Faucett Mill and House

Along a quarter mile of the old Great Road, where it once forded the Eno River northwest of Hillsborough, stand a grist mill, a Federal style house, a mill cottage and a barn. The mill has a hand-hewn heavy timber frame, handmade nails and a dry-laid stone foundation, and it is thought to be the mill documented on the site in 1792. It operated until about 1930 and is the only intact water-powered grist mill in Orange County. The two-and-a-half-story house, built around 1808, is one room deep, with end chimneys, a shed porch and original woodwork. Local tradition holds that it served as a tavern and stagecoach stop until about 1860, and its center hall plan with a second front door into a reputed public room supports that. The house was restored between 1938 and 1940. The complex is regarded as an uncommon surviving mill-tavern pairing in North Carolina.