Simon Pearce at the Quechee mill: glassblowing, pottery and a restaurant on the falls
Photo: j_m_d_imagery, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Simon Pearce trained as a glassblower in Ireland and Europe and ran his own workshop in Kilkenny before moving to Vermont. In 1981 he bought an old woolen mill on the Ottauquechee River in Quechee, partly because the falls could power the furnaces. The mill’s hydroelectric turbine has supplied electricity to the operation.
The workshop made simple, heavy handblown glassware that became popular in American homes and as wedding gifts. Pearce added pottery, and visitors could walk the floor and watch glassblowers at work.
Restaurant on the river
The Simon Pearce Restaurant opened in the mill in the 1980s, with tables overlooking the falls and the covered bridge. It quickly became a destination for anniversaries and leaf-season dinners and is one of the better-known restaurants in the Upper Valley.
Production eventually outgrew the Quechee mill, and the company opened a larger glass and pottery facility in Windsor, along Route 5, which also offers visitors a view of the work.
A Vermont craft business at scale
Simon Pearce has opened retail stores in other states over the years, but the Quechee mill is still the flagship. The business is an example of something Vermont encourages but rarely sees at this size: a craft maker who built a brand with national reach while keeping the actual making in the state.
The company has also been hit by Vermont’s floods. Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 damaged the Quechee mill when the Ottauquechee surged, and the business had to rebuild before reopening.
