The legacy of Layton's Roller (flour) Mill

 The Layton Roller (flour) mill. The whiteness in the picture is caused by the flour dust in the air.                                                     Photograph courtesy of the Heritage Museum of Layton.


THE Layton Roller Mills, 18 South Main Street, was a key industry in town in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century.
It opened in 1890 by Ephraim P. Ellison, Henry Gibson and others.
Just before the mill's machinery was set in place and it began operations, a community dance was held.
According to the Salt Lake Herald Republican newspaper of Aug. 17, 1890, a large group of the Layton community came out to the special dance.
"The groups of young men and young women dancing and scattered about the floor among the heavy pillars with the mammoth beam's expansive walls for a background made quite a picturesque scene," the Tribune reported.
There was even a picnic on the second store of the building.
Some community members believed the new business would usher in more residential development in Layton.
-By 1895, up to three railroad cars full of flour were shipped from the mill every day. In its 1903 heyday, it could produce and fill 440 sacks of flour a day, more than any other mill in Utah. The mill burned down in 1951 and a service station replaced it on the property.