Causey’s Mill, constructed in 1866, serves as a visual reminder of Newport News’s nearly vanished agrarian past. This small, two-story wood building is one of the two last surviving gristmills on the peninsula, and the only one which still retains its original machinery. Constructed by William Causey shortly after the Civil War, the mill is the last in a series of mills located on the site since the 17th century, and was built on part of the original foundation of the prior Langhorne’s Mill. Included in the new machinery installed by Causey was a Leffel turbine wheel, manufactured by James Leffel & Company, that produced superior water-ground corn meal. The creation of Lake Maury in 1930 to supply Newport News with drinking water erased all signs of the original Causey’s Mill dam and mill pond, but the presence of the original machinery within the mill serves as a valuable source of information about the inner workings of the mill industry.