The Houston McIntosh Sugar Mill Ruins.

 The Ruins were thought by locals to be an old Spanish mission.

One of the most interesting and unusual thing (to me, at least) in the St Mary's area is the old Houston McIntosh Sugar Mill ruin, known locally as the Tabby Sugar Works 

After the War of 1812, during which John Houston McIntosh led an unsuccessful effort to annex East Florida to the United States, he settled in Camden County, Georgia, acquired two plantations, and began growing rice and sugar cane.

One of the plantations, which he named New Canaan, was located near St. Mary's, and it was there that he built, around 1825, a large, two-story mill with thick walls of tabby, to process the cane into sugar. It was believed at the time that thick walls were necessary to maintain the heat needed for production of superior sugar. The mill which squeezed the sweet juice out of the cane was a new design, purchased from the West Point Foundry in New York, and was powered by yoked cattle. 

A wall of Tabby. You could get hurt on this stuff.

Tabby is a durable mixture of oyster shells, lime, sand, and water—ingredients abundantly available on the southeastern coast and used for a great many structures in colonial times and later.

The mill was in use at least through the Civil War, during which it was also used to produce large quantities of arrowroot starch. As time passed, the history of the mill was forgotten and local residents thought the ruins were an old Spanish mission, because they seemed to be too large to have been used for any agricultural purpose.

The interior chambers of the Tabby Sugar Works.

To get to the mill from St. Mary's, take GA 40 Spur/Charlie Smith Sr. Parkway. to the entrance to the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base. The mill, known locally as the Tabby Sugar Works, is on the left across from the base, set back about a hundred yards from the road in a publicly accessible park open all day, every day with no admission charge. 

This post was adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia. 

All photos of the Houston McIntosh Sugar Mill ruins were made with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera and a Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2016-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     digital photography      travel photography    Tabby     Panasonic Lumix Vario G 14-140mm lens         St. Mary's, Georgia     antebellum buildings in Georgia     Olympus E-M5 digital camera    John Houston McIntosh    Georgia coastal history