Ben's Mill
Updated: May 12, 2023
This post comes our way from board member Sally Fishburn, http://www.safishburn.net/ Sally's company, S.A.Fishburn, Inc. is dedicated to helping individuals (home owners, municipalities, non-profits, etc.) maintain the historic spirit and materials of their buildings though hands-on preservation, consulting, and design work.-Marc Sitkin
For years, well, for over a decade, I was involved with Ben’s Mill in Barnet, Vermont. The mill was built in 1872 and had several lives before it was shuttered after its last owner, Ben Thresher died. Eventually Hiram Allen purchased the mill and contents in order to save it and turned it into a non-profit. It is an awesome place and some time spent perusing their web-site will provide a good introduction. The link provided here goes specifically to the web-site page with a video of the construction of the pen-stock: https://www.bensmill.com/restoration . Enjoy-Sally Fishburn
https://casinonieuwe.com the detail about Ben Thresher's mill sitting shuttered until Hiram Allen bought the whole thing just to save it stuck with me, since so much industrial history disappears precisely because nobody steps in at that moment. I've watched similar small mills in my area get dismantled piece by piece, and the pen-stock video sounds like the kind of thing that makes the restoration feel tangible rather than abstract. Preserving a building is one thing, but keeping the machinery and the knowledge alive alongside it seems like the harder, more worthwhile part.