 Hi everybody, welcome back to the Preservation Burlington TV show. It's been a while and we've missed everybody and are looking forward to a whole bunch of really fun and interesting things. I'm really excited because I have a friend and a guest today who's actually going to do our intro and bring us in. Come on, wind us in Patricia because Patricia was host of the show for a really long time. So three years maybe? Yep. Yep. And then somehow I got stuck with it, but. Welcome, welcome to that. Alrighty, well here we go. Haven't done this intro in a few years but let's go for it. Welcome to the live at 525 Channel 17 Preservation Burlington TV show. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. So, Preservation Burlington is a 501C3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and protect historic architecture and the livability of our neighborhoods through education and advocacy. That was the mission statement when I served anyway as the host and on the board of Preservation Burlington. So there's that. And now as I said, Preservation Burlington is a nonprofit organization. What is the one thing that a nonprofit always wants? Volunteers. Volunteers people. We want volunteers. So you can do something as little as half a day, maybe a homes tour that's usually half a day and if the homes tour comes back up. But hey, you're saying, no, no, I've got more time. Committees. Committees are both prongs of Preservation Burlington. Oh, I hear you. You're saying, no, no. Not only do I have more time, I really dig the mission statement of Preservation Burlington. No worries. Talk to someone about becoming a board member. I have to say that was some of my most interesting volunteer experience and I have a lot of volunteer experience and that was some of the most interesting. Honestly, including hosting the show. So you never know. But now you're thinking, oh, wait, wait, wait, no, no, I don't really have that kind of time. That's all right. What's another thing nonprofits always want? Your money. We're happy to take your cash every day of the week. All day. Every day. Anyway. And if you want to do that, I think you'd have to go to PreservationBurlington.org maybe. Yep, still. Yep. Yeah. So anyway, looking forward to having a chat tonight. I'm Patricia Arrojo and I'm actually the guest. Yay. Perfect. Patricia, it's better than I've ever done it. You hit all the topics, that's everything we need and we're looking for people and active board members. And as you know over the years, we've had a lot of really great people involved and we continue to and we're always looking for fresh blood and new folks to come in and bring perspectives and different ideas to the board. Absolutely. That's great. So that was really a terrific intro. Thank you. I want to say, you know, as you know, everything's been on hold for so long for so many people and we've been struggling, but we've been managing, right? So we've had a couple of cemetery tours that we've done. We've done a couple of things with the old East End group that's up and running now and they're great. So we've been out and about and doing things. We haven't done the Homes Tour in a couple of years. I didn't think so. Yeah, this is, I know. And then we decided to scrap it this year. We're going to have a heavy June walking tour schedule, which is not instead of, but to make up for the lack of a Homes Tour this year. So we're just doing a whole bunch of stuff and getting back to the TV show is one of the really, for me, fun things and one of the things that I really enjoy doing. And when I saw all the cool stuff that you're doing on Facebook, I saw it and, you know, I know you've got a YouTube channel going on. I was like, oh my God, Patricia's, you know, because we have a history, you know, over the show. We've both enjoyed running the show for a bit. And I just thank you for being on as the inaugural guest for Kickstarting the Preservation Burlington TV show again. Well, thanks for inviting me. Yeah. Well, I just want to, you know, I want more background. First of all, what have you been up to? And when did you really start doing these like video tours of places? What have I been doing? Well, languishing during the pandemic really, like all of us and I have been thinking about a YouTube channel for some time, trying to figure out what would make sense. I play piano, so I thought about having a piano channel. I'm still thinking about having a piano channel because before I have one channel, you're going to have two and just kill yourself that way. But in the end, I decided to finally just to bite the bullet and just try it with history because I love history. And you're good at it. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. But what I usually hear about history is I hate it. I dislike it. I don't like it. It's boring. Oh, it's boring. If I had a nickel for that one. Yeah. And I want people to realize it's actually pretty interesting. And it's just about every one of us. That's what it is. Yeah. It's other people's stories. Yes. You know, who did what before? And, you know, I mean, I find I've heard the same stuff. And, you know, like, and, you know, I'm an old house guy. So you read old houses and I think about the carpenters that built them or the masons that worked on them or, you know, what were their lifestyles like, you know, and it just helps relate to, you know, again, languishing. We've all been through a similar experience recently. If you can look back and see that people in 18, you know, 19, 18, when they went through the influenza pandemic here, you know, this is all sort of happened before. And one of those people experience, you know, and visiting these places makes it real. True. And when I'm visiting all these cemeteries, I know it's a lot of cemeteries right now. There's no snow on the ground. Well, tomorrow. But today, no, yesterday, no. But when I'm walking, there are a lot of children's graves. I mean, all those itty-bitty graves, trip hazards with a lot of snow on the ground. But, you know, I talk about how they didn't have any vaccines, not a one. So they were dying from smallpox. They were dying from diphtheria. They were dying from tuberculosis. They were dying from, you name it, they were dying from it. You know, you family would have 10 kids and maybe four or five of them or more would even die. So that's there was one guy who was buried in the Village Cemetery in Colchester, who lost nine of his children, nine. I can't imagine the pain and suffering that family went through. So so that's why I find one of the things I find fascinating about cemeteries is visiting those places. I have a lot of cemetery videos today. I have a cemetery video. Oh, yeah. That's that's really pertinent and great because, you know, we have cemeteries in Burlington and we have and we run the cemetery tours. We're doing some cleanup days there for they're often neglected nowadays. You know, people don't use them like parks like they used to in the late 1800s, you know. So now they're just a sort of a place and we have to maintain them. And it's on the back burner, so people don't think about it. So we try to raise awareness. So you're doing the same thing. So and also because there's a lot of history in cemeteries, right? A ton of history. I have I have filmed a lot of Medal of Honor recipients. And it's such it's such a what's what? What you said you filmed a lot of what recipients? A Medal of Honor. Oh, Medal of Honor recipients. Yeah, I just discovered another one. I haven't filmed him yet because I haven't found his dog on grave yet. And with a bit major snow some tomorrow it's going to be put him back hard. Yeah, right. So but I just discovered him and it's it's such an honor to talk about the exploits of these men, the one theater or a Stafford Peck, remember TS Peck Insurance? Yeah, that guy, his exploits were are worthy of a movie, quite frankly. You know, every time you think something's going to go really well for them. No, not so much. And it was just a series of really awful mishaps, but he's still he's arrived. Persevered. Yes, absolutely. And he was in charge of the men. So, you know, he has had this brave extra front for his men on top of it. So crazy stuff like that is just fascinating. How are you going to be so brave? So how did you so you mentioned you were thinking of a piano YouTube channel or, you know, a history YouTube channel? What was the kickoff? What how did you start the history YouTube channel? I just decided to go out and film. I went to Lakeview Cemetery, so Cemetery is just clearly I love. So I want to be an overarching theme tonight, but it seems to be. So so I decided to go there and film a year ago, February, actually, and it merely didn't like a single one I did. Oh, they were all terrible. Wow, such trash deleted all of them. Oh, no, every one of them. Oh, they're terrible. And then I went back and filmed again. And people I knew from the tour had led. So and I found that that was another bumper crop of bumper crop of garbage. So they did that stuff, too. And so what what what what didn't you like about them? What was what was the production value that you didn't like? Bad sound quality or had nothing to do with sound quality. Had everything to do with what I was saying. I thought it was just all garbage. Oh, no, really just terrible. So part of the thing is I can't remember stuff like I used to. I just there's a lot of dates, a lot of names, a lot of stuff like that. If I'm filming three to seven videos in a day, I can't remember stuff. So I just printed off and read it. Yeah, flashcards, except I'm holding my ring like this and that leaves my cane. Oh, right. So which is my pointer for those who watch my videos. Yeah. So so anyway, I now read stuff. I just read. Yeah. And it's just so much easier for me. So much. I mean, same here. Like I'm very I'm very not good at the walking tours. I've stepped in when I had to, but I can't remember anything. And then I read stuff, but then the pages are all backwards. I'm really even terrible at reading stuff. So, you know, I think, you know, none of our memories are what they used to be. Right. Well, and I love the tours for you, for Ethan Allen. Ethan Allen Homestead, that was for memory. But I was also my 20s. I was a kid then, imagine that. But the preservation, Burlington Tours and my own tours. I just had a sheet of papers in my hands and I would tell people, I can't remember the stuff that's a lot. It's a lot of buildings. So much. So much stuff. So so might as well just read it. Yep. Yeah. So and then, you know, you read it for a while and you learn some more stuff and you add stuff that might not be in the sheaf of papers because it's a sheaf, people. The sheaf. Things pop into your head. Yes. Reading stuff. It's a reminder. Listening to other tour guides who leave the tour because when I was trained to leave the PB tour, I was told I could add anything I wanted. That would be correct and true, of course. Right. Unlike me, who makes things up. Sometimes it just sounds like it. Because sometimes it sounds so preposterous. It can't possibly be true. But it is. And that's the kind of history I love the most. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So so then you felt better. You felt more comfortable with a few of the latter ones. Yes, because the end of May last year, I decided that I was going to upload every day of the week. Oh, shoot me. What was I thinking? What that? Yeah. What the heck? What the heck? I know. So if I only go out and get one video, that's not a that's not a waste. That is the next day's video. But if I can do, you know, five videos in a day, that's that's five days of videos. So five visits to different places. Yeah. That's a lot of driving, usually. Although every now and then the buildings are right next to each other. It's fantastic. So actually, if I could, if I could show please something. Yeah, yeah. Put some stuff up. So I drove down to Leicester, Vermont, which is south of Middlebury. I'm not sure if it's still called Leicester, but these buildings are listed as in Leicester, Vermont. So so I went with Leicester. So I lucked out that two were right next to each other. Hallelujah. And the other one was across the street. So I parked in one place and just walked across seven. A busy street. So I just want to start with this one here. Yeah. I'm not going to show you the other two. One was a meeting house and the other was a schoolhouse town hall that was built that way. Town hall is now separate from it. But anyway, this building that you see on camera now, this is known as the stage coach in Leicester, Vermont. And so let me tell you right now that if you want to go see this place, do not follow Google Maps. Oh, my gosh. First of all, you want to do a street view first to make sure you're actually looking at the same building. You're not. So don't do Google Maps. What you want to do is plug in Junction of Route 7 and Fern Road. I think Fern Road was the other one. And then you'll get to this place. So so so follow my I was finding it was a challenge in the beginning. Well, it could have been if I followed Google Maps. But so anyway, this building is I know 150, almost 200 years old, well built, clearly well built because as we look at the next photo of it. Wow, that bad paint job is not is the least of its worries. Look at those windows boarded up. So it's abandoned right now. I don't know if it's abandoned. I didn't actually step onto the property. I don't want trespass. So I stood on the side of Fern Road and and that road is pretty busy, too. Yeah, well, taking pictures and filming from there. Yeah. So we can see it has a corrugated roof that's starting to rust. I'm hoping the roof stays intact. Apparently has stenciling in there and all kinds of stuff. It was a stagecoach in and then it became a post office retail store. And then became a private residence. And now the pictures. This is on the National Register of Historic Places. So so it's a shame that it looks like this because oh, and the. Let's see is the next picture. I should have written down what was in which order this was. Oh, this I'm sure it's going to trigger your memory. Oh, yeah. Here you go. The barn building, the barn on this building. You see the upper window is open to that. So open to all the elements all year round. Now, the pictures I saw in line of this, it was leaning and it's leaning. It's still leaning. And you can see the the roof is bowed a bit on the on the Eve is a bit on the right hand side. Yeah, yeah, it's pitching out a little bit, a little saddle back. Ah, great terms. I don't know that stuff. I point this stuff and say this is what it looks like this boat. And that's not good. Right, right. It should be straight. That's a red flag. That's a red flag on a red barn. So what's the history of this this building? So what did you talk about when you were filming it? Well, it's what I was talking about was it was a stagecoach in and so the road that we see pictured right there, that is seven. So what's interesting in the 1970s, this build. So this building used to face route seven and then it was turned. It was turned 90 degree angle from route seven looking at Ferndale and push back. So it's actually sitting on a brand brand brand brand new. It's relatively new. It's sitting on a concrete foundation, which I was surprised when I first read that. How is it? How was that? Did they lift it up? Well, they moved it. Yeah. And the reason they moved it was because it was blocking the view on Ferndale for driving because you're going to turn on the route seven or go across it. All right. So. But it's such a shame is in such it's it's tattered really. It's it's it needs a human to help it. It needs a lot of humans to help it with deep pockets because you would know better than I. But I'm guessing that'd be very expensive to fix. Well, what's wrong with it? Depending. Yeah. Right. The extent of what you want to do with a building like that or adaptive reuse, you know. So so that was one of three that were in a little pocket of. Oh, it's fantastic. I don't have those pictures. The across the street on the other side was a meeting house and that had some issues with windows. Not terrible issues yet. But if they don't work on it, it's going to be terrible. Yeah. I've seen terrible. It's not good. I know. And you know, it's funny. I tell people that, you know, the old houses are like you said, well built, they they withstand a lot. They can they can contend with neglect for a really long time. They know, you know, windows, for instance, can get really bad in seven to 10, 15 years and then they'll stay that bad for another 20, you know, before they fall apart, you know. So, you know, you could ignore it for 35 years. You don't want to. But if you wanted to, you know, so these these buildings. So so that was that was one you did. So what made you decide to go there? What what popped Lester up in your mind as a place to go? Well, not so much Lester planning process for I saw that this was a stagecoach in. I thought I want to film a stagecoach in. OK, just like I want to fill film taverns. I find these buildings fascinating. So do you Google taverns and you try to find like and see what comes up and what's like within our realm that's easy enough to get to? Is that how you do your research? No, actually, I typed in National Registry of Historic Places in Vermont and it comes up with all the counties and all the buildings around the National Register. So you scroll through those and yes, I do. OK, and all three of those buildings are on the National Register. So and then when they were grouped together, I could have done a little hallelujah dance. And I may have done. I may have done the end zone dance. Yeah, yeah, I may have done that because it's it's so much easier when I filmed these three buildings in Burlington, for instance, these the only house I remember is Minstner House. That's the only name I remember. In fact, I don't remember what street they were on. It's so sad they were close to two weeks ago, too. They were close together. Boom, boom, boom, all in a row. Perfect. Oh, I'll film you and you and you. And now I'm done. So you do. So when you film, so that's one YouTube episode. Yes. So how long are your episodes? I know I've watched them my thumb through. So how long is a soup to nuts episode? A cemetery video can be 30 minutes. My my camera, which is my cell phone, gives me a warning when it hits 30 minutes. And it doesn't actually stop filming. What happens is it it separates. So then I have to either knit them together, which is actually pretty easy. Hallelujah. But I just let a video go to 30 minutes and then upload 30 minutes. So today's video is part five of my visit to the Village Cemetery in Shelburne, for instance. And tomorrow is part six because it's another 30, almost 30 minutes for the same cemetery, same area of the same cemetery. Oh, it's beautiful things, cemeteries, like three videos. And I just I'm just walking. Yeah, doing a little bit of talking. I do talk about dates and if someone's still alive, if I happen to know a story. Yeah, but they're really just a stroll through a cemetery. Oh, that's great. That's neat. Yeah, pretty cool stuff. So it's like so your phone gives you a warning. Like we just got a this this is just funny because you said that, you know, you could stitch them together and it doesn't actually just stop necessarily. But, you know, we got the 10 minute warning, which is plenty of time. But, you know, here when we run out of time, the screen goes dark, but we can still keep talking for as long as we want. And it records. So I happen to know that. Yeah, but it's weird for the people watching at home because all of a sudden the camera goes off, but they still hear us. And I've learned not to curse when the picture goes away because it's, you know, it's not good for. Oh, I strive not to curse ever on my channel. Oh, me too. Oh, yeah. So so you're going into episode six with the cemetery, right? That's tomorrow's tomorrow. Yeah. So what are a couple more of your favorites? Sure. All right. So the next one you're going to see is the the absolute opposite of this. Oh, no, that's the barn. There we go. That. OK, yep. This. I think you will enjoy the story of where tell me where it is. I think I know a lot. Oh, sure. A lot on Church Hill Road, two words. Church Hill. Yeah. So Church Hill Road is accessed by either end. I highly recommend you come in from the root seven side. And that's because if you use Google Maps, it will tell you you need to turn right onto Tavern Hill Road. So I was driving, I had come in from from the side that's from the right side of that building. So I come in from that side and I was looking for Tavern Hill Road. So I passed a couple of houses. Which are dwarfed by this building. And the thing is, as I passed the second house, the this building just loomed. So have that experience. You're not going to have it from the other side at all. So this will be on your right hand side as you're on Church Hill Road. So there is no Tavern Hill Road. Google, please, Google Maps, please. There's no Tavern Hill Road. This is directly on Church Hill Road. But it's called the Tavern on Mutton Hill. Now, there is a Mutton Hill Road to your left before you get to the Tavern. This one has been fully restored. I read that the second floor had been a ballroom in the day back in the day. This used to be part of the stagecoach road. So I don't know what shifted because route seven, it was is the stagecoach. So yeah, but but this is built 1812, 1813, something like that. So very old building. We can tell by looking at it is very old. Look at this beautiful double chimney with the parapet between. In New York, there's called stone enders because then in between would be wood, but they'd have these big double chimneys on either end of the building. Wow. So I still kind of call them stone enders, even though they're not now, because it's all brick, but it's got the double chimneys. Yeah, it's gorgeous. So stuff that you wouldn't hear about because I wouldn't talk about in the video necessarily, the back stuff. And what I ever have is like when I had my 50 subscribers, thank you video. There was about some history books I like to use. Nobody liked that video. Nobody watched it. I think eight people, maybe. Oh, there you go. And a hundred. But that's more than watch a show. So that's that's great. Don't say that. No, no, no. So when I had a hundred subscribers, I had a behind the scenes look of what it takes to put together one of these videos. So some things I was talking about was of unless the original train of thought on that, darn it. The whole the whole memory thing is a problem. In my fault. But but some things to look out for. So if you're using Google Maps, sometimes it's just not going to get you where you want to go. For Union, the Union Church in New Haven Junction, which doesn't actually exist anymore, but there is a sign saying New Haven Junction to be a monger street. It's not a monger street. It's not they tell me to an empty lot with trees. OK. Thank you, Google Maps. I hate you, too. Right. But. But anyway, something to be said for real maps. There is somebody said about real maps, but I don't have a real map. But I guess I do. But I like to use Google Maps. But I knew where it was going to be there. I knew how to get there from one end, but at the other side. So I corrected that in Google Maps. You know you can do that, right? You can correct it in Google Maps. No, I didn't know that. You can. You can. You can just put it in the actual location. So when you're lost, you're like, no, this is where it is. This is where it is right here. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then. So, yeah, let's have another, another favorite. Oh, all right. So. Sorry about the title, but it's handy that this is the St. Augustine Cemetery in Montpelier, as you see as part one. This is the entry. One of the entrances to it. This was a request. I had, I did get requests from people saying I should go here, there and everywhere, which is fantastic. I actually have two requests I need to fulfill. I'm sorry if you're watching this show. You're working on it. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. So I finally got there. I had people asking me, please tell me how this is. They have loved ones buried there. They, I was told the grass was knee-high to, you know, it was awful. Neglected like most cemeteries. Like too many of them. But also some of them use prison labor. And the Greenmount Cemetery in Montpelier uses prison labor, for instance. And they didn't, that grass was insanely high. But it was all cut when I got there. But I do talk about the ground in cemeteries. So when other people visit, they're not shocked. This was the worst cemetery I've ever walked for the ground down in this lower part down here. Every step I took, I felt I was gonna break an ankle. Oh no. It was that uneven. It was terrible. But it's beautiful. It's a terraced cemetery. We don't really have those in Burlington. So step down and then down and then down again. Yeah, but I couldn't go down in the lower portion because the land was so, the ground was so bad. I was really afraid I was gonna hurt myself. I'm sure. But the upper level of that was perfectly fine. Go figure. The newer part. Yeah. The newer part. But there are, I don't have that photo, but over to the right, the upper portion of that, there is a fairly large grave marker. The kind that has the ball on top. So it's a cylinder. Oh, okay. It's one of those kinds. Leaning. It's not gonna be standing much longer. Oh no. It's just not. So is there a group? Do you know, did you find out whether there's a group that is trying to, like we have a cemetery commission in Burlington. You know, and I know they're put upon, but they try and they're trying to maintain and get volunteers together and stuff like that. Is there something like that in Montpelier? I don't know. I know that this is, the St. Augustine Church still exists and they're responsible for this cemetery. It's a beautiful cemetery otherwise, but you don't want to walk in the grass there. Not at all. They probably wouldn't take an interview from you, would they? I don't know. I never thought of that. Since we only have two minutes left, there's a, I do want to say for a historic, I may be able to be, I may be working with an historical society come early summer, which is very exciting. So I want to say to historical societies out there, particularly in Vermont, because right now I'm just in Vermont. I'm not traveling out of state right now, but not yet, but I will travel again. If you'd like to work together, I would love to work with you. Film your items, film your photographs, film stories about this stuff. You can talk all you want. I can shut my mouth. That's actually pretty easy sometimes, occasionally. But, and you can break it up into multiple episodes. That too, but even better for you as a non-profit, I can hook you up with fundraisers on Instagram and Facebook. On Instagram it runs for 30 days and you get all the money at the end. So again, give your YouTube channel. Traveling for History, 1L and Traveling. Traveling for History. And if you want to contact me about that, TravelingForHistory at gmail.com. I'd love to talk with you about that. And if I can ask for some help on something too, I want to film the interior of Burlington High School. I really do. They're gonna tear down my high school and shockingly enough, next year is my 40th High School Reunion, 40th. We'll work on that, we'll work on that for you. I want to thank you so much for being on the show. Thanks for having me. We're gonna upload all your information for the YouTube channel and stuff on the Preservation Burlington website so people can also follow up after this and get in touch with you. But, and we'll get you into the high school. That'd be awesome. Patricia, thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me. We really appreciate it. This was fun. I really, really do. It was so great to hear what you've been up to. I'd like to thank everybody for tuning in to CCTV, live at 525, the Preservation Burlington Show. Remember, for more information on your house, your town, or that marker you always wanted, go to preservationburlington.org. And we'll see you next month. And the month after that, and the month after that, and the month after that, we're really looking forward to it. Thank you so much. Thanks, Patricia. Thank you. Have fun.