EMLENTON, Venango County — A place of history and heritage, the Emlenton Mill burned to the ground in a massive fire that started Thursday night and lasted until daybreak.

The blaze ripped through the more than 140-year-old mill, destroying the four-story building and a machine shop and badly damaging a dress shop in the complex in the heart of Main Street.

Four homes also sustained minor to moderate damage in the fire. No injuries were reported.

“It’s a big loss to the community because it was such a borough landmark,” said Barry Louise, who heads the town council and for years has been a mainstay of the Emlenton Volunteer Fire Department.

“It was kind of like a little museum with the wooden grain shoots and elevators and the old hoppers. It was pretty picturesque inside.”

The Emlenton Mill, one of the first steam-powered grist mills in the United States, shut down in the 1970s, Louise said.

In recent years it’s been home to an ice cream shop, a bunkhouse hostel and historic center.

Nancy Marano, borough manager, said there was a surreal feeling in town this morning.

“Last night, the whole town was nothing but aglow,” Marano said. “You can’t believe it.”

As she was walking to work this morning, she said the entire borough is covered in ash from the fire and there is a lingering burning smell. The mill is about three blocks away from the borough building.

Marano said it is a devastating loss to the community. She said the area was working on getting over the loss of refinery business and trying to reinvent itself as a historical and tourist area.

The loss of the building is one thing, but she said, the loss of the grist mill machinery is particularly difficult because it cannot be replaced.

“Everybody’s feeling a little sad,” Marano said.

A cause of the fire was not immediately known and the state police fire marshal at the Seneca station in Venango County is investigating.