Charles Fenton Mercer, military officer, legislator, and advocate of the colonization of blacks, settled in this area in southeast Loudoun County in 1804. He named his property for Aldie Castle, his Scottish ancestral home. The large merchant mill which serves as the centerpiece of the Aldie Mill Historic District was constructed in 1807 by Mercer’s partner William Cooke, and it survives as one of the best outfitted early mills in Virginia. The three-part complex includes what was a plaster mill at one end and a store at the other. The Aldie Mill’s twin overshot Fitz wheels, installed in 1900, are a unique surviving pair in Virginia. Overlooking the mill is a large Federal-style house, built by Mercer in 1810 as his residence. Behind the mill is the miller’s house. Completing the grouping is an early stone bridge across Little River. The mill operated into the 1970s when it was donated to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which undertook an extensive restoration. Aldie Mill is now owned by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.