The Arnold McLean House

The Arnold McLean House

The second historic building that you see as you enter the site is the Arnold McLean house. Arnold was one of the three sons of RB's who helped to run McLean Mill. It was Arnold's job to manage the mill itself. When this building was first built, it had two rooms; a front room which served as both a living room and a kitchen, and a bedroom. In 1927 after Arnold's son Howard was born, Arnold built a two-story addition, adding a kitchen and another bedroom along with stairs to the attic. A few years later, Howard's bedroom was moved into the attic, and plumbing was added to his old room to create a bathroom. Arnold's wife Muriel was a talented pianist and it is said that her piano took up so much space in the front room that they were unable to fit a chesterfield. There are reports of the workers wandering up to the house in the evenings to sit outside on the porch steps and listen to her play the piano.

Howard and Lolly:

In 1945, as Arnold and Muriel got a little older, they made the decision to move into town, leaving the house vacant for their son Howard and his young family to move into. Some alterations to the home were needed, including replacing the living room window with a larger one as well as wiring the house for electricity. Howard and his wife Lolly remained in this house until 1951. From then until the closure of the mill in 1965, the building was used at various times as a residence and an office.

Restoration:

The Arnold McLean house was found in relatively good condition as it had been used most recently as a caretaker's house. The initial restoration of the building included replacing a few cross beams, new skirting around the house, rebuilding the chimney repairing the subfloor and joists at the base of the chimney, re-shingling the roof, and repairing some rafters. The deteriorating carpet was removed in2003 and replaced with plywood until a more historically accurate floor can be installed. While we do have extensive records from the time that Arnold and Muriel lived in this house, we cannot perfectly reconstruct this without destroying the later history of the building.