By Gavi Klein

Photo courtesy of the North-East Historical Society

Millerton natives and tourists alike enjoy the posh interior of Harney & Sons Fine Teas, but did you know that this lovely establishment used to be home to a meat smokehouse? McArthur’s Smokehouse was a Millerton fixture for over 100 years, from its establishment in 1876 until its closure in 2000, when the teahouse took over the premises. For a while before its ultimate closure, the original smokehouse was converted into a museum housing displays of antique tools and artifacts from the 19th century. For this period, the company smoked its mouth-watering product in another building. The smokehouse’s age-old methods included cold-smoking, which is a nearly two-month process, including weeks of pickling and full days of smoking the meat over green hickory logs. This method resulted in hams so delectable, they were known even in New York City; in 1967, McArthur’s appeared in an article by the Atlantic, as a must-see item on a sample itinerary for a city-dweller’s trip into the country. It also showed up as a supplier of meat in a 1975 food column in the New York Times, leaving no doubt to the company’s success and cross-county reach. In its prime, the smokehouse sold everything from smoked ham to turkey breast to trout to sausage and beyond.