Empire Mill

In 1862, Paper Bag King George West established his Empire Mill in Rock City Falls, a hamlet in the town of Milton, Saratoga County, New York. Across the street from the mill is The Mansion Inn of Saratoga. It was originally built as a 23-room Venetian, villa-style estate in 1866 and is recognized by The National Register of Historic Places.

There were saw and grist-mills in the upper part of Rock City before 1800, usually known then as the Hatch mills, though owned by Swan. This was the first use of the splendid water-power at that point. Not much later than that, however, another one was erected by Rathbone, the first settler at the hamlet of Rock City. There were two brothers Rathbone, one the pioneer merchant and landlord, the other the mill-owner. One of them afterwards removed to Greenfield.