Historic Downtown Tour Preview

William Czar Bradley II, a native of Brattleboro, was the first Director of Brooks Memorial Library serving from 1884 until about 1904. He was class poet at Harvard University and had two of his books published. The “beautiful and commodious” Victorian-style library Bradley knew stood until the 1960s, when it was demolished and the current structure was built in its place.

Dr. Robert Wesselhoeft turned a fraying edge of Brattleboro into a celebrated mecca for writers, statesmen and the intelligentsia of the era seeking ‘the healing waters of Brattleoro,’ the most famous ‘spa’ of its time. He founded the Brattleboro Hydrotherapy Establishment in 1845, commonly known as the Wesselhoeft Water-Cure. Among its many famous visitors were Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose experiences in Brattleboro even served to inspire their writings.

The Wesselhoeft building was torn down in 1927 and the current Brattleboro Fire Department was built in 1949. A spring still bubbles in the basement. The firemen say sometimes, in the middle of the night, the faucets turn on by themselves, making us wonder if Dr. Wesselhoeft ever really left.

Listen to the full story incorporating all the trail audio segments on the Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast

Brattleboro’s stately U.S. Post Office housed a U.S. District Court until 2017. The chambers belonged to Judge James L. Oakes until 2007. In 1966 he became Vermont Attorney General, and served as Chief Judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals from 1989 to 1992. As Attorney General, he faced many issues such as election fairness, the rebuilding of the Vermont Republican Party, property rights, and voting irregularities. He took a leading investigative role in the racially charged incident known as the “Irasburg Affair”. For 30 years, Judge Oakes was on the Vermont Board of Trustees for the Vermont Law School. In 1995 he was awarded a Doctor of Laws honorary degree. Oakes donated a collection of his own papers on environmental issues with regard to the law to the Vermont Law School. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke at this funeral in October of 2007.

The Commons has won dozens of awards for journalistic excellence. As “ Windham County's Independent Source for News and Views", the free weekly newspaper works with many established freelance writers. Based on the belief that news is “too important to be a commodity”, The Commons is dedicated to promoting independent media and providing education, mentoring and support through seminars, school curriculum and internships. The paper is produced 100% through advertising, memberships and donations.

The Stephen Greene Press was Brattleboro’s premier book publisher for over 20 years. Begun in 1957, they specialized in books of regional interest as well as an eclectic range of nonfiction. Their titles included everything from wood-fired saunas and cross-country skiing, to British cartoons, covered bridges, Americana, cookbooks, essays, and history. Originally housed under the Book Cellar at 120 Main Street, the press moved in 1969 to its building on Fessenden Road in South Brattleboro.

Thomas Power James was a printer, editor, newspaper reporter, publisher and author who lived in Brattleboro, Vermont in the 1870s. James is best known for publishing (and probably writing) a completion of Charles Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood. James claimed it was written by the spirit of Dickens, who he said chose him at a seance on Oak Street. The book was published on Halloween of 1873, and James reported that he sold tens of thousands of copies. We have to take that statement with a grain of salt, though spiritualist newspapers enthusiastically promoted his work, and copies can be found in many libraries across the country.

In the forward of his book, James also claimed that Dickens was dictating new novels to him, including the thoroughly Dickensian sounding, "The Life and Adventures of Bockley Whickleheap," which he serialized in the magazine he published, "The Summerland Messenger".

In her book, "The Annals of Brattleboro," historian Mary Cabot dedicated a section to T.P. James, called "The Tramp Printer."and stated that he rarely stayed in a job for longer than a year. Cabot may have overstated things, but it is true that in his lifetime, James did have a tendency to disappear. He did start newspapers, (he was the co-editor and publisher of The Windham County Reformer, the precursor to Brattleboro Reformer) in at least three other towns and repeatedly left within a relatively short time of doing so. He also married at least four wives, (research indicates he may have had at least one more) and vanished from their lives, not bothering to divorce some of them before marrying anew.

Though James wrote a solution to Dickens' mystery, he unintentionally created other mysteries for researchers to puzzle over. Why did he leave Brattleboro, after becoming the co-editor and co-publisher of the Windham County Reformer? We know he had a falling out with his partner, but what was it about ? What happened to him after he left Brattleboro? Where did he spend his last days? Did he ever write more of his Dickensian novels? Did he ever admit to the hoax?

Professor Amer Latif tells the surprising story of how Brattleboro's Threshold Publishing played a pivotal role in introducing ancient Islamic Sufi poet Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi to the world. Rumi's writings are still among the top best-selling poetry books in the world today. "Scriptures vary, cultures vary," says Latif "but the book of nature is what we have in common and Rumi helps us read that book." Listen to Amer Latif play the Ney and describe how the Threshold Society -- led by Kabir and Camille Helminsky -- brought Rumi's descendants the Mevlevi 'whirling dervishes' to Brattleboro and major cities throughout the US to popularize Rumi and Sufism, and how these traditions remain in this area.

Rudyard Kipling was one of the best known writers in the world at the beginning of the 20th century. He had an extraordinary rise to fame, writing a prolific amount of short stories, novels and poetry. In 1907 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the youngest writer ever to do so, and the first to win with works in the English language. He married an American Caroline Balestier, the sister of his London agent Wolcott Balestier, just after Wolcott died suddenly. The couple came to Brattleboro in 1892 and built Naulakha, a home you can visit and actually stay at today just on the Brattleboro border with Dummerston north of town. Kipling and his family left Brattleboro after a scandal and public court case involving Caroline's brother, Beatty Balestier, but not before he wrote The Jungle Book, Captains Courageous, Just So Stories and started his masterpiece, Kim. Kipling frequently drove in his carriage to the pub in the Brooks House where he'd speak with townspeople and meet with other authors including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes' fame.

Royall Tyler (1757-1826) is considered the most important Vermont writer of the Federalist era. In 1801, Tyler and his wife Mary moved to Brattleboro, living on a farm in the West Village and then in a house on the Town Common. A Harvard graduate, he became a lawyer, and State’s Attorney for Windham County He then served on the Vermont Supreme Court, including several terms as Chief Justice. In addition to court opinions, Royall Tyler wrote prolifically, his verse and prose pieces published in many newspapers. His comedic play, The Contrast, was staged in New York City in 1787 as part of inauguration festivities for George Washington, who attended the performance. He also penned one of America’s first novels, The Algerine Captive: or the Life and Adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill: Six Years a Prisoner among the Algerines, published in 1797. The work makes the argument against slavery, years before the abolitionist movement emerged.

Mary Palmer Tyler (1775-1866) had eleven children with Royall. In 1811, she published The Maternal Physician, America’s first child rearing manual. In it, she outlined an expanded role in child rearing for mothers beyond the customary practice of colonial women. Tyler encouraged her upper-class readers to breast feed their babies, and to insist upon the supremacy of their maternal instincts over the authority of male physicians for routine care. Her manual also provided a collection of herbal remedies. Mary’s memoirs were published by her descendants as Grandmother Tyler’s Book in 1925.

Founded by Stephen Stearns in 1989 as a theater "of, by and for" young people, the New England Youth Theater continues today as a place where kids can grow as artists, learners and community members. The concept of collaborative work between youth and professional mentorship has helped NEYT grow over the years. Originally housed in a small restaurant and with 30 young actors, NEYT now inhabits its own building and is a bustling accessible youth theater of over 500 students and 50 mentors.

NEYT Alums help the theater put on a Shakespeare production via film during the times of Covid, exhibiting the can-do spirit -- 'commit to action' in the words of Goethe, and all things are possible.

The Latchis Theatre is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Brattleboro’s Downtown Historic District. It was built in 1937-38 by the Latchis family as a memorial to their patriarch Demetrios Latchis, a Greek immigrant who built a theater empire in New England. The family operated the business for 75 years from the golden era of film through the decline of cinema when television and the internet began to compete for entertainment audiences. In 2003 it was sold to the Brattleboro Arts Initiative which undertook restoration. Today the theater hosts movies and live performances. The building’s exterior is Art Deco, which was popular in the 1930s. But the interior is extraordinary. The family chose to honor their heritage with art based upon Greek myths. Three classic Greek entry spaces lead visitors into the grand two-story high main theatre. The floor of the entry foyer has multi-colored terrazzo floors with inlaid pieces of stone fashioned in geometric designs and display characters from Greek mythology. The walls of the main theater have 12-16 foot high murals depicting the classical imagery of Athens and the Greek culture. The murals, painted by Hungarian artist Louis Jambor, were created to honor the 2,500 year old Greek Agora, one of the centers of cultural life in Athens. Stairs leading up both sides represent the Panathenaic Way, the road for priests and worshippers ascending to the Acropolis. The beautifully restored ceiling displays the twelve signs of the Zodiac representing the night sky. In 1938 the stars of the constellations twinkled when the theater lights dimmed. The Latchis Theatre is celebrated as building of historic importance. It holds the story of an immigrant family that helped build this nation, and that of esteemed Greek myths which are still relevant today.

Kyle Gilbert was born in Brattleboro in 1983. He attended schools locally and, as a senior at Brattleboro Union High School in 2001, Kyle enlisted in the US Army. He left for Iraq 2 weeks after graduating. On August 11, 2003, Kyle was killed by sniper fire during an attack in Baghdad. In Brattleboro, news of his death rippled through the region. As the Main Street Bridge over the Whetstone was under construction at that time, the local community joined together to dedicate the bridge in Kyle's memory, and to honor "all the brave men and women who served our country or made the supreme sacrifice in Iraq".

On January 4, 1866, Frederick Douglass, a former slave and black orator, spoke at Brattleboro’s Town Hall. He was originally going to deliver his speech, entitled 'Equal Rights Under the Law', stressing voting rights for the black population. But because President Lincoln had recently been assasinated, Douglass delivered a different speech , "The Assissination and its Lessons". Both Brattleboro papers supported Douglass’ praise of President Lincoln, but sidestepped his criticism of Andrew Johnson.

For thirty-five years, Everyone’s Books has stood at the corner of Elliot Street and the entrance to the Harmony Lot. The store’s owners, couple Nancy Braus and Rich Geidel, started Everyone’s Books as an embodiment of both, “their vision of a community resource and the values that Vermonters hold dear — social justice, climate-awareness and diversity.”

The E L Hildreth Printing Company was located at Harmony Place in Brattleboro. The company became world renowned as a printer of fine books. When Yale University Press was looking for a printer it concluded that the work ethic and quality of E L Hidreth surpassed all others, and for less money. Hildreth partnered with Yale and printed all of their publications for many years. The books won awards for grand design and print reproduction. The company was honored by organizations nationwide. It was sold in the 1950s and moved to Massachusetts.

Clarina Howard Nichols was a prominent suffragette during her lifetime, though we don't often hear about her today. She helped organize and submit several petitions to the Vermont legislature, influencing women's rights. She was also one of the first female newspaper editors.

Born in West Townshend, she was left to support herself and her children after a failed marriage. She began writing for the Windham County Democrat newspapers and later married the editor, eventually taking over the role.

In 1854, Nichols moved to Kansas to continue her activism, fighting for women's rights, serving at times as a teacher, lecturer, editor, writer, farmer, lay doctor and lawyer, government clerk, matron in a home for destitute black children and widows, and conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Listen to the full story incorporating all the trail audio segments on the Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast

Born in Randolph, Massachusetts in 1852, Mary E. Wilkins moved to Brattleboro as a teen with her family in 1867. Her father, Warren, owned and operated the Wilkins Dry Goods store located on the Steen block, approximately where Renaissance Jewelers and the River Gallery are located now on Main Street. She began her writing career in Brattleboro by publishing poems in the newspaper, Vermont Phoenix, and in several children’ magazines. Over the course of her fifty-year career, she won many awards as well as the admiration of America's most celebrated literary figures, including Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain. Mary attended the Glenwood Ladies Academy at the site of the current Academy School in West Brattleboro, where the Brattleboro Words Project helped add a state historic marker in her honor.

A monument commemorating the men of Brattleboro who fought in the Civil War was erected in 1887 on the Town Common. The monument shows that 385 area men enlisted in the war and 31 died in service. Research done by students of Brattleboro Area Middle School have shown that those numbers do not include enlisted African American soldiers. Their research uncovered the stories of 5 local African American men that enlisted, though they were sent to Massachusetts to serve in Colored Regiments. Others were not listed. Honoring African Americans on the list would increase the numbers to 450 area men enlisted, 41 died in service. It is hoped that the monument will be updated to include these findings.

Since 1903, the largest dairy breed organization in the world has been headquartered in downtown Brattleboro. Still going strong over 100 years after its founding, Holstein Association USA is the central information hub for dairy producers all across the country, maintaining the records for all ancestry, identity, ownership and performance information on more than 22 million Registered Holstein cattle—the United States’ most popular dairy breed.

Pictured Above: Jody Williams. Courtesy Photo Provided. Photo Credit Annie Liebowitz

Saul Bellow (1915-2005), an internationally acclaimed writer who won the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and other notable awards, spent much of the last 26 years of his life in the Brattleboro area. He is buried in the Shir Heharim Jewish Graveyard, part of Morningside Cemetery, in Brattleboro. Five Audio Segments explore Saul's life as a writer in Vermont and give listeners a taste of some of his work.

1 - SAUL BELLOW THE WRITER: ‘The greatest writer of the 20th century’ chose Brattleboro for his rural base. Listen to recordings of Bellow himself describing his approach to writing, with his characteristic insight, warmth and humor, including readings from Henderson the Rain King. His biographer, Professor Zachary Leader, talks about Bellow’s unique status in American and world literature.

2 - SAUL BELLOW EARLY LIFE and VERMONT: Saul Bellow talks about his childhood in Chicago and his determination to become a writer. Vermont resident Larry Simons reads an excerpt from Bellow’s acclaimed novel Herzog, and talks about getting to know the writer in Brattleboro in the 1970s. Bellow biographer Zachary Leader describes Vermont as a refuge for Bellow, and reads from Bellow’s 1994 essay ‘Vermont: The Good Place.’

3 - SAUL BELLOW LATER LIFE and VERMONT: Saul Bellow talks about receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature and how it changed his life. Larry Simons reads from Bellow’s last novel, Ravelstein, and talks about his appearance at the first Brattleboro Literary Festival in 2001. He recalls Bellow’s intellect and humor, which remained intact through his final years of physical illness and mental decline.

4- SAUL BELLOW’S EDITOR: As staff editor at Viking Penguin Press, Beena Kamlani worked with Saul Bellow during the last 20 years of his life. She stayed in Vermont for long periods helping Bellow with revisions when he became too unwell to travel. She reads her essay ‘A Race Against Time’ in which she describes the delights and challenges of working with Bellow in Vermont in his later years.

5 - SAUL BELLOW’S VERMONT FRIENDS: Larry Simons recalls good times with Saul Bellow and his wife Janis Freedman, including the night Larry introduced Bellow and another Brattleboro resident, painter Wolf Kahn.

Listen to the full story incorporating all the trail audio segments on the Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast

One of the two Route 119 bridges that connect Brattleboro with Hinsdale is called the Charles Dana Bridge. Charles Anderson Dana was born in Hinsdale in 1819, but didn’t live there very long. He would grow up to have a way with words that led him into a long career in journalism. He lived at Brook Farm, the Transcendentalists’ utopian experiment in communal living in West Roxbury, Massachusetts in the 1840s where Dana worked on its publication The Harbinger. He was managing editor of the powerful New York Tribune where he championed abolition and was Karl Marx’ editor, in the US. He would play a key role as Assistant Secretary of War in the Civil War that helped elevate Ulysses S. Grant to the status of supreme military commander and helped win the war for the North.

This research site on the Brattleboro Words Trail documents the history and enduring presence of the Sokoki Abenaki and their homeland, Wantastegok.

Foremost among Brattlebroro’s many striking geographical features is Mount Wantastiquet. Rising some 1300 feet above sea level in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, the mountain looms over downtown Brattleboro from across the Kwenitekw/Connecticut River—a long, lush shoulder glittering green in spring and summer, burning red, orange, and gold through autumn, and blanketed white in winter. Over the centuries, the mountain’s natural and cultural significance has been—and continues to be—captured in the words of countless locals and visitors, from picnickers, miners, and rattlesnake victims to Henry David Thoreau.

From "The Long Story" by Rich Holschuh: ..."This is an Indigenous view of the world. This is why Place is so important. These interactions and overlapping realities are shaped by the ways that the entities of a particular place are relating to each other, in the moment – they are present, together, in that Place. In any other location, there would be necessarily be a different set of actors, interacting in different ways. The dictionary definition of an Indigenous person is “ the original people of a place.” The critical characteristic here is the landscape within which the People (and every other entity there) are connected; the Place is the lens through which they define themselves. They, and the Place, are the same thing. It is no accident that the Abenaki word “tôni” means both “where” and “how.” The setting matters that much".

Listen to Brattleboro writer and circus artist Kevin O'Keefe explore why Vermont is the circus capital of the US with Brattleboro at its center. He recounts 19th century news coverage of circuses on Island Park, now only a slip of land remaining between New Hampshire and Vermont in the Connecticut River, over which the Anna Hunt Marsh and Charles Dana bridges traverse. From PT Barnum to the Lentz NY Circus, troupes would arrive at the Brattleboro train station in scores of cars filled with elephants, horses, camels, and enough workers to erect a small town for a few days on the island. From elephants bathing in the river to warnings of 'circus people and their ways', these accounts provide a humorous look at the local fascination with the Greatest Show on Earth. In the second audio segment, Elizabeth McCollum reads the 2006 Brattleboro Reformer article "Island In The Stream by Kate Lecuyer. Listening, you can imagine people gathered in the Pavillion to dance, eat ice cream, watch a movie or cheer on a baseball game.

Mary Cabot (Aug 20, 1856 to April 30, 1932) is most widely known for writing a two-volume history of Brattleboro entitled 'Annals of Brattleboro, 1681-1895 (Brattleboro, Vt.: E. L. Hildreth & Co., 1921). But her hardly recognized, true ‘claim to fame’ was being author Rudyard Kipling's best friend when he and his budding family lived in the Brattleboro area until a globally publicized legal battle between Kipling and his brother in law forced the Kipling family to escape to England.

Mary's account, told though letters to her sister, of Kipling's time in Brattleboro is the best source of intimate information on his incredibly productive life in Vermont. The story breaks new ground in exploring Kipling and Cabot's shared love for the same man as the basis of their bond. Select commentary from Kipling scholar Christopher Benfey occurs throughout.

The episode begins discussing Cabot's life as a 'cosmopolitan villager' -- a wealthy, single, independent, intellectual and world-wise woman of the late 1800s, who possessed an unbridled curiosity about the town and its place in the world.

Her extensive volunteerism, philanthropic life and approach to town history is presented, including the Kipling quote she used as an epigraph to the Annals. Her origin story, the source of her father's fortune as a merchant trader in the cotton boom-town port of Wetumka, Alabama, her sister Grace are introduced.

Her brother William Brooks Cabot, a noted engineer and explorer who documented Canadian indigenous peoples in the book In Northern Labrador, 1912, and whose photo collection is at the Smithsonian, is noted.

We learn that Mary was likely the prototype for William Dean Howell's 1888 novel 'Annie Kilburn' and hear a quote from that book that describes a fictional town named ‘Hatboro.’

We learn about Cabot's deep feelings for Wolcott Balastier, Kipling's wife Caroline or Carrie's brother. Details of the Balastier family's Brattleboro home, Wolcott's life as a literary wunderkind in London, his shocking death at age 30 and his relationship with Kipling and Cabot are discussed.

Mary's voice comes to life in multiple excerpts from the letters to her sister Grace found in the Howard C. Rice Kipling Collection at the University of Vermont. Sleigh rides at midnight, chafing dish suppers, Kipling and his wife's relationship, their home 'Naulakha' (still preserved in Brattleboro by Landmark Trust) and aspects of the artistic collaboration between Cabot and Kipling are revealed.

We share Cabot's insights on the feud that ripped the Balastier family apart and led to Kipling's tearful departure from a place he loved most in the world - Brattleboro. We learn of Mary's last days, how she died at the Terrace Street house that still exists, her family's burial grounds and how she was remembered by her peers of the time.

The Brattleboro Daily Reformer, Vermont Printing Company, and Stephen Daye Press grew into successful printing and publishing businesses while located in The American Building. Built in 1907, the building is named after the American Hotel it replaced. The Reformer was launched in 1876 to provide an alternative voice to the Republican bias of The Vermont Phoenix. In 1903 Ephraim Crane bought the Reformer and its printing plant and also started the Vermont Printing Company, which published the paper from 1903-13. The Vermont Printing Company was established to expand into commercial printing on a larger scale. Their largest “local” customer was the Holstein Association, a global enterprise located in Brattleboro. In the early 1960s, sales had grown to a million dollars and, with employment approaching 80, it was the largest employer in town at the time. In early 1931, Vermont Printing Company decided to diversify into publishing. The Stephen Daye Press was created, named after the first printer in the British Colonies. When John and Marion Hooper took over the press, they set up an office in The American Building, where they developed a strategy to build Stephen Daye Press by accentuating New England values and themes as well as trade in nostalgia, alternative lifestyles, and uplifting material. On December 7, 1941, America’s entry into World War II altered the trajectory for Stephen Day Press. John joined the Navy and Marion took work at the Brattleboro Milk Plant, making dairy products for the troops. The Stephen Daye Press imprint was sold on December 1, 1942, to a New York City publisher. A collection of over 100 books published by Stephen Daye Press, donated by the Hooper family, is available at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro.

Anna Hunt Marsh established the "Vermont Asylym for the Insane" with a bequest of $10,000 in 1834. Today it is known as the "Brattleboro Retreat". She was the first woman credited with starting a hospital for the mentally ill. Her vision was a facility patterned on a Quaker concept called moral treatment. It was one of the first "humane" mental health hospitals in the US. In addition to the Brattleboro Retreat, Marsh also made provisions to ensure the preservation of Wantastiquet.

Archer Mayor is the author of the expansive Joe Gunther mystery series. All but one of his books are set in Vermont, and many are set in Brattleboro. The Brattleboro Municipal Center is the site of the former Brattleboro Police Department, where many of the books are set. Mayor moved here in 1981, and has lived here ever since. Listen to Mayor talk about his life in Vermont where, in addition to writing, he serves as a state medical examiner.

Since 1797 there has been a weekly or daily newspaper in Brattleboro for all but four years. It started with Benjamin Smead's paper the "Federal Galaxy" in 1797 and goes on to include William Fessenden's "Reporter" in the early 1800s, the "Vermont Phoenix" for over 80 years, and the "Brattleboro Reformer" under the banner of Windham County and Brattleboro for over 140 years.

In 1798, Benjamin Smead also printed the first book in Brattleboro, a sermon given by Reverend William Wells. Shortly thereafter, William Fessenden came to Brattleboro and expanded the book publishing industry. During the 10 years that he was active, he produced a considerable amount of printing and made Noah Webster's American Spelling Book a best seller. The book taught children how to read and spell. Fessenden also built a paper mill near the convergence of the Whetstone Brook and the Connecticut River to supply his own presses.

(Joe Rivers, President, Brattleboro Historical Society).

Charles Edward Crane was a prolific journalist and author who left an enduring legacy through his detailed documentation of Vermont life. During his decade in Brattleboro, he served as an editor and columnist for the Brattleboro Daily Reformer, where his popular "Pen Drift" column captured the local character with wit and charm. He is particularly remembered for his "With Interest" booklets, which remain invaluable historical resources for researchers studying the region's past. After leaving Brattleboro in 1932, Crane continued his successful career in public relations and authored several notable books about the state, including Winter in Vermont. Today, he is interred in Brattleboro's Meeting House Hill Cemetery, recognized for the profound impact his written words continue to have on local history.

Inscribed on a state historic marker for Fort Dummer:

"Fort Dummer was established in 1724 by Lt Governor William Dummer of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The wooden fort was a northern outpost along the Connecticut River and one of the first permanent European settlements in what would become Vermont. Built to defend the colony against Abenaki and French attacks, it was a trading post from 1728 to 1750 while still manned by troops against skirmishes. Fort Dummer was garrisoned through the French & Indian War but abandoned in 1763 and dismantled by 1771. A granite monument was set to mark the original site of Fort Dummer in 1901 but was removed seven years later to the intersection of Vernon St and Cotton Mill Hill Rd before the 1909 completion of the Vernon Dam on the Connecticut River, which flooded he area".

Rich Holschuh takes a deeper look- beyond the words inscribed in historic markers like this one at Fort Dummer, and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) memorial rock at the Retreat Farms- not just for the stories told, but for the stories untold.

Elizabeth Florette Fisher (November 26, 1873 – April 25, 1941) was one of the first field geologists in the United States. One of her first studies was of the West River before the Vernon Dam flooded the meadows, where she mapped the unique terraces the river carved. She was born in Boston and attended and later taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was the first woman to be sent out by an oil company for a survey, helping to locate oil wells in North-Central Texas during a nationwide oil shortage. She was an instructor at Wellesley College, which still continues a scholarship program in her name but also wrote an influential textbook for junior high school students called Resources and Industries of the United States.

This full length podcast (35 minutes) provides an informative and entertaining overview of abstract painter Emily Mason, who maintained studios in both New York City and Brattleboro Vermont. Mason’s spectacular and beyond-easy-categorization work is being newly recognized and rewarded in the world of art. This podcast reveals her devotion to her work, her place in art history, monographs and books she published, challenges and losses in her early life, her 60-year marriage to painter Wolf Khan, her life and relationships in Brattleboro and as a key founder and supporter of the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, her early art education and long teaching career at Hunter College, her commitment to her mother, abstract painting legend Alice Trumbull Mason, and a moving account of her death and burial in Vermont.

For nearly a century, the name 'Estey' was synonymous with reed organs and a progressive family that helped shape the identity of Brattleboro and Vermont. The Estey Organ Company was recognized worldwide as a leader in instrument design, manufacturing, and marketing and may have given Henry Ford the idea for assembly-line manufacture. Estey organs accompanied Christian missionaries throughout the world and, since every organ prominently featured ‘Brattleboro, Vermont' above the keyboard, the organs spread the town’s name globally. Jacob Estey’s use of words made a deep impression on the development of advertising itself, according to researcher Dennis Waring. Jacob was recognized not only for business acumen but for his commitment to the town of Brattleboro. For many years Estey was the largest employer in the state of Vermont. He took good care of his workforce. He hired many women and paid them wages equal to men for comparable work. Many workers were highly specialized craftsmen who came from Europe, founding the enclave known as 'Swedeville' and contributing to the international cast of the town. Estey also underwrote the first building in the U.S. intended specifically for the higher education of black women in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Estey Organ Museum is now housed in one of the iconic, historic Estey Organ Factory buildings renovated to new uses today. It seems to be one of the very few musical instrument museums in the world where visitors are encouraged to sit down and play.

Elizabeth Rowell Thompson (1821-1899), grew up in Lyndon, VT. It was there, while working as a servant at a boarding house, she met her husband Thomas Thompson. They used his considerable wealth to indulge in art and in supporting political and charitable causes. In his will, he left provisions for a perpetual charitable trust. Elizabeth, with a fortune stated to be over $1 million, became a leading figure in philanthropy in her day, including as a major benefactor to the town of Brattleboro. One of the trust's first major contributions to the town was the funding of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, which opened in 1904.

The Valley Fair in Brattleboro began in 1886 as a single-day event held during the second week of October. Local organizers prided themselves on creating a family-friendly, alcohol-free agricultural exhibition without the carnival-like midways found elsewhere. Over 5,000 people attended the inaugural fair to view competitions for livestock, produce, and needlework. Farm families used the gathering to share agricultural techniques and celebrate the end of the growing season.

Following a first-year profit of $300, organizers formed the Valley Fair Association and purchased land to establish permanent fairgrounds. The fair quickly expanded, and by 1890, it became a two-day event drawing over 18,000 visitors. That same year marked the debut of the Cavalcade, a popular parade of decorated wagons, carriages, and floats that traveled from the Main Street common down to the fairgrounds. As attendance swelled past 20,000 in the 1890s, the association introduced grander attractions, including vaudeville acts on the horse track infield and hot air balloonists who parachuted from thousands of feet in the air.

By the early 1900s, "Fair Week" was a major economic driver, drawing average crowds of 25,000 people and prompting local businesses to close early and offer special sales. The event grew to three days, admission rose to 50 cents, and automobiles replaced horse-drawn carriages in the Cavalcade. High-energy events like a modified marathon featuring Olympic track runners further boosted the fair's profile. Long before the fair began, this bustling piece of land had even served as a vital military camp and hospital during the Civil War.

The 1920s, however, brought changing societal interests and severe financial strain. A new generation of local youth, preferring town life over farming, publicly declared agricultural fairs irrelevant, expressing disappointment in classic competitions like the best baby and baking contests. Despite adding expensive fireworks and more vaudeville acts to win back crowds, the fair consistently lost money. By 1931, the association was over $7,000 in debt, and conservative organizers refused to modernize the fair's format. The association ultimately dissolved and sold the fairgrounds to the town for $8,000. Exactly twenty years later, Brattleboro Union High School was built on the site, placing its auditorium, bleachers, and sports fields over the historic grounds where display buildings, a Ferris wheel, and a half-mile racetrack once stood.

The entrepreneurial George Crowell (1836 -1916), a rags to riches tycoon along the lines of another early Brattleboro trailblazer, Jacob Estey, helped shape the identity of the town of Brattleboro. He founded 'The Household', forerunner to Ladies Home Journal, and one of the nation's first 'women's' magazines' . He built 'Highland Park' and the reservoir within it which his Brattleboro Waterworks company ran to bring water to the town. He built the elegant 'Fresh Air House' where kids came from the city in summers to romp on the delightful woodlands we today call Chestnut Hill. Crowell Park bears his name, but the magnificent mansion he built and lived in there is long gone. He is buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery.

Follow the history of competition through ten decades on Brattleboro’s beloved Harris Hill Ski Jump. This famous landmark has welcomed top athletes and hosted national championships. Imagine what it’s like to slide down a 285-foot ramp and soar over an impossibly steep landing hill. Get inside the mind of Chris Lamb as he talks about the preparation and sensation of taking flight

John Holbrook was a pioneering 19th-century entrepreneur, publisher, and civic leader whose diverse business ventures transformed Brattleboro, Vermont, into a thriving commercial hub. Arriving in the village in 1794, Holbrook initially established a prosperous general store and shipping business along the Connecticut River. By utilizing flat-bottomed boats to transport heavy freight from Hartford, Connecticut, he effectively turned Brattleboro into a vital wholesale distribution center for northern New England.

Beyond transportation, Holbrook rapidly diversified into regional manufacturing by operating a local paper mill, a slaughterhouse, and a hide tanning business. In 1816, he expanded into the printing industry by taking over his late son-in-law's publishing firm. Holbrook became an industry trailblazer by utilizing innovative stereotype plates, allowing his company to mass-produce affordable textbooks and Bibles for rural American markets.

Holbrook’s commercial success directly fueled his commitment to building Brattleboro's civic and social infrastructure. He served as the president of the Brattleboro Bank and became a founding trustee of both the Brattleboro High School Association and the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, known today as the Brattleboro Retreat. His prominent stature also paved the way for his family's continued public service, as his son, Frederick Holbrook, eventually served as Vermont's governor during the American Civil War.

Today, Holbrook's legacy remains deeply etched into the physical landscape of the town. Upon his retirement in 1825, he constructed a grand Federal-style mansion facing the Brattleboro Common on Linden Street. Now known as the Deacon John Holbrook House, this historic landmark stands as a lasting monument to the man who laid the economic and institutional foundations of modern Brattleboro.

The old depot of the West River Railroad in Newfane Vermont was where Station Master JJ Green, a prominent citizen of the town who wore many hats, including journalist, worked each day and kept a diary for the year 1885. The depot was lovingly restored in recent years by The Historical Society of Windham County into the West River Railroad museum, where the original copy of Green's diary and many other artifacts are preserved. The book, The Diary of JJ Green: A Daily Record of the Year 1885 by a Stationmaster on the West River Railroad, gives an intimate view of life at the time, reflections on the seasons and current events, and the woes of the West River Railroad.

The 'Brattleboro and Whitehall Rail Road' (known as the West River Railroad since track to Whitehall was never completed and actually ended in South Londonderry) was completed in 1880 and ran (barely) until 1936. Known locally as the '36 miles of trouble' due to frequent wrecks, derailments, or track disruptions due to weather and the scenic but rugged landscape it traversed. Another book, 36 Miles of Trouble: The Story of the West River R.R by Victor Morse, published by Stephen Green Press in 1959, chronicles the slow rise and long decline of the line.

The story is poignant, the diary ironic: JJ Green died on the train on his way to deliver a story to the Vermont Phoenix in Brattleboro in the infamous “Wreck at Three Bridges” the very next year (1886). The 'Three Bridges' site is where Route 5 and the current Amtrak line still cross the West River/Connecticut River confluence near the Marina Restaurant and Vermont Canoe Touring Center in north Brattleboro. The old rail bed has been largely transformed to a recreation trail; Maps and details can be found through the Friends of West River Trail. Easy access in Brattleboro is just west of the Marina Restaurant (see Brattleboro Words Trail Elizabeth Florette Fischer story for a glimpse into the unique geology of the site).

Listen to the full story incorporating all the trail audio segments on the Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast

Award-winning author Karen Hesse has spent five decades crafting deeply moving, historically accurate literature for young readers, a career catalyzed by her life in Brattleboro, Vermont. After relocating to the area in 1976, Hesse initially immersed herself in the local publishing scene, working as a proofreader and typesetter. Frustrated by the poor quality of the juvenile texts she was typesetting, she was inspired to write her own stories. She embedded herself in the region's literary community, notably founding and running the southern Vermont chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators from 1985 to 1992.

Operating from a dedicated downtown Brattleboro writing studio overlooking the Connecticut River, Hesse eventually achieved massive critical success after a decade of initial rejections. Her breakthrough came with her 1991 debut novel, Wish on a Unicorn, but it was her 1997 masterpiece, Out of the Dust, that cemented her legacy. Written in sparse, evocative free verse, the Dust Bowl-era historical novel won the prestigious 1998 Newbery Medal and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Her groundbreaking contributions to children's literature were further celebrated in 2002 when she was awarded a prestigious MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship.

Hesse’s deep connection to Vermont has continually leaked into her acclaimed bibliography, which includes diverse works like Letters from Rifka and The Music of Dolphins. Her 2001 verse novel, Witness, directly explores a dark chapter of local history involving the Ku Klux Klan's influence in 1920s Vermont, while local political news in 2010 inspired her dystopian novel Safekeeping. Though she and her family eventually moved their primary residence just outside the town line to Williamsville, Hesse remains a vital fixture of the Brattleboro community and a frequent participant in the annual Brattleboro Literary Festival.

Wangarĩ Muta Maathai (/wænˈɡɑːri mɑːˈtaɪ/; 1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, and was the first African woman, and the first environmentalist to be named a Laureate.

Maathai had deep connections to the Brattleboro area. She was on the board of World Learning, a friend of Guilford Church, her documentary was shown at Latchis Theatre for a week, she planted a tree with students at Oak Grove School, and attracted a standing-room only crowd when she returned to Brattleboro after the publication of her second book.

“It is the people who must save the environment. It is the people who must make their leaders change. And we cannot be intimidated. So we must stand up for what we believe in.”

– Wangari Maathai

In 1977, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 1984, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "converting the Kenyan ecological debate into mass action for reforestation". Maathai was an elected member of the Parliament of Kenya and between January 2003 and November 2005 served as assistant minister for environment and natural resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki. She was an Honorary Councilor of the World Future Council.

Local filmmakers Lisa Merton & Alan Dater created a documentary about Maathai's Green Belt Movement.

Marty Jezer was a writer, columnist, activist and self-help exemplar who was well known in Brattleboro and beyond. Narrated by his long-time partner artist and writer Arlene Distler with commentary from Jezer’s friends and associates Steve Minkin and Judy Ashkenas, the piece gives a sense of Marty’s style and commitment to political dialogue. We learn about his books on Abby Hoffman and others, his attempt to start a new ‘Citizens’ political party, his work with Bernie Sanders, his daughter who is also a writer and others. We hear from stuttering expert Woody Starkweather who talks about how Marty’s autobiography on stuttering remains a beacon for that community. We learn of his love of jazz and scholarships for area youth that live on long after his death from cancer and hear a poem written by Distler about his last days. We learn that Marty’s coffin was carried to the cemetery by friends up South Main Street to the tune ‘When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Marion McCune Rice was a World War I American Red Cross nurse for four years and wrote many letters home describing the war and took hundreds of photographs. A documentary film “An American Nurse at War” focuses on her wartime experience. The film was produced by her grandnephew Stephen L. Hooper, a Brattleboro native who currently lives in Keene, NH. In 1925 Rice was named director of the Simmons School of Public Health Nursing in Boston. She resided during the summers and retired in a small cottage at 90 Chestnut Hill on the opposite side of the reservoir from her brother Howard C. Rice’s house at 105 Chestnut Hill. Her cottage was built on the site of the Swiss-style house that hosted New York Tribune Fresh Air children each summer starting in 1884. Marion died in 1955 and is buried in Brattleboro’s Morningside Cemetery next to her parents Charles Bingham Rice, a Civil War veteran, and Fannie Crosby Rice, daughter of flour and grain merchant Edward Crosby. Marion’s middle name McCune pays tribute to her ancestor William McCune who served as a Captain in the Revolutionary War, 1776-78. Steve Hooper narrates the segment with his daughter Althaea reading the part of Marion McCune Rice.

In the waters of the Retreat Meadows, near the confluence of the Wantastekw (West River) and the Kwenitekw (Connecticut River), sits one of only two primary petroglyph sites in Vermont. The carvings on a ledge outcropping at the south bank river are now submerged, covered by the rising waters caused by the construction of the Vernon dam, eight miles downriver, in 1909. They include multiple thunderbird figures, a canid, and snake-like shapes, first documented in writing by Samuel Williams in The Natural and Civil History of Vermont (1794) and later by Edward Augustus Kendall in Travels Through the Northern Parts of the United States, in the Year 1807 and 1808 (1809). Today’s Abenaki people consider this a sacred site: the ancestral messages in stone still remain relevant. Scholars place the date of the carvings at perhaps 3000 years old.

“Petroglyphs are not just a billboard in the wilderness. They’re in certain places for certain reasons…the fact that they’re here tells you that there’s something larger going on.”— Rich Holschuh, Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs

Brattleboro Student Podcasts: Listen to these podcasts (produced by Joe Rivers and his Brattleboro Area Middle School) as students recount the story of the Vernon hydroelectric dam’s construction in 1909, giving background to the flooding of the Meadows and the destruction of a critically important site for the Sokoki Abenaki.

The first patient newspaper regularly published in any American mental hospital was at the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, known today as the Brattleboro Retreat. In 1842, a young printer who was a patient at the hospital wrote and published the first issue of the ‘Asylum Journal’. The Asylum considered work an important component to treatment and recovery. Eventually, the hospital bought its own printing equipment. Many patients worked in writing, researching, printing and mailing the journal. The unedited articles were refreshingly candid and helped to portray insanity as a curable illness.

The Retreat Farm, established to provide food and work experiences in nature for patients at the nearby Brattleboro Retreat mental hospital founded in 1834, is recognized to be situated on important ancestral Abenaki lands. Listen to the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) version of Retreat Farm history, with Script and Narration from Rich Holschuh.

Throughout the last century, the place we today call Chestnut Hill, was the beloved home of the Rice family, whose creative, community-minded lives and spirits helped shape the identity of Brattleboro as the special place it is today. Brattleboro carpenter and musician Isaac Hines acquired the property in the early 1800s to build a reservoir to store water from an aqueduct fed by those springs on the hill. Hines later sold the property to George Crowell, who in 1865 gained fame publishing the popular “The Household” magazine. Crowell completed the aqueduct and reservoir and it became Brattleboro’s main water supply. Crowell set the property aside as a public park and named it Chestnut Hill because of its abundance of chestnut trees, which the citizens of Brattleboro enjoyed for 28 years. By 1912, Crowell had turned the waterworks over to his son, Christie B. Crowell, who had no interest in continuing the park and sold off the land but retained the waterworks, which the town later purchased.
Howard Crosby Rice
A young newspaper publisher Howard C. Rice and his wife Amy were among the first families to buy land in the former park. Their house at 105 Chestnut Hill still stands today. They resided there for 53 years, raising three children and countless animals, until their deaths in 1965, just nine days apart. Howard Rice was the first editor/publisher of The Brattleboro Daily Reformer, which printed its first edition in 1913 under the ownership of the Brattleboro Publishing Company, of which Rice was a shareholder. The newspaper was founded as the weekly Windham County Reformer in 1876 by Charles N. Davenport. Davenport’s son, Charles H. expanded the paper to five weekly editions including a state-wide Brattleboro Reformer, county and local editions of The Windham County Reformer; and separate Bennington, Vt. and Greenfield, Mass. editions. A long-time business partner of Rice’s, Ephraim Crane, bought the Reformer and its printing plant in 1903. That same year, Crane started Vermont Printing Company, which printed the newspaper until 1913 and then moved into book publishing.. In a memoir written for his family, Rice said the decision to publish a daily newspaper was bold for the time. “Despite the belief of many local residents that we were crazy in our view that Brattleboro would support a daily newspaper, plus our own ignorance of the technique of daily publishing, The Reformer did well from the outset.” Interestingly, another long-time editor and publisher of the Reformer, John S. Hooper married the Rice’s eldest daughter Marion in 1931 in the rose garden behind the house at 105 Chestnut Hill. John and Marion Hooper were co-publishers of the Stephen Daye Press, named after the first printer in the English colonies. The Hoopers worked together to build Stephen Daye Press into one of the best regional book publishers in New England.
Marion McCune Rice
Howard’s sister Marion McCune Rice was a World War I American Red Cross nurse for four years and wrote many letters home describing the war and took hundreds of photographs. A documentary film “An American Nurse at War” focuses on Marion Rice’s wartime experience. The film was produced by her grandnephew Stephen L. Hooper, a Brattleboro native who currently lives in Keene, N.H. Stephen Hooper narrates a separate podcast about Marion McCune Rice, who lived at 90 Chestnut Hill.
Howard C. Rice, Jr.
Howard and Amy’s son Howard C. Rice, Jr. and his wife France Chalufour Rice lived at 160 Chestnut Hill in a house closer to the Retreat Tower. Howard Rice, Jr. was appointed to the staff of Princeton University Library in 1948 and served as assistant librarian for rare books and special collections, with rank of associate professor, until his retirement in 1970. He also was a Rudyard Kipling scholar, dedicating much of his life to researching and collecting materials on the four years Kipling and his family lived in Vermont (1892-1896). Howard Rice, Jr. wrote several books on Kipling including “Rudyard Kipling in New England.” His research papers, originally housed at Marlboro College, are now at the University of Vermont library.

The Retreat Tower with its Gothic crenellations resembles a medieval battlement. It was built by staff and patients of the Asylum using stone taken from the site and from a quarry on West Dummerston Road. Until 1892, visitors were allowed to climb the interior masonry stairway to view the Asylum grounds and the Connecticut River. The paths around the tower provided outdoor time for patients and their attendants. Sadly, it’s believed several patients ended their lives by leaping from the tower. The site is now connected to various paranormal accounts.

Tom Bodett is a writer and broadcast personality. His career began in Alaska writing personal narratives for radio. His style and humor appealed to local audiences and within four months he became a contributor on National Public Radio. He wrote three books of fiction, and became a panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. With the move to Dummerston, Vermont in 2003, he continued broadcasting and turned to woodworking. But it wasn’t until he was invited to appear on The Moth in front of a live audience at the Flynn Theater in Burlington, Vermont that he found his true calling was storytelling. And decided that he wanted to be remembered as a storymaker.

Listen to the full story incorporating all the trail audio segments on the Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast

Born in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1824, William Morris Hunt was a pioneering American Romantic painter. He is best known for introducing the French Barbizon school to the United States. By prioritizing luminous, atmospheric landscapes and intimate scenes of rural life over strict realism, Hunt shaped the trajectory of 19th-century American art.

After briefly attending Harvard University, Hunt traveled to Europe to study art. In Paris, he trained under Thomas Couture and befriended the French realist Jean-François Millet. Through this pivotal connection, Hunt became an avid proponent of the Barbizon style, adopting its expressive brushwork and subjective moods. He then returned to New England, where he established himself as Boston’s premier portraitist and landscape painter.

Hunt’s deep connection to Brattleboro lies in his roots as a native son. Born into a prominent and politically influential New England family, his childhood environment instilled in him the appreciation for nature that later fueled his landscape works. While his artistic career eventually took him to Newport, Boston, and Europe, his Vermont origins remained a foundational element of his early life. (His younger brother, Richard Morris Hunt, also went on to become a highly celebrated American architect.)

In his later years, Hunt faced personal and professional hardships, including the tragic loss of many of his paintings in the Great Boston Fire of 1872. Though he secured a prestigious commission for murals at the New York State Capitol in 1878, their subsequent deterioration took a toll on his mental health. He eventually moved to New Hampshire, where he died in 1879, leaving behind a legacy that permanently bridged European Impressionism and the rising generation of American artists.

Brilliant painter Wolf Kahn left an outsized mark on Brattleboro and the world. Mara Williams, curator emerita at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center and chairman of the Wolf Kahn Foundation, discusses her long-standing relationship with Kahn, who met her during her 1989 interview for the museum. Kahn's work, characterized by richly colored abstract landscapes, was deeply rooted in places in New England, though his book ‘Wolf Kahn’s America” covered the whole country. Despite his macular degeneration in later life, Kahn continued to paint vibrant, layered works which William’s considers some of his finest work. His philanthropic efforts, including significant support for the Brattleboro Museum and the Vermont Studio Center, among many others, were pivotal in its growth. Williams emphasized Kahn's early life of loss as a child refugee from WW2, generosity, storytelling ability, larger than life personality and BMAC’s planned dedication of permanent archives and gallery space for him and his wife, painter Emily Mason.

Eileen Christelow’s Brattleboro-area ties run deep, blending her life as a nationally known children’s author and illustrator with a long-standing commitment to the local arts and literacy community. Best known for the beloved Five Little Monkeys series, Christelow has lived just north of Brattleboro in East Dummerston since 1981, where she and her husband, sculptor Ahren Ahrenholz, made their home. Her connection to Vermont stretches back even further: her mother was from the state, and Christelow spent childhood summers on her grandparents’ farm, experiences that helped anchor her lasting relationship with the region.

Beyond her home and studio life in Dummerston, Christelow remains closely connected to Brattleboro’s literary and cultural institutions. She works with Everyone’s Books, the independent bookstore in downtown Brattleboro, where readers can order signed and personalized copies of her books. Brooks Memorial Library has also celebrated her work, featuring her custom artwork on official library cards as part of a campaign encouraging residents to sign up for library cards.

Christelow’s presence extends into the region’s broader arts scene as well. She has appeared in local media, including Brattleboro Community Television’s Here We Are, and her original artwork has been featured in regional exhibitions such as those at Next Stage Arts in nearby Putney. Her inclusion in literacy-focused projects, further underscores her role as both a creative figure and a community presence. Taken together, these connections show Christelow not simply as an author living near Brattleboro, but as an artist whose work and life are woven into the cultural fabric of southeastern Vermont.

Richard Morris Hunt was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, on October 31, 1827. His prominent family held deep political and social roots in the region; his grandfather served as Vermont's lieutenant governor, and his father was a U.S. congressman. Raised in a household that nurtured creativity, Hunt and his siblings—including the acclaimed painter William Morris Hunt—grew up in a grand home known as the Jonathan Hunt House. Though the original residence was later demolished, this early rural New England environment permanently shaped Hunt’s grounded demeanor. Even decades later, after Hunt achieved international fame, the essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked that the architect retained the distinct accent and down-to-earth tone of a rural Vermonter.

Hunt left Vermont to become a trailblazer on the world stage, ultimately earning the title "Dean of American Architecture." He was the first American student admitted to the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he mastered the grand French Beaux-Arts style. Upon returning to the United States, Hunt set out to elevate architecture from a mere trade into a respected professional discipline. He founded the country's first architectural school at his Tenth Street Studio Building in New York and served as a founding member and early president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), establishing strict technical and ethical standards for the field.

As the favored architect of America’s elite during the Gilded Age, Hunt reshaped the nation's architectural landscape. He designed legendary, European-inspired palaces for the Vanderbilt family, including The Breakers and Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island, and the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, which remains America's largest private home. Hunt also left an indelible mark on American civic identity by designing the monumental granite pedestal for the Statue of Liberty and the iconic Beaux-Arts entrance facade and Great Hall of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Despite his monumental achievements in major metropolitan areas and resort towns, Hunt's physical legacy in his hometown remains quiet and deeply personal. He never constructed any major civic buildings or grand estates in Vermont. Instead, his direct architectural footprint in Brattleboro is limited to two simple gravestones he lovingly designed for his father and his brother William, located in the Hunt family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery.

Tom Bodett is a writer and broadcast personality. His career began in Alaska writing personal narratives for radio. His style and humor appealed to local audiences and within four months he became a contributor on National Public Radio. He wrote three books of fiction, and became a panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. With the move to Dummerston, Vermont in 2003, he continued broadcasting and turned to woodworking. But it wasn’t until he was invited to appear on The Moth in front of a live audience at the Flynn Theater in Burlington, Vermont that he found his true calling was storytelling. And decided that he wanted to be remembered as a storymaker.

Listen to the full story incorporating all the trail audio segments on the Brattleboro Words Trail Podcast

Produced by the Brattleboro Historical Society

with research assistance from Brattleboro Area Middle School (BAMS) students

Ongoing Development and Involvement:

As a community-created project, we encourage ongoing dialogue, questions, and engagement. If you would like to be involved in future developments, have information or a perspective that could deepen others' understanding of this topic, please contact us..

What do Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and All the President’s Men have in common with Brattleboro? All were printed here, at the Book Press. From its humble beginnings in 1952 and its small location on Birge Street, the Book Press quickly moved to what was eventually a 200,000 square foot location north of town. That move was financed by the newly created Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation. By the mid-1970s, with 900 employees, it rolled out 33 million books a year. But by the mid-1980s, although still one of the largest printers in the country, the Book Press faced financial challenges due to the rapidly changing technology. In 1987 it sold to a Canadian firm, Quebecor. Thirteen years later, Quebecor announced that, due to obsolescence, aging equipment and an uncompetitive wage structure, it was closing the plant. Although losing a once-thriving printing business, Brattleboro continues to prosper with its proud legacy in writing, printing and publishing intact.

Henry David Thoreau stayed only five days in Brattleboro in 1856, but left a lasting impression. He visited several local botanists - he was seeking ‘Aster ptarmicoides’ which could be found near the Connecticut River. His searches took him along the new railroad tracks, along the Whetstone Brook and around the frog pond on Chestnut Hill. He pressed many plant samples, finding Brattleboro to be good botanical ground. Hiking Mt. Wantastiquet (then known as Chesterfield Mountain), he observed: “The village of Brattleboro is peculiar for the nearness of the primitive wood and the mountain...this everlasting mountain is forever lowering over the village, shortening the day and wearing a misty cap each morning.” Thoreau’s longest journal entry involves a dead catamount, once plentiful in these woods. “The most interesting sight I saw in Brattleboro was the skin and skull of a panther ... It gave one a new idea of our American forests and the vigor of nature here …” A couple of years after his visit, young Mary Brown, with whom he’d stayed, sent Thoreau some blooming bloodroot and mayflowers. He was already suffering from tuberculosis, and would die not long afterwards at the age of 44. Thoreau wrote to thank Mary: “Please remember me to Father and Mother, whom I shall not fail to visit whenever I come to Brattleboro, also to the Chesterfield Mountain, if you can communicate with it; I suppose it has not budged an inch.