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STRAFFORD — Justin Morrill Homestead will partially reopen later this summer, though work to fix longstanding drainage issues at the state historic site is expected to continue into the fall.

Flooding from an overflowing tributary of the Ompompanoosuc River damaged the state historic site, which is located at 214 Justin Morrill Highway in Strafford, in July 2023.

While the site reopened in 2024, state officials made the decision to close it for the 2025 season — which traditionally runs May through October — to conduct more permanent, long-planned fixes, particularly repairs to the 1851 historic home that the senator who represented Vermont in the U.S. Congress for 44 years, until his death in 1898.

Though state officials had hoped to have the work completed by the end of last fall, the upgrades proved more complicated than expected.

“Because of it being a very old building that Sen. Morrill tweaked as he was in it … we found things were not exactly as we first thought,” State Historic Preservation Officer Laura Trieschmann said.

The plan now is to partially reopen the site, which is also on the National Register of Historic Places, in time for the Friends of the Morrill Homestead’s annual “Minis for Morrill” art auction fundraiser, which is scheduled kick off with an opening reception July 3 at the site’s education center.

The roughly $1.9 million drainage project is being funded by a mix of state and federal grants, as well as money the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded Vermont after the 2023 floods.

Jamie Duggan is director of preservation for Vermont State Historic Sites and is working on a project to improve drainage at remediate moisture damage at the Justin Smith Morrill Homestead in Strafford, Vt., on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. JAMES M. PATTERSON / Valley News

The drainage around Morrill’s Gothic Revival Mansion has proven to be particularly challenging and the state has had to make adjustments to its original plans, said Jamie Duggan, director of preservation at the state’s Division for Historic Preservation. The topography of the site is such that a pond sits on top of a hillside and the house at the bottom.

“There’s water everywhere up on that hillside,” Duggan said. “It’s all sloping down toward where the house is.”

Those challenges have been compounded by a complex — and unmarked — system of stone channels Morrill installed to move water around the property, including to what once was an operating farm and the apple orchard, which has since been restored. The state has been using ground-penetrating radar to figure out where the channels, most of which are around a foot below ground, are located, Duggan said.

“We need to make sure the water flowing through those channels is not causing water infiltrations to any of the buildings or compromising the landscape, or the channels are caving in,” Trieschmann said, adding that historians have yet to find any documentation of Morrill’s original plans. “We need to make sure we’re doing it right and that we have explored any mysteries that might pop up and change our plans.”

Jesse Smith, of Northwoods Excavating, right, talks with Jamie Duggan, director of preservation for Vermont State Historic Sites, left, on Wednesday, May 14, 2026, about a buried stone culvert built by Justin Smith Morrill to divert water away from the Gothic Revival home he built in Strafford, Vt., in the 1850s. Duggan said he hopes to locate the full path of the culvert, document it and keep it functioning. JAMES M. PATTERSON / Valley News

While parts of the grounds and the education center are expected to reopen this year, the mansion itself is not expected to reopen until the start of the 2027 season.

As part of the project, the house’s foundation has been exposed and state officials are documenting what they’ve discovered.

Duggan is scheduled to give a talk about the work at the site’s education center June 27.

“We all have to exercise patience,” Friends of Morrill Homestead director Kumari Patricia said about the repair delays. “I look at all of this work as an opportunity to grow the awareness of the site, the importance of the site and educational opportunities.”

The work has involved excavating an area that is referred to as the kitchen gardens. Volunteers, under the direction of master gardeners, were able to salvage plants, including herbs, berry bushes and perennials, Patricia said. The nonprofit’s members are looking forward to rebuilding the gardens when the work is complete.

This summer, they’ve planned trips to Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock on June 20 and to The Fells in Newbury, N.H., July 31. Part of the goal of the trips, which are open to the public, is to get inspiration for the Morrill Homestead.

“We are very eager,” Patricia said. “It’s going to be lovely.”

Visit morrillhomestead.org for more information about Friends of Morrill Homestead programs scheduled for this summer.

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