In 1898, Los Angeles Times reporter Topsy Tinkle wrote a lengthy article following a visit to El Molino Viejo.
At that time, the mill was being used to store wine, causing the smell of wine to permeate the building, and as a sleeping place for hired men.
Tinkle described the condition of the mill as follows:
The grinding-stones have gone, and also the machinery that in the romantic time of the old mission padres and their Indian neophytes, was wont to turn their corn into meal, and yet, in the material of the building itself, no sign of decay.
 The large oak beams, only ten inches apart, as sound as in the day the original trees lifted their leafy tops high in air.
 The cement of which the structure is made apparently defies time ...  There are three wheel-houses, the arches of which have been bricked up, and the old millstones are at San Marino, J. De Barth Shorb's noted ranch near by, where they are used as stepping-stones. ...
Padre and Indian have long gone to their rest, and the old mill is absolutely lifeless and deserted save many tiny chameleons that bask and sun themselves in the heated air ...
In 1898, Los Angeles Times reporter Topsy Tinkle wrote a lengthy article following a visit to El Molino Viejo. At that time, the mill was being used to store wine, causing the smell of wine to permeate the building, and as a sleeping place for hired men. Tinkle described the condition of the mill as follows:
The grinding-stones have gone, and also the machinery that in the romantic time of the old mission padres and their Indian neophytes, was wont to turn their corn into meal, and yet, in the material of the building itself, no sign of decay.  The large oak beams, only ten inches apart, as sound as in the day the original trees lifted their leafy tops high in air.  The cement of which the structure is made apparently defies time ...  There are three wheel-houses, the arches of which have been bricked up, and the old millstones are at San Marino, J. De Barth Shorb's noted ranch near by, where they are used as stepping-stones. ... Padre and Indian have long gone to their rest, and the old mill is absolutely lifeless and deserted save many tiny chameleons that bask and sun themselves in the heated air ...
El Molino Viejo