Old Mill Renovated into Tearoom - 1946

150-Year-Old Mill to be Renovated into Tearoom

Bainbridge News & Republican, May 16, 1946

 

Left idle for many years, the "old mill" at Rockwell's Mills [Chenango Co., NY] soon again will be the scene of activity--this time providing food instead of clothing for men. 

 

Built of native stone nearly 150 years ago, the old mill once was a thriving woolen industry, giving employment to all the inhabitants of the Chenango County hamlet on the Unadilla River which takes its name from the factory.  Still owned by the Rockwell family, whose ancestors built and operated it, the structure is now the property of Mrs. Maybelle Rockwell Ferguson.

 

Mrs. Elizabeth D. O'Connell, soon to be a member of the Rockwell family, has taken over the old fieldstone building and its "modern," i.e., about 70 years old, brick addition, and is fitting it up for a tearoom and restaurant to be ready for business "about Decoration Day."

 

Few major structural changes are anticipated by Mrs. O'Connell, except the addition of a fieldstone fireplace in the center of the main room.  the fireplace is already built. The old wood floors and sills, of material virtually unobtainable in this modern age even if the world were not plagued with postwar shortages, are still sound, and require only refinishing to bring out their original beauty of craftsmanship.

 

During the Civil War the mill had--for those days--large government orders for woolens, and still operating during the Spanish-American War, it then, too, made some materials for the government.

 

Most of the old machinery is long gone, but some of the old bobbins or spindles--Mrs. O'Connell isn't sure which they are--are being fashioned into lighting fixtures.  The styling and furniture of the new restaurant will be entirely "Early American" in keeping with the history and architecture of the building.

 

Traces of the old dam across the Unadilla River, which provided the power for the mill, are still to be seen in the stream, which flows close to the building.   Windows look out over the river, from which the rolling hills of the valley can be seen up and down the river.