It is associated with early technical innovation, using steam powered, steel rollers instead of the traditional stone wheels that became pitted when grinding hard prairie wheat.

The Ritchie Mill is also significant because of its association with industrial and agricultural development in an urban setting and with the development of the Strathcona community, one of Edmonton's oldest settled neighborhoods, dating from the arrival of the Calgary and Edmonton Railway in 1892, which terminated at the North Saskatchewan River Valley.

The Ritchie Mill was located at the ‘End of Steel’ to take advantage of the rail link with the southern part of the province.

Within a year he had built and began operating the flour mill and added elevators in 1895 and 1905.

Ritchie also served in local politics as alderman, school trustee, justice of the peace, and in 1906 as mayor of Strathcona.