MILL HOUSE AT CHITTENDEN MILLS - photo c. 1900 [Click to Enlarge]

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This house, built in 1859, was used until the 1970’s as the home of the various owners of the Chittenden Mills grist mill, and is located across the driveway from the mill. It is now owned by the Jericho Historical Society as part of the historic mill complex, and is a wonderful example of the Gothic Revival/gingerbread style.

From time to time the house gets a sprucing up.  The most recent was a three month renovation project completed in October, 2023, to make the downstairs apartment suitable for rental.

Visit the Mill House Renovation page for more pictures and to learn more about the project.

​Below is an article from the August 19, 1988 Mountain Villager in which Blair Williams writes about the treasure she found under old carpet and linoleum during the 1988 renovation.

Our old house

by Blair Williams

There is almost always a bonus to the time and work that goes into the care and repair of an old house.

A new house is plumb, wood work finaish goes on smoothly and floors accept a sanding and sealing or carpeting without hours of preparation.

Not so an old house. The paperlayer must first strip the walls of various layers of assorted papers, fill in cracks and gouges and prime- and that’s only the beginning! Next comes the struggle with matching the paper patterns on walls that long ago lost their “plumb”. The old painted woodwork must be scraped and sanded, windows reputtied, nailholes filled and smoothed. Each step along the way tells a story of previous dwellers in the “old” house and adds a richness that emerges as the revitalizing nears completion.

So it is with the “Miller’s” house at the Old Red Mill site in Jericho. Over the past two months things have been humming at this historic Greek revival bouse built in the 1850’s, by Arson Field at the height of the gingerbread era. In the early ‘50’s, according to the early history of Jericho, Field’s owned the old stone “factory” later to become the impressive Chittenden Mills. In this one story stone building he carried on a furniture business and manufactured potato starch from potatoes, brought in from local farmers at two cents a bushel.

The house shows the mark of a cabinet maker in its interesting treatment of the inside doorways and window frames. It also tells some other tales. In the tack shed room are two large storage closets, placed there no doubt after Charles F. Reavy purchased the property in 1906. Mr. Reavy's name is still easily identified on the inside wainscoting of which the closets are constructed.

At a later date, carpeting was laid up the stairs surrounding the stairwell and in the center room. Hall carpet with foam backing was cemented to the original wide boards. All the carpets had seen better days so up it came, but what a chore to remove the glue and foam prior to painting the floors. Fortunately the center room was laid over linoleum and that in turn followed the earlier technique of laying news paper over the floor before tacking down the fine new floor coveting. It was the newspapers that caught my interest and delayed the tack pulling while I searched for news of Jericho. Dates on the papers indicated that the linoleum had been laid by the early 1920’s. My news items appeared in the Burlington Free Press and Times, Thursday March 21,1918.

On the evening of that day there was to be a “School Entertainment and Social”-postponed from the previous week- “on account of the steam”, to be held at the “schoolhouse hall”, now the town office building. Roland Mantagne brother of Almer, gave the opening “words of welcome”. Dorothy, Aimer’s wife, best known as “Monty”, lives on the Montagne homeplace on Packard Road. Hamden Blodgett, brother of Clifford, spoke on “Corporal Punishment”. Evelyn Davis, older sister of John Davis, recited “catching cold”. And Burdette Stygles contributed “Fanner Boy”. Roland Montagne gave the closing speech and the program ended with the school singing “America”.

This affair was to benefit the senior and junior Red Cross. Noted further along is the item that “there are good prospects of having electric lights in the Town as work will begin as soon as the ground is ready to set the poles.”

Ralph Brigham “arrived in town Wednesday morning from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he is stationed”. He had a seven day furlough. Finally there is the announcement of the cancellation of the regular Red Cross meeting “as the committee will meet in the room and pack up articles for the Belgian relief”. Jericho was doing its bit in World War I.