The architectural features included a well-lit foyer, with a Greek Revival door surrounded by a transom and sidelights, as well as a decorative open staircase. The front of the house was an I-style with one large room on each side of the foyer. The original downstairs room continued its life as a kitchen with the cooking hearth and tight-winder stairs used by servants. The original upstairs room was divided in two. The added upstairs had 4 bedrooms.
During the years when Isaac and his brother, William were in business together, and even after, the Lower Squankum Mill was known as Nesbit Mills. The 1860 Census indicates that Isaac and William were neighbors. Isaac was a farmer and William was a miller. It is likely that Isaac and his family were living across the road on the farm, and that William and his family were living in the previously extended miller’s house. Over the years, both Isaac and William were very active in the Township of Howell. During the Civil War, William was instrumental in raising troops to fill the quotas of his township, and after the war, he spent time and money bringing home, to family and friends, the bodies of those who had been killed and buried on distant battlefields. By 1873, the brothers had moved on to bridge and road building.
In 1873 Capt. William Prickitt acquired 3 tracts of land in a Sheriff’s Sale, containing a dwelling house a gristmill and miller’s house, formerly owned by Isaac Nesbit. Isaac’s obituary of July 1897 read, “He came from Mercer Co. about 35 years ago and bought a Mill property at Lower Squankum, now owned by Capt. Prickitt.”
Capt. Prickitt retired to the farm with his family and lived on the West side of the road. and J. Marshall lived next to the mill. The Capt. put every effort into the cultivation of his land. The dairy on Gilman Farm had a long-standing reputation for the quality of its milk and extreme cleanliness. As a result, he was encouraged to open a canning factory which gained the same reputation. The cannery continued until 1920 when it was destroyed by fire.
While still alive, the house and grounds on the west side of the road were given to Capt. Prickitt’s daughter, Louise, who had always lived with him. The house and grounds on the east side of the road [MacKenzie House] were bequeathed to his daughters, Jennie Warner Patterson and Annie Gilman Linson, when Capt. Prickitt died in 1929.
By 1940, the daughters sold the mill property and miller’s house to Greta Sackett. Who, in turn, sold all in 1956 to Jessie and James MacKenzie. The State of NJ bought the mill property, as it was preparing for highway construction. And by 1980, the bridge and ramps for I-195 were put in. The last owner, Jessie MacKenzie, as one of the original incorporators of the Howell Historical Society, gave her home to Howell Township in 1982, to be used as a Museum and Library. In 2020 the newly founded Howell Heritage and Historical Society purchased the house from the township, in order to refurbish and reopen the MacKenzie House Museum and Library to the public.
