Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) will transform its historic 1849 National Register-listed Stone Mill with lights, linens, food, and music to host its 25th Anniversary “rustic-elegant” Gala event on Saturday August 1, 2015.

Located behind AARCH’s office building, this 11,000-square-foot mill overlooking the Ausable River once produced horseshoe nails for the Ausable Horse Nail Company and was at the center of the village’s economy for more than eighty years.

The Horse Nail Company’s success resulted from a number of forces and factors that all came together here. Iron from local mines, smelted with local charcoal, provided the raw material for the nails. Keeseville blacksmith Daniel Dodge invented a machine to mass produce horse nails and the Ausable River provided the power to run the mill’s machinery. After the company closed in 1923, the building became part of the R. Prescott and Sons complex, a furniture company that made radio and television cabinets in the 20th century. That company closed in the 1960s.

The afternoon begins at 3 pm with an optional walking tour of Keeseville led by AARCH Executive Director Steven Engelhart. Afterwards, guests will enjoy cocktails and dinner catered by Green Goddess foods and featuring local organic fare from neighboring farms including Mace Chasm Farm and North Country Creamery. Guests are invited to dance with North Country folk musicians John Kirk and Trish Miller. There will also be opportunities to see the AARCH offices and to view the Nils Luderowski exhibition currently on display in the Clayton Family Gallery.

This event is also an opportunity to share a vision for the future of the stone mill as a revitalized center of economic and community activity in the village. “We’d like to think that, just as this mill was at the center of work life for more than 100 years, we will find a way to make it a key part of the village’s revitalization and future”, Engelhart said in a statement to the press announcing the event.

Nils Luderowski has donated two one-of-a-kind Westport chairs to be raffled off at the gala. Tickets for the event are $150 per person and raffle tickets for the chairs are $1 each. Both can be purchased on the AARCH website, www.aarch.org/adventure or by calling 518-834-9328. Registration deadline is this Friday, July 17, 2015.

Adirondack Architectural Heritage is the nonprofit historic preservation organization for the Adirondack Park with a mission to promote better public understanding, appreciation and stewardship of the Adirondacks’ unique and diverse architectural heritage. This includes not only nationally-recognized “Great Camps”, but farmsteads, churches, bridges, industrial buildings and other structures that embody the whole range of human experience in the region.

The illustration “Stone Mill Visions” provided.