The Run of the Mill Public House & Brewery is a 14 barrel brew pub specializing in hand-crafted beer and casual pub fare. All of our beers flow directly from our brewery.  We use only the finest imported malts and domestic hops available to bring you the tastiest and finest selection of beers.

Owner Geoff Houghton renovated an abandoned Mill and made it a place where business men and women meet, families gather and friends hang out.

In addition to our house-made beers, we have an eclectic Pub menu featuring home made food. Our talented chefs serve delightful appetizers, wraps, sandwiches, vegetarian fare, hearty entrees and imaginative daily specials.  Come in make yourself at home and enjoy a fresh brew and meal.

We are located on Saco Island in Saco Maine.  From Memorial Day to Labor Day come enjoy our outdoor seating and bar overlooking the Saco River, we offer a grill menu and raw bar.

 THE HISTORY

The huge red brick mill buildings of Saco Island or Factory Island as it was called, are a reminder of an industrial past which is interwoven with the history of Saco and Biddeford.  The region's first industrial complex, a water powered sawmill and iron forge, was built by John Davis in 1653.   By 1683 Benjamin Blackman had established a sawmill where Main Street now crosses over to Saco Island.  The milling of lumber was a major industry in the region for nearly three centuries.  Seventeen sawmills were in operation by 1800, sawing more than 50,000 board feet of lumber per day. Saco industry diversified in 1811, when Thomas Cutts and Josiah Calef established the Saco Iron Works, later Saco Manufacturing Co. which made cask hoops, cut nails and brads and other iron products.  In 1826 the company erected a huge seven story cotton mill, the largest in the United States.  After a disastrous fire in 1830, the business was reorganized as the York Manufacturing Company,  and Mill #1 was opened in 1832.  The York erected four more mills in the next twenty years and ran eight mills by the turn of the century.  The establishment of the Laconia Mills (1844) and Pepperell Mills (1850) in Biddeford made the combined mill district one of the largest cotton milling complexes in the country, employing as many as 9000 people.  

After the York Mill closed in 1957, the buildings on Factory Island were occupied by a tannery (NKL TANNING) and a Nike shoe factory.  The old Mill buildings are now being renovated into offices, residences, an educational facility (University of Southern Maine), and a Brewery (The Run of the Mill Public House & Brewery).  The Run of the Mill is in building #3 which was built in 1838.  At the turn of the century the old gable roofs with clerestory windows were replaced with flat roofs, some with decorative brackets at the eaves.  In 2008 building #3 was outfitted with windows, doors, power electricity, home-made food and handcrafted BEER!