John Goffe’s Mill was built in 1744 by Squire John Goffe’s grandson, Major John, rebuilt in 1834 by his grandson, Theodore, following a fire. The unusually heavy flood in the spring of 1909 caused the mill to collapse, and the mill was abandoned and the buildings on the lands were leased for farming. In 1939 another descendant, Dr. George Woodbury, returned to the ancestral home. The lot consisted of a wooded lot, a vacated house and the crumbling ruins of the old mill on Bowman’s Brook. Dr. Woodbury restored the mill, operated it through the 1940’s and 1950’s turning out stone ground flour and pine furniture.
The site was originally developed in 1744 by Colonel John Goffe, who obtained the property for his service in the French and Indian Wars. The Goffe family constructed two stone dams and a mill pond, where they operated a gristmill and a sawmill for over a hundred years. Finally, in 1939, the last of a series of water-powered mills was erected on the south bank at the lower dam site by Dr. George Woodbury, a seventh-generation descendant of the Goffe family.
In 1961, the Woodbury family sold the property to the Dunfey family, developers of upscale hotels throughout New England, who opened the Sheraton Wayfarer Hotel and Conference Center in 1962. The complex included a pedestrian covered bridge just north of the mill, and retained the mill itself as a gift shop. The site became famous over the years for the local and national politicians who stopped there while campaigning during New Hampshire's presidential primary contests. The property was sold by the Dunfey family in 1986, and was closed by the current owners in 2010.
The current owners hired local engineering firm TFMoran of Bedford to redesign the property as a mixed-use development anchored by Whole Foods, incorporating a variety of other residential, retail, and commercial buildings as well as the 1939 mill building itself into the development plan.
"Due to its long history and unique setting, the project imposed numerous challenges for the developers," said Jeff Kevan, project principal for TFMoran. "We had to put together a plan that, in addition to providing access and parking for each use within the complex, also addressed the environmental quality of Bowman Brook, traffic safety, preservation of the historic mill, structural stability of the bridges and dams, and created accessible access to a public walking trail all around the brook and mill pond."