Built in the late 1820s, this sugarhouse was the first to employ a horizontal mill powered by cattle, according to John Houstoun McIntosh's colleague Thomas Spaulding. By the time of the Civil War the building was employed to produce arrowroot starch as well; when and why it fell into disuse is unknown. See also this 1844 comparison of sugar-production technologies (horizontal trumps vertical) and this 1985 report on archeological testing at the site.
McIntosh's building is also colloquially known as the Tabby Sugar Works, owing to its use of a particular local concrete. To build permanent structures, early settlers on the coasts of what would become Georgia and South Carolina had trees, but no stones or clay — only extensive middens of empty shells, "the accumulation of countless past oyster roasts." European settlers, in this instance, had to make do with Native American leftovers.
John Houstoun McIntosh Sugarhouse
3600 Charlie Smith Sr. Highway (at Georgia Spur 40), St. Mary's, Georgia
