Montreal building disclosed old foundations long forgotten except by a few older Paris residents at the time. The quarried stone, about five feet in diameter, was used in the biggest industry in Paris, the flour mill owned and operated by Charles Whitlaw one hundred years earlier An old picture shows Grand River Street in 1850s including the flour mill and also indicates where the raceway ran under the main street to empty into the Grand River. A later picture of the same street depicts a shambles of smoking ruins after most of the main business section was burned down in 1900. In his history of Paris “At the Forks of the Grand" Donald A Smith refers to the mill as the location of the start of the great fire that destroyed most of downtown in 1900