Tank Tales: Phoenixville & The Phoenix Mills

Phoenixville is one of the small, largely forgotten, mill villages in Vernon. Indeed the only reference to the village name and most of its history is found in “Cascades and Courage,” George S. Brookes’ 1955 history of Vernon and Rockville.

The primary feature of the area today is the Tankerhoosen Lake dam, the only dam in the Tankerhoosen Valley visible from the street and arguably the most  scenic. For those who like statistics, Tankerhoosen Lake is the largest in the Tankerhoosen Valley with a normal surface area of 16.5 acres, draining an area of nearly 11 square miles and is owned by the DEEP. The dam is masonry, of earthen construction with a height is 16 feet and a length of 237 feet.

But once this quiet corner was a busy village. Stephen Fuller, discovering a beaver dam here on the Tankerhoosen, was the first to make use of the river's water power. In 1808, the year Vernon incorporated, Colonel Francis McLean purchased this site from Fuller to build a sawmill. He later included a gristmill and an oil mill moving one of the buildings from the Valley Falls area. The dam dates to 1830 and there seem to have been mills on both sides of the river.

McLean sold the mills to William Baker and Harvey W. Miner, and in 1836 they sold to a company known as the Phoenix Mills Company, who built the largest of the buildings in about 1840 and manufactured cotton warp. One of the company directors was Lebbeus Bissel, whose family would later own the land that would become the Tankerhoosen Wildlife Management Area.

James Campbell and Rienzi Parker, owners of the Dobsonville Mill, incorporated the Phoenix Mill as a branch of their mills in 1879. Paul Ackerly, who later managed both the Dobsonville Mill and the Phoenix Mill, used the Phoenix Mill for storage. In the late 1920s, the mill buildings burned down and were not replaced, and the property passed to the Talcott brothers. Remains of the walls are visible if you peer over the bank.

The only sketch of the Phoenix Mill is included as an inset in the O. H. Bailey & Co. 1895 Rockville Map. It shows a typical 3-story brick factory with a bell tower. Factory bells were an essential part of every village as they regulated the day calling employees to work. This bell was made by Doolittle, a Hartford company, upon which was inscribed the date, 1840.

When Phoenixville was a thriving village, Phoenix Street connected the railroad at Vernon Depot with Hartford Turnpike just opposite the present Vernon Diner. If you look closely from Route 30 you’ll see the right-of-way still exists. Campbell Avenue was a dirt road used by workers traveling to the Dobsonville Mill.

Villages of the time were self contained with worker and supervisor housing provided by the company. There are still several houses dating to that period on Phoenix and Maple streets. Indeed one of the earliest schoolhouses in town was located here.

A 1934 aerial photo provides one of the best glimpses of what the area once looked like. Although the mill is gone the foundation at the intersection of Maple Street is clearly visible giving an approximation of the mill’s size. Also visible is the channel that carried water from the lake to the mill by way of a small pond where the town parking lot is now located. It flowed under Maple Street and into the mill pond before dropping into the mill over a second dam. This channel is clearly shown in photos and maps up into the 1950s. There would have been a sluice or gate at the dam to control the water flow.

The mill pond still exists and is today part marsh, frequented by ducks, geese and an occasional egret. Nearby is another unique feature - a homemade direction sign and fancy birdhouses built by neighbors Bill and Dave.

Tank Tales are from The Tankerhoosen web site at www.tankerhoosen.info. Visit the site for information and stories related to Vernon’s Tankerhoosen Valley.