The mill site on the right-hand side of the mill canal - an earlier wooded creek of the Mur - could already have been in use as early as the late Middle Ages, although the first proof dates from the 15th century. Among the early owners of the mill was the House of Eggenberg. In 1898 the mill was bought by the Jüngeres Bäckermühl-Consortium, founded in 1848.

It is from this time that the oldest of the now demolished industrial buildings originated. The other parts of the plant were added in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Around 1900 the mill was still known as the "Rusterholzermühle" (after its former owner Jakob Rusterholzer). At the beginning of the 20th century the Marienmühle was acquired by the Graz Sorger family.

The mill, the largest in Styria at that time, shut down in 1989 - as did almost three quarters of the existing mills in Austria in the following period. The remaining small-capacity hydroelectric power station on the millstream is still operated by Marienmühle BetriebsgmbH (directed by Susanne Sorger-Domenigg).

Beside the power station, the park facilities of the former mill area remain. It is here, adjoining the building of the southeast neighbouring property, that one can find a pavilion designed by Herbert Eichholzer, the Graz architect executed in 1943.

According to Günter Eisenhut, "Herbert Eichholzer is one of the focal points in the realm of that "other Styria", which was annihilated under Fascism and which up until now - a late victory for Hitler - has widely fallen into obscurity." Born in Graz on January 31st, 1903, Eichholzer studied architecture and worked among other things as a volunteer for Le Corbusier and Jeanneret in Paris. In 1935, together with his colleague Badl (also responsible for the pavilion on the Marienmühle site) Eichholzer received the State Prize of the Graz Secession. On the very day of the 1938 "Anschluss" he emigrated to Paris. Here he worked with Clemens Holzmeister on, among other things, the building of the Turkish parliament. In 1940 Eichholzer returned to Styria in order to establish and coordinate Communist Resistance groups. In 1941 he was arrested in France, and two years later executed in Vienna.

It is intended that the Eichholzer pavilion now be listed as a monument and restored in collaboration with the Graz Office of Historical Monuments - including a few preserved pieces of furniture designed by Eichholzer himself.