Photos: The Mill gets demolished

Daniel McGregor-Huyer, Photojournalist

After standing for nearly 60 years, The Mill, located on Burlington Street, was demolished on Thursday.

The Mill was an Iowa City restaurant and art venue that opened in 1962 and closed on May 2, 2020. The space was a mainstay of Iowa City culture, a local performance space for artists from Iowa City and across the nation to showcase their work.

The Mill closed down in June 2020, shortly after the coronavirus pandemic put a strain on restaurants and businesses. The building has stood vacant since then. Marc Moen, an Iowa City developer, has owned the property since 2002, and his development company has said it plans to make space on the lot for another arts venue to carry on the building’s legacy.

“While we cannot preserve the old structure of the Mill, we will carry forward its values and build a venue that nurtures the local arts culture, acts as a community gathering space, and attracts up and coming national performers,” Moen Group announced in a statement on its website this month. “We are thrilled to design a space that will be artist, audience, and venue-operator friendly. A state-of-the art performance venue.”