38 
House & 
Garden 
A REMODELED MILL 
IN MASSACHUSETTS 
NINA L. DURYEA 
T HE Hindoos hold that nothing can exist 
in the human mind which does not actu¬ 
ally exist on the physical plane. Wise men 
are they—I have proved the truth of their con¬ 
tention. It was in this wise. 
One sunny afternoon I climbed a modest 
hill near Stockbridge, in the Berkshires. Great 
trees arched above the roadway. Forest-clad 
hills rolled away to the horizon, green waves 
of beauty. In the distance church bells chimed. 
Nearing the top, I stopped short at sight of 
a low gray building under a mossy roof which 
snuggled beneath giant trees. The sound of 
running water mingled with the songs of birds. 
At one side a rocky cliff towered, topped with 
trees, green with ferns and flowers. A bat¬ 
tered chimney rose above the roof; the land 
sloped away toward a stream over which aged 
willows leaned in the friendliest fashion. Dim 
vistas opened below, and across the valley rose 
the everlasting hills. And what should loom 
high above the stream, through a sort of terrace 
thirty feet long, but a gigantic mill-wheel, stal¬ 
wart and hoary, at rest after a century of 
usefulness. 
In ten minutes I was at the owner's door. 
In ten minutes more I was wheedling my pret¬ 
tiest with a woman who assured me that the 
old mill was a priceless possession of sentiment 
which no amount of money would allow to be 
destroyed, as it had been in her family for a 
century. But when she was assured that it 
was my intention to preserve and beautify 
ever) r timber; make the place into a thing of 
comfort and beauty, a home where not a bird 
would be disturbed, where flowers should re¬ 
place weeds and lawns flourish instead of 
vegetables, she yielded. 
The Remodeling 
7 he mill has been made thoroughly comfortable 
and homelike without sacrificing its atmosphere 
of picturesque age. Flower boxes brighten the 
window sills, hollyhocks are already glowing 
against the gray old walls, and down by the 
wheel an outdoor living room has been created. 
Next year a garden of old-fashioned flowers will 
be well under wav 
Notwithstanding the carpenter’s 
skepticism and predilection for 
varnished pine floors and modern 
windows, the original lines were 
kept intact. The old beams and 
floors, solid as rocks, remain un¬ 
changed; the wheel was left in 
place above the stream 
A few months later the fun began. Car¬ 
penters were requisitioned, who plainly con¬ 
sidered the new owner quite mad. But as 
weeks passed and the great wheels within were 
carted away, and order and comfort grew into 
being where shavings, grist and mysterious 
paraphernalia had reigned in rusted disorder, 
their interest and sympathy grew. Partitions 
were run up. The solid walls and great 
beamed ceilings, the wide-planked floors, solid 
as rocks, were left intact. There were sundry 
struggles against the contractor’s longing for 
varnished pine floors and modern windows, 
but in the end some innate understanding and 
sympathy got the better of his education and 
he too caught the spirit of my dreams. 
I he mill is two stories high on the side 
On the side nearest the road the mill is but two stories high, but as the land slopes down¬ 
ward toward the stream there are three stories on the inner side. The old wheel, at rest 
now after a century of usefulness, still looms above the stream, a hoary relic as stalwart 
as the rocks which, guide the ivater to it from the hills above. Trees, ferns, wild flowers— 
all remain unspoiled 
