Stop 2: Bridge over Mill Brook
Continue up the hill and down to Mill Brook. Here a Covered Bridge Had a very different look. The 1901 Sanborn Fire Insurance maps list the structure over Mill Brook as a covered bridge and the “mill” left of the bridge as owned by Frank Kennedy. Then it was a “vacant factory.” A second covered bridge was located further down Union Street and a third, over this same brook, near the American Precision Museum. The covered bridge near the mill was replaced in 1911 and the lower Union Street covered bridge was replaced in 1917. Two-thirds of covered bridges in Vermont were destroyed by the 1927 flood. The concrete arch Mill Brook Bridge near the museum was built in 1930 and rebuilt in 1943.
Stop 3: 38 Ascutney St.
At the top of Union Swing to the Right. Join Ascutney Street A blue house delight. Number 38 Ascutney Street was the site of the first Knight’s Funeral Home before it moved, in 1957, to its current location on Kennedy Pond. Leverett Daniels, from Maine, was a Unitarian minister who lived in this house. Prior to attending theology school, Daniels was a successful physician and farmer in Michigan. His son, Francis Pratt Daniels (1875-1944), was ordained as a minister in Charlestown New Hampshire and lived in Windsor until he died. Like his father, he was pastor at the All Souls Unitarian Church and served on the school board when the new high school opened on Union Street.(Turn right and continue down Ascutney Street to 24 Ascutney Street)
Stop 4: 24 Ascutney St.
The Mower brothers, Five can be found, Including in this house High up on the ground Samuel A.G. Mower had five sons--Samuel, Charles, Solon, George, and Mack. Samuel served in the 1st and 10th Vermont infantry in the Civil War and then lived in New Haven, Connecticut; he was an inventor holding 20 patents. In 1880 Charles was a shoe shop overseer and lived a few houses away from Solon with his wife Mary and three sons. Solon Taylor Mower lived in this house at 24 Ascutney Street. Like his father he was a butcher for G.W. Thurston; he also owned 70 acres in 1883-84. In 1900 George Mower lived in Windsor with his children Earl and Elsie and a servant, Ellen Coyle. Mack Mower worked in the Windsor machine tool industry: he began at Jones & Lamson and became a superintendent at Cone Automatic Machine Company. A few next generation sidenotes: Solon’s son Will served as superintendent of Cone Automatic and taught shop classes at Windsor High School. George’a son Earl is pictured here holding the football as a member of the 1902 Windsor High School team.(continue down Ascutney Street, stopping at the intersection with State Street)
Stop 5: Corner of State and Ascutney
Walk to the corner Where the children do play Here stood a beautiful home ‘Til in ruins it lay Built shortly after the Civil War began, this house was purchased by Samuel Stocker in 1863. Stocker was involved in many business partnerships in town including a dry goods store located in the building that is now the Constitution House. Frank Cone, founder of Cone Automatic Machine Company, lived here after Stocker. Students at State Street school could look through the fence at the beautiful gardens. This1869 map shows this house as one of many that occupied the current Windsor schools’ grounds. Hiram Harlow, businessman and farmer in town, who also served as superintendent of the prison, gave land to the town, including the Ascutney cemetery. In November of 1989, an early morning fire destroyed this historic home.
Stop 6: 54 State Street
On 54 State Street Namesake road between Dr. Phelps had a home Right next to the Green Edward Elisha Phelps, a physician like his father, was raised in Windsor beginning shortly after his birth in 1803. His talents extended far beyond his home practice. A Yale Medical School graduate, Phelps was a professor of anatomy and surgery, first at the University of Vermont Medical School and later at Dartmouth College. In 1861, he volunteered as a surgeon in the Union Army. After he served nearly a year with the First Brigade of Vermont, his poor health forced his transfer to Brattleboro military hospital. He oversaw the hospital’s expansion and before resuming his practice in Windsor. He continued to also teach at Dartmouth until 1871. Phelps collaborated with druggist M.K. Paine, who lived two doors down, on the famous celery compound. He was also the physician for the town’s poorhouse.
Stop 7: Davis Block
What isn’t there Is a story to tell A fire swept through And the Davis Block fell Next to 82 Main Street is the vacant lot formerly called the Davis Block. Connected to the current Boston Dreams on State Street, it burned in 1990. Its name comes from Gilbert Davis, who bought the building, practiced law here, and kept his law library on the top floor. Rockwood drugstore, White’s pharmacy, and Kelly Drug all occupied this building; the soda fountain on the first floor was a popular stop.
Stop 8: Green-Wardner House
Just before the cemeteryThe Green-Wardner House on the hillWas the Ascutney bank buildingThey had their own bill.After ten years without a bank in Windsor, Ascutney Bank opened here, in Dr. George Green’s store, in 1848 with a capital base of $50,000. Like many banks in these years, it printed its own currency. Allen Wardner was the first president of the bank. In 1865, when the United States passed the National Banking Act, the bank’s name was changed to Ascutney National Bank, the name it kept until it closed its doors in 1881. Three years later, the Windsor National Bank opened and printed the only allowable national currency until it closed in 1891. The building is part of the larger property built by Dr. Isaac Green. His fourth son, George, and eventually his daughter, Ann Wardner, also lived in this house.
Stop 9: Final Stop - The Block
Before the NAMCO BLOCK apartmentsAt Union and Main streetsStood the Windsor Club complexFor workers and others to meet.In 1909, when Windsor Machine Company expanded its workforce to 550 people, it decided to create a social club for employees. The company converted existing factory and warehouse space into the Windsor Club to provide recreation and boarding opportunities for mid- and management-level machine tool workers. The idea was to enhance the chances that these workers would stay in town. As Iron Age Magazine wrote of the club in January of 1914, “The first rate man is the type who is hard to keep and the club is intended primarily for him.” Townspeople and employees paid dues to be able to attend dances at the Windsor Club, eat at its dining hall, play pool or bowl there, swim, or stay overnight. The club expanded into Windsor Club Inn by the 1910s. In 1915, National Acme Manufacturing Company (NAMCO) bought Windsor Machine, and in 1920 it tore down the Windsor Club to create an apartment house in “Philadelphia style” for 72 families. NAMCO built a new employee clubhouse, which still stands off Main Street just south of the Windsor House. (End of Walk Continue to Rec Center)
