{"nrhp_refnum":"73001277","name":"Mills Pond District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"W of St. James on NY 25A","address_restricted":false,"city":"St. James","county":"Suffolk County","state":"NY","lat":40.90132483100004,"lon":-73.14917996214398,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-08-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 200-acre rural historic district along N.Y. Route 25A in St. James, Town of Smithtown, Suffolk County, New York, centered on the Mills family farming hamlet around Mills Pond. It holds nine structures dating mostly from the 18th to mid-19th century, set among farmland and woodland.","why_significant":"The district is an unusual survival of a tiny agricultural hamlet on Long Island, with its 18th and early-19th-century buildings still in the farmland setting in which they were built. It is anchored by the Greek Revival Mills Homestead of 1837, designed by Calvin Pollard. The nomination also notes that the Route 25A corridor has stayed largely unchanged by road widening.","narrative":"Mills Pond District is a 200-acre corridor along N.Y. Route 25A in St. James, Suffolk County, where a small Long Island farming hamlet survives in its original setting. About 130 acres of open land have been cultivated continuously for 300 years, and roughly 50 acres of woodland form part of a larger preserved tract. Nine structures, mostly from the 18th and early 19th centuries, cluster around Mills Pond. Timothy Mills bought land here in 1693, and his family farmed the area for generations. The centerpiece is the Mills Homestead, a Greek Revival house built in 1837 for William Wickham Mills and designed by New York architect Calvin Pollard. Other buildings include early barns, an ice house, a gambrel-roofed house, a \"half house\" and several farm dwellings. The district was listed because the buildings still stand in the agricultural landscape that produced them, and because the surrounding stretch of North Country Road keeps its rural character.","period_of_significance":"18th and 19th centuries","architect_builder":"Calvin Pollard (architect, Mills Homestead); George Curtis (artisan-builder, thought to have built the Mills Homestead)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival (Mills Homestead); also gambrel-roofed and \"half house\" Long Island farm dwellings","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is marked good. Present uses include agricultural, commercial and private residence. The Mills Homestead is well preserved, while two barns south of Route 25A are in poor condition.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.911903-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/73001277.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001277/962161d247-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001277/962161d247-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smalling, Walter Jr., creator","credit_html":"Smalling, Walter Jr., creator, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southwest_corner_of_house_-_Mills_Pond_House,_660_North_Country_Road_(State_Route_25A),_Saint_James,_Suffolk_County,_NY_HABS_NY,52-STJAM.V,1-6.tif"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75322180","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_Pond_District_(St._James,_New_York)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6859994"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/suffolk-county/mills-pond-district-73001277/"}