The History of Tackett’s Mill

Tackett’s Mill was originally settled as part of the Tackett (Tacquette) land grant in the late 1600s and was one of the earliest mills originally built to serve the Huguenot populace that began settling the area in the late 1600s.

The Tackett name was an Anglicized version of the French name Tacquette. The original land grant in Stafford County included a grist mill, a saw mill and a textile manufacturing mill as well as a school for girls and a store which was the only store that served the area during the middle parts of 19th century.

This mill was considered the “center of the universe” for locals in late 1700s and through the 1800s.

In July 1983, the working remains of the grist mill were moved to Prince William County. On wooded and undulating acres on the south side of the Occoquan Reservoir, west of I-95 in Prince William County, Ridge Development Corp., a subsidiary of Weaver Bros., included the mill as part of a 60-acre retail, office and residential village at the entrance of Lake Ridge.

Surrounded by two lakes with fountains and a covered bridge, the workings of the centuries old grist mill are now housed inside an authentic 18th-century reconstruction.

Tackett’s Mill continues its historic significance today because embedded in the mill’s foundation, and capped by a bronze plaque, lies a time capsule to be opened soon, after thirty years.

The countdown begins…