MILL CREEK PARK Photo exhibit puts focus on old gristmills

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A photo exhibit that compares the region’s old gristmills as they looked in 1986 with how they currently look goes on display today at Lanterman’s Mill in Mill Creek Park and runs through Labor Day weekend.

The free exhibit by John Sobinovsky of Poland is titled “The Grist Mill Collection.”

Sobinovsky took up photography in the mid-1980s and photographed nearby gristmills as an early project. He recently went back and rephotographed all of the mills to see how they look almost three decades later.

“Being fascinated by these pieces of history, I began to feel sad that some of them are just falling apart and no one seems to even notice,” said Sobinovsky. “That is when I came up with the idea to put together this collection of the mills and to show it to the public. I thought this might possibly get some of the people interested in, or at least notice, these wonderful buildings. If you took the time to really look at these structures, you would be fascinated by their construction and the fact that they are still standing after over 100 years.”

Sobinovsky said that the first thing the region’s settlers usually built was a sawmill, followed by a gristmill.