37PUMP HOUSE346 Main StreetFires were a scary reality back when many buildings were built of woodand heated with wood or coal stoves. In Vergennes, fire suppressionwas made more difficult because the downtown was uphill from OtterCreek. City officials invested in a water system with three pumps in1868, but the pumps proved to be unreliable. Officials asked John P.Flanders, owner of Vergennes Machine Co., if he could come up withsomething better. In 1871, he had a new kind of pump ready for use.The city purchased a 150x60 foot island in Otter Creek on which tobuild a pump house. The 30x30 foot building has three-foot thick wallsof limestone quarried in Essex, New York. The pump system, inventedby Flanders, operated until the 1930s and is the only existing FlandersPump left in America. The Pump House is no longer in use, but the tinyisland on which it sits provides a unique up-close vista of the falls forvisitors.38GRIST MILL360 Main StreetB.J. Bradbury built a mill on this island in 1830. The so-calledBradbury Mill burned in 1877 and local businessman N.G.Norton built a new grist mill on the site which also burned.He rebuilt again in 1878, this time with brick as the structurestands today. N.G. Norton & Sons ground flour, meal andfeed at the mill and were also dealers in grain, Nova Scotiaplaster, lumber, shingles and lath. The mill had four waterwheels and could grind as much as 1,500 bushels a day. TheNortons also had a store on Main Street where they soldgrain and feed. Today, the mill building has been convertedinto apartments.39SHADE ROLLER FACTORY2 Canal StreetA number of industries operated on thiswestern riverbank site before 1885 whenthe Nevins & Haviland Shade Roller Co.builtitsthree-storyfactorytomanufacture rollers and slats, acrossWest Main Street from its first mill. Thetwo structures were originally connectedby an enclosed bridge, similar to the onethat spanned Canal Street prior to itsremoval in 2022. The factory ran until1926ceaxswhen it was bought by Green Mountain Power Co. and produced jet fuel regulators there until1999. Since that time, the building has remained unused although there are plans for renovation.
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