“I just like old things,” said Robert Rings, owner of the Alpena Flour Mill building on Campbell Street in Alpena.

An original flour bag from the old mill, bought on eBay for $5, sparked Rings’ interest in the building, which he purchased in 2019, intent on turning it into a restaurant.

Performing most renovation work himself, Rings has found historical treasures amid the beams and machines of the former mill, which, along with other collected Alpena memorabilia, Rings intends to hang on the walls of the restaurant he hopes to open in spring.

His restaurant may make a go of it in Alpena. And it may not, he said.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Robert Rings, owner of the Alpena Flour Mill building, appears reflected in a display case containing memorabilia from the business.

“Either way,” Rings said, “at the end of the day, this building gets to have a new life.”

The restaurant Rings envisions filling the main floor of the mill, complete with coffee bar and seating for 42, will offer visitors a place to mingle and pass the time, not unlike the mill that once ground flour for local farmers.

The grinding process could take hours, enough time for farmers and their families to get caught up on town gossip around bulletin boards posted with the latest news.

For 40 years, after its construction in 1914 near the intersection of Ripley Street and Washington Avenue, the mill’s workers ground seed in the building’s low-ceilinged, rock-walled basement, then hoisted it to the second floor via a cup elevator.

The flour, once sifted, slid down a wooden chute to a scale on the main floor, where workers would determine how much farmers had to pay for their load.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Robert Rings, owner of the Alpena Flour Mill building in Alpena, holds old signs he found during recent remodeling work in the building.

Dropped through a trap door at the bottom of the scale, the flour slid down another chute into waiting barrels below, to be trundled back onto the farmer’s wagon or a nearby train car.

Though mill operation ceased in 1956, most of the mill’s equipment remains in the building, with the cup elevator housing and large scale standing sentry in the middle of the main room and pulleys, belts, trap doors, and chutes lining the main floor ceiling.

He’ll relocate some of the items to make room for customers, but the history stays put, said Rings, who some time ago developed a passion for Alpena history.

One corner of the building holds part of his large collection of signs left over from long-closed Alpena businesses — like Huron Portland Cement, Spens Pharmacy, Morris Auto Supply, and the original Big Boy on the river, where his mom worked as a waitress.

Some of those signs will adorn the new restaurant’s walls, along with Rings’ large collection of photographs from Alpena’s past.

Courtesy Photo The Alpena Flour Mill building appears in the 1960s, when Fivensons Iron and Metal Company owned it as part of their scrap yard in this photo provided by Robert Rings.

Old Alpena post cards, match boxes, and “anything that can fit under epoxy” will probably become part of the restaurant’s tables, he said.

The building has offered up some historic finds, including several metal signs — advertising products like Larabee’s Best Flour — used in the mill’s working days to patch holes where decades of wheat seed wore through wood chutes and bins.

The cut-up and nail-punctured signs, treated as scrap by former owners, are treasures to Rings, more tangible bits of history connecting him to the city he loves.

The building escaped demolition in the 1990s when then-Alpena Public Schools teacher Jim Nadeau and his wife, Marie, purchased the building as a place where Jim Nadeau could build the chairs that were his side gig.

With neither porch nor stairs at their disposal, the Nadeaus had to prop up a ladder and crawl in the front door to view the property, Rings said.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A metal plate decorates the 1910 coffee roaster purchased to use in a restaurant planned for the Alpena Flour Mill building in Alpena.

Later, subsequent owner Doug Pratt used the mill building for a store and landscape business that now does trade in downtown Alpena.

Rings’ itch to open a restaurant in the space hearkens back to his parents, who until the early 2000s owned Hokie’s Grill and Coffee House, then one of only two places in town to get a cup of espresso, Rings said.

Determined to offer a coffee bar as part of his salads, sandwiches, and sweets restaurant, he purchased a coffee roaster — built in 1910 and older than the mill — and learned to roast his own beans.

Now, he sells his coffee, under the name Olde Mill Coffee, in 11 locations, including in Petoskey and downstate as well as in Alpena.

The restaurant will include a wooden pay phone booth Rings purchased in Detroit. He plans to set up service so customers can make free calls on the rotary phone.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A worker adds foam insulation to the upstairs of the Alpena Flour Mill building on Monday. The building’s owner plans to cover the walls in period-correct tin and barn wood and rent out the large space to groups once renovations at the mill are complete.

“I might have to put directions in there for kids,” Rings said.

His dad always wanted to turn the mill building into a bakery, Rings said.

“I’m not a baker,” he said. “But I have a baker.”

Last fall, Rings renovated part of the building into a modern kitchen, which he shares with the owner of local business Mama Bees Bakery, in a partnership the state calls an incubator kitchen, he said.

He plans to rent out the building’s spacious and bright upper floor to yoga classes, book clubs, or whoever needs a nice space to meet.

In the meantime, Rings and his wife and partner, Sarah, will keep plugging away at renovations, turning the present into the past.

“I just like history, you know?” Rings said.

News Photo by Julie Riddle An old news clipping, displayed in a case at the Alpena Flour Mill, reports on a fire that blackened some of the interior of the mill but caused little structural damage.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Dusty signs from Alpena’s past await display at a restaurant planned for the Alpena Flour Mill building.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A sign that formerly hung outside the Alpena Flour Mill now rests inside the building, to be displayed, along with other Alpena memorabilia, at a restaurant planned for the space.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Displayed on a cell phone, an intact sign found during remodeling work at the Alpena Flour Mill netted building owner Robert Rings $3,150 when he sold it to a collector. He wouldn’t have sold the sign if it had advertised an Alpena business, Rings said.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Wheat seed clings to a metal sign used to line flour processing equipment at the Alpena Flour Mill building in Alpena. Decades of wheat weakened the metal, used by former owners to patch the equipment.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A photo displays a ceiling pulley system formerly used to process flour at the Alpena Flour Mill. In the background stands a Fairbanks scale, at one time used to weigh ground flour.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Robert Rings, owner of the Alpena Flour Mill building in Alpena, dusts off a display case containing memorabilia from the business.