When coursing down Diamond Glen Road from the Farmington Reservoir, you encounter a very steep narrow and winding roadway. Due to the road’s treacherous trajectory, a driver must pay attention to the road itself. One must maintain a low safe speed and remain alert to vehicles potentially behind and in front of you. Halfway down the hill, there is a curve so narrow and so blind that there is a mounted mirror on an adjacent tree so that a driver may be made aware of a car approaching from below. Such intention limits the appreciation of the scenery on either side of the roadway. Traveling from town to the Reservoir up that same road allows for a whole different perspective and a much better glimpse of what lies beyond the guardrails. Just before that crazy sharp curve in the road, a stone structure silently commands the view on the passenger-seat side of the road. At first blush, it resembles a small waterfall, quaint but clearly man-made. I have passed it dozens of times but I never really gave it much thought.  On one of my routine visits to the Stanley Whitman house, a mounted exhibition map of colonial Farmington alerted me to the fact that there were remnants of rich Farmington history where I had encountered the curious pile of stones on Diamond Glen. Now that I look back, an adjacent road sign announcing that the land belongs to the Farmington Land Trust should have alerted me that the area was special. 

The Mill Brook follows along Diamond Glen from the Farmington Reservoir, although the waterway pre-dates the very old path now paved. “Farmington, Connecticut, The Village of Beautiful Homes,” a collection originally published by Arthur Brandegee and Eddy Smith, re-printed by the Farmington Historical Society, helped to shine light on its glorious past. One of the Tunxis Sepus’ original proprietors, John Bronson, acquired the parcels now known as Diamond Glen. John and brother Richard Bronson with their sister Mary had left England in 1635 on the ship “Defense” with the Puritan immigration wave to the New World. Like others, they landed in Boston, Massachusetts but left early on to head west with Thomas Hooker and others in search of new land. John Bronson distinguished himself by serving in the Pequot Wars and ultimately was given land in what is now Farmington as one of the earliest settlers of this new part of the ever-expanding Puritan presence. John went on to be one of the founders of the First Church in 1652.  Sometime before 1650, he and his brother Richard built a mill on the Mill Brook; the remnant of this is the stone structure I happened upon on the side of Diamond Glen Road. 

Records of the mill are sparse with some references indicating it was a sawmill, others a grist mill—there is evidence that a gristmill did exist. It is possible that a second adjacent mill, a little farther down the brook, was erected a little later on. The building that still exists at 18 Diamond Glen Road (the “Still House”) was built in 1775 as part of this complex. This section of the operation was said to be a fulling mill utilized to process textiles and, in some accounts, also used to distill gin. According to town records, there was a loom and dyeing house across the road from the mill at Morehead Ledge essential for the textile industry in Farmington; these structures unfortunately are long gone. Another building also no longer in existence included a blacksmith's shop. By the Early 19th century, the 1775 mill house was updated for private housing. The barn adjacent to the house was also re-purposed as a private home. 

Operations changed many hands over time. The Mills became obsolete as the fresh water running down Diamond Glen ravine was used to supply homes and businesses in the area. Even this industry “dried up” as more efficient water delivery was established. Now all we have are a few piled stones to remind us of what was one of the first birthplaces of industry in Farmington. A hop, skip and STROLL just outside the hood.