A historic mill in Delaware County is getting a major upgrade, and it's all being done the old-fashioned way.

Newlin Grist Mill in Glen Mills, Concord Township, has been grinding wheat into flour since 1704. Now, ahead of the United States' 250th birthday in 2026, volunteers are restoring the site to look just as it did in the 1700s, including a massive wooden water wheel.

"We are recreating a mill that looks like it did in 1751, when George Washington was about 10 years old," Michael Knight, an apprentice millwright, said

The new wheel will be more than 15 feet in diameter, built entirely by hand, without power tools or shortcuts. The restoration is part of preparations for America 250, the nationwide celebration of the United States' semiquincentennial in 2026.

"The biggest challenge is our commitment to using 18th century tools and methods," Knight said. "Water power, 18th century woodworking, what's not to love?"

Newlin Grist Mill site manager and archaeologist Keith Doms said the project is part of a larger effort to help people connect with early American life in a hands-on way.

"This is a unique experiment in seeing how things were done 250 years ago," Doms said.

The water wheel, which is expected to be complete this spring, will power two massive stones to grind wheat into flour, just as it did in colonial times.

"I think it's a really wonderful opportunity to refocus on historic trades," site carpenter Eva Mergen said. "In order to understand where we are as a culture, we need to know where came from."

Newlin Grist Mill, now a working museum and 160-acre nature preserve, was once a center of the local economy. Barrels of flour produced on-site were shipped around the world.

"We want people to feel, 'Wow, our ancestors were incredibly smart people to do what they did and to get it done with the materials they had,'" Knight said.

In a statement, Mortimer Sellers, a descendent of the Newlin family, which owned the land and built the mill, said the family is very happy to be celebrating the country's 250th anniversary. 

"We came here to Concord Township in 1683 to establish one small corner of the world where people would love and respect their fellow citizens and the fundamental rights of everyone, without distinction," Sellers said in the statement. 

"The United States truly embodies and should always cherish the values of liberty and brotherhood that William Penn and Nicholas Newlin brought to Pennsylvania, to Concord Township, and to the wider world," Sellers continued.