The oldest house in Bennington Village circa 1774, the inn was built by Samuel Safford, who was a Lieutenant-Colonel with the "Green Mountain Boys" during the Revolutionary War and the Battle for Bennington in 1777. The house was built across the street from what was then Benton Pond, and the site of a sawmill and the first gristmill in Vermont, built by Samuel's father Joseph Safford in 1762. It was known as Safford Mills and operated well into the 1800's.