Clinton Milling Around Art Piece

The history of our community and County continues to be exhibited as visitors leave the Sampson County History Museum and make their way down Lisbon Street to the “Milling Around” public art piece located at the intersection of College and Main Street in Downtown Clinton. In 2011, artist, Heidi Lippman was commissioned to create the “Milling Around” public art piece.  Lippman provided her original artwork images to Mayer of Munich, the world’s premier stained glass and mosaic-art glass fabricator.  A silk screen template was created to provide a skeletal structure for the intricate hand painting on glass, which was then fired to 1,100 degrees creating a vibrant, light fast and durable finish.  Combinations of transparent and opaque colors were applied to the interior glass surface of the laminated panes to create the final millstone depiction.

For more than 10,000 years, millstones have provided a way to grind grains, nuts, and corn.  Prior to 1900, there were at least 200 water powered mills in Sampson County.  John Sampson, Sampson County’s namesake, owned a gristmill along the Beaver Dam Branch.  The mill became a focal point of the community, and a town that would become the City of Clinton.