The mill building which now houses the Mill Falls Inn and Shops, was part of Meredith's industrial history until the 1980s. In 1809 John Bond Swasey, a local resident only twenty-seven years of age, made a substantial land purchase that included a major portion of Meredith Village. In the years that followed, Swasey reconstructed the Lake Waukewan outlet into a canal leading under Main Street and over a forty-foot waterfall. Several new mills were built along the canal, including a carding mill.

In 1830, J.W. Lang and several partners formed the Meredith Village Cotton Factory Company and proceeded to renovate the carding mill into a cotton mill. The Meredith Village Cotton Factory Company maintained the mills operations until 1859 when it and other nearby mills came under the control of the Meredith Mechanic Association. The Association enjoyed prosperity, largely the result of the labors of Englishman Samuel Hodgson, who opened a hosiery manufactory, utilizing space in the cotton mill building along with a new, larger mill which was located lower along the canal.

After Hodgson's mill burned in 1889, the property was eventually developed into the Meredith Linen Mills, whose linen cloth, or "crash," was soon in high demand. Various textiles were milled here until the site was developed into an attractive shopping area in 1984. Through it all, Swasey's old mill continues to stand as a monument to Meredith's mill town roots.