Jericho, New York · Founded 1783 · Building: 1672, per Milleridge Inn history; local sources give conflicting dates for the oldest structural core
The Milleridge Inn grew around a colonial-era house in Jericho, but its restaurant was closed after an August 2026 fire.
The Milleridge Inn is a historic restaurant and event complex in Jericho, New York, built around a small house that the Inn dates to 1672. Its own history says Elias Hicks welcomed travelers there with meals and lodging after the Revolutionary War. Local-history and archival sources identify an earlier Maine Maid Tea House at the same Willets house before it became the Milleridge Inn; the Maine Maid name later moved to a separate former Hicks house at 4 Old Jericho Turnpike, which should not be confused with the Milleridge property. A major fire on August 20, 2026 closed the Inn and Cottage until further notice.
The Milleridge Inn says Mary Washburn Willets began a two-room house with a central fireplace that year. Local sources give conflicting dates for the oldest part of the structure, so 1672 remains an attributed claim rather than a settled construction date.
Source: The Historic Milleridge Inn, 'About'; Jericho Library, 'Jericho-Pedia'; Long Island Business News, December 2, 2015
The Milleridge and later reporting say British and Hessian officers used the historic house during the Revolutionary War. This review did not locate primary military, deed, or municipal records specifically confirming the claim for this building.
Source: The Historic Milleridge Inn, 'About'; Long Island Business News, December 2, 2015
The Inn's history says Elias Hicks opened his home to travelers after the war, offering simple meals and lodging along Jericho Road. The evidence reviewed does not establish this as the formal start of a continuously operating commercial restaurant.
Source: The Historic Milleridge Inn, 'About'
Archival material describes a Maine Maid Tea House operating in the Mary Washburn Willets house, later becoming the Milleridge Inn.
Source: New York Heritage digital archive, item 861
Jericho local-history material says the property became the Mille Ridge Inn after the Miller family took over around 1950; the exact date and operating transition require primary-record verification. This is the same era in which the separate Maine Maid Inn name and business relocated to a different Jericho building.
Source: Jericho Library, 'Jericho-Pedia'; Long Island Business News, June 30, 2015
James Murphy acquired the property, beginning decades of Murphy-family ownership and operation of the Milleridge.
Source: Long Island Business News, 'Sources: Dover Group in Milleridge takeover,' December 2, 2015; Jericho Library, 'Jericho-Pedia'
Owen Smith sold the Milleridge real estate to Kimco Realty. Kimco said it was not the restaurant operator and sought a new operator for the complex.
Source: CBS New York, 'Community Fights To Save Historical Milleridge Inn On Long Island,' September 16, 2015; Herald Community Newspapers, December 2, 2015
The Dover Group took over the Milleridge after the ownership transition and undertook renovations. Reporting describes the property as reopening under new management after an earlier temporary closure.
Source: The Dover Group, 'Our Company'; Newsday, August 21, 2026
An accidental electrical fire damaged sections of the Milleridge Inn, including the bar area, an office, dining space, upper floor, attic, and exterior. The Inn and Cottage were closed until further notice while rebuilding and inspections proceeded.
Source: CBS New York, August 21, 2026; News 12 Long Island, August 22, 2026; Patch, August 26, 2026; Newsday, August 21, 2026
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The claimed 1672 date refers to a residential structure, not to a restaurant opening. The Inn's own history places its traveler hospitality tradition around 1783, while local sources describe later restaurant identities and independent reporting documents a temporary closure and reopening under new management in 2016. The Inn and Cottage were also closed after the August 2026 fire. The evidence does not support uninterrupted restaurant operation from the 17th century.
The Milleridge and secondary accounts consistently repeat that British and Hessian officers stayed at the property during the Long Island occupation. This review did not retrieve a contemporary military record, property record, or Town of Oyster Bay archive specifically naming the Willets/Hicks house, so the account remains plausible rather than documented.
A 2011 ghost-story post recounts an undated fire in which several members of a resident family supposedly died, followed by reports of unexplained activity. The source itself says the fire date is not recorded, and this review found no independent historical record confirming the fatal fire, the people involved, or paranormal activity.
Post-fire reporting says the restaurant was closed, and a later report said both the Inn and Cottage would remain closed until further notice. Some other components of the complex were initially reported undamaged, but that does not establish that the restaurant itself remained open.
Everything below has been reported by two or more independent sources — this is an informational record of what's said about this place, not a verified account of paranormal activity. Still Open America doesn't certify hauntings as real.
Staff, guests, and maintenance workers have described sudden cold areas, cold breezes, and a strong feeling of being watched in upstairs rooms and corridors. A local library overview likewise reports employee and guest accounts of strange noises, shadowy figures, and abrupt temperature drops in different parts of the Inn.
One longstanding account describes an overnight painter seeing a man, woman, and small boy standing silently at the end of an upstairs corridor. The story connects the figures to an alleged fatal fire involving a resident family, while broader accounts describe multiple reported spirits and shadowy figures at the Inn.
The alleged fatal fire, its date, and the identities of any family members said to have died could not be confirmed in the historical material reviewed for this entry.
The Inn's owner said staff and customers avoided the Director's Room because chairs were said to move in its loft and a rocking chair was reported to rock on its own. The room was among areas presented to the public during the Inn's Haunted Village programming.
The Milleridge Inn has operated continuously as a commercial public restaurant since 1672.
The 1672 date is the Inn's claimed date for the oldest residential core, not a documented restaurant opening. The Inn says Elias Hicks began offering travelers food and lodging around 1783, and later sources describe distinct restaurant names, operating transitions, a 2015 sale, a 2016 reopening under new management, and a 2026 closure after fire damage.
Source: The Historic Milleridge Inn, 'About'; Jericho Library, 'Jericho-Pedia'; Newsday, August 21, 2026; Patch, August 26, 2026
Owen Smith and Kimco Realty purchased the Milleridge Inn together in 2015.
Owen Smith sold the Milleridge real estate to Kimco Realty in 2015. Kimco stated that it was not the operator and sought a replacement operator; the Dover Group subsequently took over the Inn operation.
Source: CBS New York, September 16, 2015; Herald Community Newspapers, December 2, 2015; The Dover Group, 'Our Company'
The August 2026 fire mainly damaged a cottage section while the principal restaurant remained available.
Fire reporting identified damage to the Inn's bar, office, adjacent dining area, upper floor, attic, and exterior. The Inn and Cottage were closed until further notice after the fire, although some nearby components were initially reported unharmed.
Source: CBS New York, August 21, 2026; News 12 Long Island, August 22, 2026; Patch, August 26, 2026; Newsday, August 21, 2026
The 1672 construction date is settled historical fact.
The Milleridge uses 1672 for the Mary Willets house, but other local and business sources give 1676 or approximately 1725 for the oldest structure. The exact construction chronology requires archival architectural and property-record research.
Source: The Historic Milleridge Inn, 'About'; Long Island Business News, December 2, 2015; Jericho Library, 'Jericho-Pedia'
The Maine Maid Inn that later became One North and then Opus Steakhouse is the same site as the Milleridge Inn.
Local-history and archival sources identify a Maine Maid Tea House at the Willets house that later became the Milleridge Inn. The Maine Maid name later moved to a separate former Hicks house at 4 Old Jericho Turnpike, unrelated in ownership to the modern Milleridge. That separate site closed in 2009, reopened as One North Mediterranean Soul in November 2017, and was reported rebranding as Opus Steakhouse in July 2020.
Source: Jericho Library, 'Jericho-Pedia'; New York Heritage digital archive, item 861; Long Island Business News, June 30, 2015; Newsday, 'One North' opening coverage, 2017; Newsday, One North/Opus Steakhouse rebrand coverage, July 2020
For decades, the Milleridge became a Long Island destination by combining dining, catering, events, and a historic-village setting around an old residential core. Its value lies in that layered local history, not in a proven uninterrupted restaurant operation from 1672. The fire of August 2026 made the preservation question immediate: owner Butch Yamali said he intended to rebuild and restore the damaged Inn, but normal restaurant operations had not been independently confirmed as resumed by this entry's update date.
The Milleridge Inn in Jericho is built around a small house that the Inn dates to 1672, although local sources disagree on the oldest structure's exact construction year. The Inn says Elias Hicks began feeding and lodging travelers there in 1783. Local-history and archival sources also identify an earlier Maine Maid Tea House at the same house before it became the Milleridge Inn; the Maine Maid name later moved to a separate former Hicks house elsewhere in Jericho and should not be confused with this property. The current complex was later operated by the Murphy family, transferred through a 2015 real-estate sale, and taken over by the Dover Group in 2016.
No. The Milleridge Inn cannot be verified as New York's oldest continuously operating restaurant. Its claimed 1672 date is the date of a private house's historic core, not a documented restaurant opening, and the site has had later name, ownership, management, and closure transitions. The restaurant and cottage were also closed after the August 2026 fire.
The earliest haunted-source located in this review is a 2011 post titled 'Haunted Long Island: The Milleridge Inn' by The Witching Hour. That post retells an undated story of a fatal house fire and later unexplained activity, but it does not cite a contemporary report or identify an earlier published source. The 2011 account documents the story's modern circulation, not that a haunting was contemporaneously reported in the colonial period.
Yes. An accidental electrical fire on August 20, 2026 damaged sections of the Milleridge Inn, including the bar area, an office, a nearby dining area, upper-floor and attic areas, and the exterior. News reports said the Inn and Cottage were closed until further notice while officials assessed the damage and plans were made to restore the property.
August 2026 reporting identified Butch Yamali as president and owner of the Milleridge Inn. Yamali founded the Dover Group, which says it took over the Milleridge in 2016 after the prior owner sold the property to Kimco Realty in 2015. The precise legal relationship among the operating business, Dover Group entities, and the underlying real estate should be confirmed from current filings before describing the ownership structure more specifically.
No, not in their later histories. Local-history and archival sources identify an earlier Maine Maid Tea House at the Willets house that became the Milleridge Inn. But the Maine Maid name later moved to a separate former Hicks house at 4 Old Jericho Turnpike, which closed as a restaurant in 2009, reopened as One North Mediterranean Soul in 2017, and was reported rebranding as Opus Steakhouse in 2020. That is a distinct building with no ownership connection to the modern Milleridge Inn.
585 North Broadway, Jericho, NY 11753
(516) 931-2201
The Milleridge Inn and Cottage were reported closed until further notice after the August 20, 2026 fire. Call before planning a visit.