Milldean and Alexander-Davis House

The Milldean and Alexander-Davis Houses stand in the center of Grafton Village, opposite the Grafton Grocery Market. The two houses each stand with a gable facing the street, and additions extending northward, toward the Saxtons River. They were built for Peter Dean and Lucius Alexander, co-owners of a textile mill that stood on the river bank north of Milldean (the left house of the pair). Both originally presented an early example of the Greek Revival side-hall plan, executed with predominantly Federal details.^[2]

The Alexander-Davis House was the first of the two houses to be built (c. 1826), and is also the most-altered of the pair. It is now five bays wide, with a two-story front porch, both alterations the result of its conversion in 1840 into a hotel. The original part of the house is the left three bays, whose brick is laid in six-course American bond, while the right two bays are laid in seven-course American bond. The entrance is in what is now the center bay, set in a slightly recessed semi-oval arch, with flanking sidelight windows and a transom below the blind arch. A distinguishing feature of the interior of this house is artwork on its walls that is attributable to the itinerant artist Moses Eaton, Jr.^[2]

Milldean was built c. 1831, and was originally nearly identical in appearance to the Alexander-Davis House. It has a three-bay facade, with the entrance in the rightmost bay (as that of the other house would originally have been set), with identical styling. The interior has retained most of its original finish, having undergone some alteration and renovation in the 1980s. Wood-frame ells extend to the rear, connecting the house to a modern carriage barn.^[2]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Windham County, Vermont