Big Country family renovates historic Abilene building for new winery

ABILENE, Texas -

One Big Country family is working to renovate the old Abilene mill building and turn it into a winery and event center.

After getting rezoning approval from the city council in January, the McDowells started construction to transform the inside and outside of the property.

"That's always great when you can find something with history. And just redoing an old building and keeping it from being demolished is always good too," said co-owner of the winery Bridget McDowell. "We're excited about it coming back into play in to Abilene."

McDowell and her daughter bought the old Texas Mill and Elevator Company building on Locust Street in October.

"When we started looking at it structurally it was just built when things were built right," McDowell said.

The building was built in 1910. After five months of construction the McDowells expect construction to be done and the business to open May 1. McDowell said they already have weddings booked almost every month from June until February 2015.

"We're going to have a huge outdoor area. We have fire pits and covered gazebos and an outdoor space for weddings and outdoor large parties," McDowell said.

There is a lot of open space for when there arent events there also.

"We're going to have individual seating for if you want to just come one evening and have a glass of wine and just sit and relax and feel like you're somewhere other than West Texas," said McDowell.

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Big Country family renovates historic Abilene building for new winery