Worcester brewery contributes to unique preservation project at state park in Princeton

A Worcester brewery’s second location will cap an arduous restoration project on one of the oldest structures still standing amid 450,000 acres of Massachusetts state parks.

This weekend, Double Down Brewing Co. begins a residency at Mountainside Bakery & Café in Princeton, about 20 miles from the city, at the foot of a trail in Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, the state’s first public park.

Once a boarded-up, broken-down, vandalized building needing hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations just to sniff an occupancy permit, the home known as the Superintendent’s House has been transformed into a living historical exhibit and community gathering place. The 121-year-old former office and living space, up until the late '60s, hosted a handful of park superintendents and their families.

Double Down will have a tasting room inside the carriage house, where park rangers were once stationed, connected to the Superintendent’s House. Meanwhile a beer garden will span the grounds around the pine green and white-trimmed house, now a café run by Princeton residents Katherine Huck and Robin Springfield.

Double Down co-founder Christian McMahan found an idyllic setting for his brewery, which opened in 2021 in the back of Peppercorn's Grille & Tavern on Park Avenue, while expanding in his own backyard. He and his family have long supported Mountainside’s efforts to move to the Superintendent’s House after it won the bid for the renovation project in 2018.

“This is a dream come true,” he said. “I have always imagined that space could be an amazing beer garden since I first moved into the area. Now with the transformational renovation project and great food program already offered there, adding in fresh, locally owned beer to their property will make it an even more destination location for people to come visit.”

Double Down on Mountainside plans to stay through the summer and fall, McMahan said, with the brewery keeping the prospects for a winter outpost on the table.

A unique partnership between the state and café, along with a love of nature, history, baked goods and, now, beer combined to bring an old, decrepit building back to life.

The last superintendent to live in the 12-room Dutch colonial retried in 1969 around the time the state stopped offering housing to park officials. After, the stately building sat vacant, gradually devolving into a hilltop eyesore, incongruous with the natural grandeur of the reservation.

Breathing life into park landmark

Huck and Springfield aren’t merely café owners but also curators of a piece of state history.

Under the state Department of Conservation & Recreation’s Historic Curatorship Program, they received a long-term lease for their business in exchange for their commitment to rehabilitate, manage and maintain the Superintendent’s House. DCR provided them with information about the house’s history, such as details on the park’s original superintendent, Guy Chase, and pictures taken of the house and its residents through the years.

Many of Huck and Springfield’s customers initially questioned their plans to move their business, then called Mountainside Market, from Route 62 in Princeton to the crumbling Superintendent’s House.

“It was vandalized. It was a wreck. The posts in the staircase were kicked out. Someone had built a fire in the living room. The ceiling was falling down,” she said. “It was a lot.”

There were reasons for them to remain optimistic the building and its grounds could captivate again. DCR had invested quite a bit into the property already, including fortifying the basement and installing a new septic system. The agency also assisted with creating parking, a process that would have otherwise involved navigating a quagmire of bureaucracy.

“They wanted us to succeed,” Huck said of DCR.

Armed with a bank loan and a 60-page proposal laying out their plans for revitalizing the space, Huck and Springfield easily won over DCR and took over as curators of the Superintendent’s House, completing the project in late December 2019.

“We opened three months before everything shut down,” Huck said. “It was horrendously heartbreaking. We had vendors that were on standby, telling us to pay them when you can. We crawled back slowly but surely.”

Their business has evolved, too. Their café lies within the reservations 3,000 acres, which includes 17 miles of trails, making it a destination for hikers. The sheer beauty of the setting means guests want to take advantage of the Superintendent’s House for events like weddings.

Brewery always part of the plan

In negotiating the lease with DCR, Huck and Springfield asked for the right to open a brewery in the carriage house. They didn’t have any particular brewery in mind then but knew one could thrive there.

The COVID-19 shutdown put those plans on hold. Then one of their regulars told them about his background in the beer business. Huck and Springfield have been going back and forth with McMahan about bringing his brewery to the hilltop oasis since.

“The property speaks to that brewery feel,” Huck said. “The lawn is expansive and beautiful. It’s peaceful. You can bring your dogs and your kids.”

With the partnership, Mountainside has the chance to expand its hours too, as they’ll get additional staffing help from Double Down.

Should Double Down decide to stick around — or another brewery move in — there is a three-bay garage below the carriage house, Huck said, plenty of space for a brewhouse.

About 25 other properties have been resurrected as part of the DCR program, but only one other, The Charles River Speedway in Brighton, has a brewery component.

Double Down on Mountainside, 213 Mountain Road in Princeton, opened May 25 and will be open every Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. Huck said those hours will increase next month.

Other than Double Down’s brews, they’ll offer cider, wine, hard seltzers and nonalcoholic drinks to pair with bites from their café.

“There are lot of amazing breweries in the state. And we will have an amazing brewery to go along with an amazing space that nature provided.” Huck said. “It’s the best of both worlds.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Double Down Brewing partners with Mountainside Bakery in Princeton