Harris Mill, 1832-1833
Boiler House, 1860

Milan Harris, the second son of Bethuel and Deborah Harris, was a forceful businessman. When he built this mill spanning the brook, the large Harris family had begun erecting their cluster of substantial houses, and more were planned. He therefore declared that the village should now be called Harrisville. The mill, as originally built, spans the brook and has a trap door monitor and gray slate roof. It was seamlessly enlarged in the 1850s, adding two bays and a stair tower with cupola. The mill gates at the base of its west side controlled the flow of Goose Brook for industrial waterpower, holding the water back in a broad canal that ads beauty to the center of the village. The flooring construction is board and joist, a form used before the advent of “slow burning” mill construction. The Harris Mill today houses the Weaving Center, the retail store of Harrisville Designs.

The small, rectangular, red brick Boiler House sits astride Goose Brook just downstream from the Harris Mill. 

Both structures are owned by Historic Harrisville, Inc.