Village of Pittsford Mills / Nichols Montgomery Powers

This area of Pittsford was originally known as Pittsford Mills. Development began in the late 18th century with two waterfalls on Furnace Brook supplying power for gristmills, sawmills, and an oil mill. The village grew as an industrial hub and the success of the mills attracted settlers who built houses and opened businesses on both sides of the river. A bandstand occupied the triangular greenspace formed by intersecting roads at the east end of the covered bridge. In 1902, a fire destroyed several mills and stores in the village. Pittsford Mills merged with the communities of Pittsford and Hitchcockville to form Pittsford Village in 1913. The bridge and bandstand were removed in 1931 when Route 7 was upgraded. Vermont’s most famous covered bridge builder, Nichols Powers, was born in Pittsford in 1817. At the age of 19, he designed and built his first covered bridge, which crossed Furnace Brook at this location in 1836. Because Powers was a minor, his father signed the contract to guarantee his son’s work. The design utilized a Town lattice truss, a structural system consisting of a rectangular timber frame connected by sawn planks in a lattice form fastened by wooden pegs. The two-lane covered bridge with a pedestrian walkway stood until 1931, when it was replaced with a concrete bridge. Powers would become one of the most prolific bridge builders in New England and the Mid-Atlantic. He died in 1897.