In 1768, Samuel Lewis, a miller from Franklin Corners in Basking Ridge, built a water-powered grist mill and a barn on the Passaic River on land originally acquired from William Penn. His grandson, Richard Southard, bought the property in 1777 and soon found that the convenient location along a major thoroughfare between New York and Philadelphia, so practical for commerce, placed him smack in the middle of the Revolutionary War. His small wooden mill supplied desperately needed flour, meal, and feed to the Continental Army encampment at Jockey Hollow, Morristown, during the bitter winter of 1779-80. Since the barn was used to store the army’s grain, it is known today as “The Grain House.”
As the war moved south, quiet once again settled over the mill. Samuel Woodward, another family member, owned it into the early 19th century. His daughter, Phebe, married a Peapack miller, Ferdinand Van Dorn, who later bought the property.
His business prospered, and the little mill, by now a bit long in the tooth, couldn’t keep up with demand. In 1842, he erected a larger stone mill with an inside water wheel system. It still stands on Route 202 opposite this restaurant.
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The property passed through several hands in the ensuing years and gradually fell into disrepair, but in 1929 it received a surprising new lease on life. Famous restaurateur William Childs saw intriguing possibilities in the barn standing near the old mill and bought the entire property outright. He moved the barn to the other side of Route 202 the following year and began converting it to an inn. Rather than gut the inside, however, Childs chose to preserve the classic old structure’s unique spirit through a painstaking restoration. Not a beam was touched in the barn’s solid frame, and it remains to this day as it was more than two centuries ago.
Only the functions of the subdivisions have changed. What was the wagon and machinery room is now the William Childs Dining Room. The grain storage area that fed Washington’s army is now The Grain Room The horse stable is the Coppertop Pub, and the bents in the second floor’s great haymow are now individual dining rooms and offices.
