HISTORY

In the 19th century, Keeseville, New York
was a prosperous industrial village, with various mills and factories
located along the rapids and falls of the Ausable River as it tumbled
out of the Adirondack Mountains on the way to Lake Champlain. A
visitor in 1860 described it as a bustling hamlet with “seven
churches, the Keeseville Academy, two extensive rolling mills, three
nail factories, a machine shop, an axe and edge tool factory, a
cupola furnace, a planning mill, two gristmills, and a nail keg
factory” and a population of 2,569 people. In 1870, Adirondack
guidebook author and photographer Seneca Ray Stoddard described
Keeseville as a “thoroughly wide awake little village.”

Nineteenth Century Keeseville
A key factor in Keeseville’s prosperity was the invention
of a horse nail manufacturing machine by Daniel Dodge, a local blacksmith.
“By 1862, his invention was perfected, patented, and put on
the market. Where formerly it took all day to make ten pounds of
nail by hand, Dodge’s machine could produce 200 pounds with
no sacrifice in quality.” By 1873, Dodge’s Ausable Horse
Nail Company manufactured and sold their machines worldwide, employed
200 persons, and produced 2000 tons of horse nails annually, which
were shipped to wholesalers and retails along the entire East Coast
of the United States.

From right: Keeseville
Stone Arch Bridge, Stone Mill, Stone Office Building, stone church,
and other Ausable Horse Nail Company buildings along river and waterfalls
The Ausable Horse Nail Company was the successor
of the Eagle Horse Nail Company, which constructed the original
portion of today’s Stone Mill building in 1849, as a first
floor, stone door lintel carved with that year still illustrates.
As the nail making business grew in the hands of the Ausable Horse
Nail Company, so did the building. The Stone Mill was expanded twice,
creating some 11,000 square feet on two levels, plus an additional
basement room containing the large water wheel that powered the
factory’s conveyor belts and machinery.
Stone Mill, c.1860s, before
a subsequent addition. Stone Office Building on right
About the same time that the Stone Mill was constructed, the Eagle
Horse Nail Company also built a three story Stone Office Building
to serve as the business office for the growing operation. By the
last quarter of the 19th century the operation occupied a half-mile
stretch of the Ausable River on which were other buildings and structures
for manufacturing, box making, and shipping.

The Eagle Horse Nail Company’s
Stone Office Building, with eagle on top,
Later taken over by the Ausable Horse Nail Company


“Shoeing the Horse”
– 19th century postcard, with Stone Mill, Stone Office Building
and stone arched bridge in background
“As new industries began and flourished along both sides of
the Ausable River, so too did the village’s commercial centers
along Main and Front Streets. Stores, stables, churches, hotels,
theaters, banks, doctor’s offices, and other establishments
made of wood, brick, and local sandstone lined both streets and
catered to every need and whim of the population. The residential
areas which surrounded the commercial and industrial center of the
village included homes of manufacturers and merchants and the more
modest dwellings of the village’s clerks, laborers, tradesmen,
and artisans. Also notable are Keeseville’s three historic
bridges: the 1842 Stone Arch Bridge is a 110’ span made of
local sandstone; the 1878 Upper Bridge is the oldest Pratt Through
Truss Bridge in New York and one of only about seventy-five wrought
and cast irons bridges in the country; and the 1888 Swing Bridge
is a rare pedestrian suspension bridge.”

Mid-nineteenth century
sketch of Keeseville’s iconic stone arch bridge. Eagle atop
the Stone Office Building is visible on right. Stone Mill is visible
just under the bridge on right.
With the advent of
automobiles in the 20th century, the need for horse nails diminished
dramatically, and in 1923 the Ausable Horse Nail Company property
was sold to R. Prescott & Sons, an early Keeseville manufacturer
of architectural wood products, furniture, and, in the 20th Century,
radio and television cabinets. This firm used the property until
the mid-1960s.
In the later part of the 20th century, manufacturing
in Keeseville went the way of manufacturing in most of rural, small-town
America. Although most of its industry ceased or moved elsewhere,
fortunately much of Keeseville’s rich architectural heritage
remains and is included in Keeseville’s National Register
Historic District of 125 buildings and structures.
In 1988, the Stone Office Building, Stone
Mill and an attached, large wooden mill were purchased by Keeseville
businessman George Moore. Moore operated two very successful companies—one
that recycled automobiles and another that dealt in truck parts.
For decades he used the mill buildings for storage of materials,
and he rented the office building to various commercial operations.
By the turn of the century, he was ready to downsize and sell some
or all of these historic buildings along the Ausable River.
Consequently, the Stone Office Building and
Stone Mill were purchased in 2008 by Adirondack Architectural Heritage
(“AARCH”), the non-profit historic preservation organization
for the Adirondack Park. AARCH, founded in 1990, had been leasing
office space at the Village of Keeseville’s Civic Center for
several years. Consistent with its mission, AARCH was looking for
its own historic property to serve as its headquarters. It saw in
the Stone Office building an ideal office, meeting and exhibit space.
It saw in the Stone Mill an opportunity to preserve a historic building,
find a compatible use for it, and thereby contribute to the revitalization
of downtown Keeseville—a process that had begun during the
previous decade.
Upon taking possession, AARCH undertook a
major restoration of the Stone Office Building, which it continues
to use as its headquarters and to rent a small office to a local
engineer.

Simultaneously, in recent years, AARCH undertook
a number of projects to stabilize the Stone Mill (roof repairs,
window replacements, masonry pointing, etc.), clean out the interior,
remove a non-confirming, deteriorated addition, add an entrance
ramp, and use the space for several one-time events—all this
while researching and exploring various alternatives for the building's
long-term use. For a few years, AARCH considered undertaking a major
renovation and adaptive use project itself, but in the end concluded
that this would take too much time, energy and resources from all
its other program activities. Therefore, AARCH is now ready to help
the Stone Mill find its next owner, a good neighbor who will enjoy
an extraordinary building in a beautiful location while contributing
to the ongoing revitalization of Keeseville.

The Stone Mill –
Then

The
Stone Mill - Now

The Stone Mill –
Soon?
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