 First Wednesdays is sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council and by the Kellogg-Hubert Library with video production supported by Orca Media. Good evening, everyone. First Wednesday fans, a lot of you are regulars here. First Wednesday is a terrific humanities lecture series sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council. They do this every year throughout the state. This is the eighth one of the year, the last of the series. Kellogg-Hubert Library is very pleased to be the local hosts and supporters for First Wednesdays. I'm Tom Macomb, Executive Director, and welcome again. The statewide underwriters for First Wednesdays are the Alma Gibbs-Donstein Foundation, the Wyndham Foundation, and the Institute of Museums and Library Services through the Vermont Department of Libraries. The underwriter for this talk tonight is the Margo George Fund. And that speaker is David Sheets. David has served as the Vermont State Curator since 1986, overseeing the restoration of the State House over the course of nearly 30 years. In that capacity, he worked with Nancy Price-Grant to write intimate grandeur Vermont State House. Absolutely wonderful book we have in our collection. I'll first run to read our copy. Anyway, how do you recommend it? David continues to imperfect the building into a large, diverse audience with a renewed focus on civics and a new exhibit installation celebrating Vermont's Indigenous people, the Abenakis. David has been a long been a student of Montpelier's architectural history. This presentation tonight is part one of two. A Saturday morning at 10 o'clock, David will be out in front of the library to meet with any of you who'd like to do a walking tour of downtown Montpelier. And he did say it won't go to the furthest extremities of downtown, so it will be a very walkable court. Would you please join me in welcoming David Sheets. Thank you. Thank you. I see lots of friends in the audience. That's always awfully nice. I trust we'll still be friends when this is over. And tonight is, I hope, going to be a very enjoyable little lecture. We're going to keep it to 45 minutes in spite of the fact that I seem to have loaded my thumb drive with 165 images. And so I'm not going to go into all of the details of each of these structures that you're going to see up on the screen. But I assume that you, like me, are in love with this city and that we're really just taking a taste of what the architectural marvels of Montpelier are. I have my own, of course, opinions. You, of course, have your opinions and will trade opinions at the end of my talk when hopefully I'll have a little time to have some back and forth with all of you. So I started, I don't know about you, but I've lived here now for next month. It will be 40 years that I've lived in this area, not Montpelier itself, because as some of you know, I live in Callas now, better known as suburban Montpelier. And I've loved this city from the outset. It's why I'm here, really. It's why many of us are here, because not only is Vermont a terrific place to live, but Montpelier itself is quite a remarkable place with a wide variety of historic structures and architectural styles. I just came from the opening celebration at the State House from four o'clock to six o'clock of our brand new exhibit, The Road to Recognition, the Abonakis, and the State of Vermont. It's a brand new installation that's in the main lobby of the State House, and I invite you to come over to the State House if you thought you'd seen it before. We have some new things, and the Abonaki community, all four bands of Abonakis that are officially recognized by the State of Vermont were on hand for a big celebration in front of the building just an hour ago. I was eating Abonaki food, and I brought a parcel of postcards that I'll distribute to whoever wants them, as souvenirs. So my head is all about the Abonaki right now, and so we're starting with this. This iconic image of not Abonakis, these are Montpelier folks I rather expect of more of the European persuasion, and they are adorned with, anybody? Clothespins! Clothespins, of course! What speaks more highly of Montpelier than clothespins? Among the many industries in this community, the clothespin factory, and these guys dressed up, I love the fact that they have their hats and their trousers emblazoned with the word Vermont, just so that everybody would know if you didn't know this was Montpelier, at least you know what state these clothespins were made in. And yes, they look a little like the Abonaki, although I don't want to insult our indigenous people for this silly image that we start off with. But this community has the largest historic district in Vermont. Are you aware of that? And these old maps show many of those structures, including this well-known bird's-eye view of Montpelier that shows the city in 1884. So we're going to be seeing throughout this slideshow lots of historic images, but lots of contemporary images, because I knew an easy way to summon up all of the historic buildings that are in this community. Anybody know what the easiest way of doing that is in this digital age? Google Maps. Google Maps, but where do you think you'd find all of the historic structures in Montpelier? Anybody here of the National Register of Historic Places? Yes, and guess what? Now, don't go Googling right now, because you're not going to find it. I had to call my friends at the Division for Historic Preservation, and they gave it to me digitally. It's not up there quite yet. They have a bit of a backlog right now. And as you may know or not know, the National Register District was established long ago in 1978 in Montpelier. It was updated in 1989, and the most recent update occurred in 2016, 2017, 2018. It just went to the National Register, and it's been officially adopted, but the Division has yet to download it onto their site. But eventually you'll find everything here on that National Register District. Anybody know how many historic structures are in that district? Any guesses? Anybody know? 533. 533 historic properties within just the historic district of Montpelier. That's the largest of any community in our state. Let's give Montpelier a round of applause. Within that same district, there are 73 non-contributing structures. So that's a very low number, by the way. So 533 historic buildings and 73 non-historic buildings is the way we read that. Now that's an extraordinary ratio. Most historic buildings in historic districts are much closer. Those numbers are much closer to one another than Montpelier. So that just shows you the extraordinary preservation ethic that has been in place in this community, keeping those buildings all these years. It's extraordinary. Brick, weather board, shingles, sandstone, granite, marble, vinyl, aluminum, steel, concrete, glass, granite, stone, marble. All of these are the materials that make up our architectural buildings. And they range in style from 1800 to 1966. Why do we end it there? Because that's 50 years ago, roughly, and anything that is over 50 years old is at least possible as an historic structure in the state of Vermont. So now I'm going to start zipping because we need to get through these slides, right? All right, you knew it was going to be here, right? You know who I am, you know what my favorite building in Montpelier is? I think you do. Now this isn't that building, of course, but there's a vestige of this building still in front of today's state house. But the first state house is long gone. That was a wooden structure that was built, roughly speaking, where the Supreme Court building stands today. And the land for that state house was donated very generously by Thomas Davis, the son of Colonel Jacob Davis, long mentioned as Montpelier's first settler, although the Abonakis might take exception to that designation. And nevertheless, Colonel Jacob Davis' son Thomas owned all the land that is today the capital complex. And this structure succeeded the wooden state house that was built literally next door to the hotel that Thomas Davis built on the same site, knowing that if Montpelier did become the state capital, which it did in 1805, then people would start coming to Montpelier who would need rooms. And so what eventually became the Pavilion Hotel was built literally next door to that state house. The second state house built out of granite from nearby Berry was designed by Amy Burnham Young, the famous Greek revival architect of the 1820s, 30s, 40s, 50s, until he went on to fame and fortune well beyond Vermont. This structure that he built as our second capital was perched up on the hillside, the same site that we enjoy today, and it went up in flames 20 years after it was built in 1838. A cold January night in 1857, a fire roared through the fortunately unoccupied building, all of Montpelier raced to the scene to try to put this fire out in sub-zero weather, packing the building with snow, and this is what the building looked like the next day. So that granite ruin would eventually give way to the current state house built within the next two years on the same site. They saved that Greek revival portico, but they attached it to an entirely new structure behind and a larger state house behind. And that is the state house over on the left with its red roof, red dome imitating the look of a red tile roof in Renaissance Italy, because that state house, unlike its predecessor, is not supposed to look as though it came from ancient Greece and Rome, rather it is a structure from the Italian Renaissance. And you're supposed to believe that the rest of Montpelier surrounding it is covered with red tile roofs as well, with the sand perhaps meandering through there or some other Italian river would be a more suitable choice. And that's simply a sepia tone. So here is the brand new state house, as it looked the very first photograph ever taken of the state house when it was brand new. The Civil War is underway because this structure that you see on the right, anybody know what that is? Tour guides don't say flagpole, exactly, but it took us a long time to figure that out. Somebody had to climb up to that platform to take the second half of the flagpole, resting alongside and plop it into a holder up there, doubling the height to approximately 200 feet. That was our liberty pole during the Civil War with an immense stars and stripes flying from its top. And here is the state house. There you can see the fully extended flagpole. But this is Montpelier, as it looked back in the 1860s during the Civil War years. Inside the state house, you've seen it. I'm going to zip through these. But there was a museum in the state house from the very beginning. A museum that is in the room that we now call Room 10, a caucus room called Room 10. And the collections of the Vermont Historical Society, the natural history specimens and others were found within the state house from the moment that it opened. And there's the state house prominently situated above many other structures from the early 19th century with the building off to the right. Guesses, anybody know what that building is? Yes, sir? The Catholic Church. It is. This is the predecessor of St. Augustine's on Berry Street. So that was the Catholic Church right next to the state house at that time. But look at all these buildings where we are used to seeing parking lots today. If you take in this view today, it's mostly parking lots. Look at all of the rooftops that extend in back of structures that are facing on State Street. The Grand Avenue that was laid out in 1807. As soon as the new state house was finished, they had a new street called State Street. And it became the principal artery in the town for the first time after the state house was built. Prior to that, Court Street had been the principal east-west thoroughfare in the town. And adding on to the state house in the 1880s, there have been three subsequent additions to house the State Library and the Supreme Court, which eventually were added to the building. And of course, festivations well before today's Abenaki ceremony out in front have been held at the state house. As you can see, the huge portrait of Admiral Dewey on the front of the Portico in 1899 for Dewey Day. Perhaps the biggest occasion to hit Montpelier at least before the women's march. And oh, sorry, I need to backspace. I hope I'll be okay. Electric light in 1899. Yes, look at that. All for Admiral Dewey. And that's not just the beginning of what Montpelier did for Admiral Dewey, right? You've seen many of these photographs, I'm sure. But nobody did the electric light. That was reserved for the state house. Still fairly new in the 1890s. And so you're probably wondering why I would put this next. It's because next month is the 40th anniversary of my moving into this building. Right next door to the state house. This is just to the right of that Catholic church, which of course was long gone by that time. But in 1950. So I go through the new National Register nomination that they've just written. And I discover that this humble apartment house, which I ended up in partly because it was next to the state house, and that was going to be my brand new job. But I also moved in because it was the only thing in Montpelier that remotely looked like an apartment house to me. I didn't know that all of Montpelier's apartments were in Victorian houses. How charming, but I was clueless at that time. But this was built in 1950. Consequently, it's now an historic building. And it is on the National Register of Historic Places. See, if we wait long enough, you know what happens. So I might add that I read the nomination for this and they call this one of the only and perhaps best examples of the international style in Montpelier. Is that incredible? And I was living there. I had no idea. It was incredible. Anyway, the capital apartments, and they're in pretty remarkable shape considering how old they are now. Right down from the capital apartments, this brick building on the left, anybody know what it's called? The Dewey Schoolhouse. Admiral Dewey went to school in this brick building just to the east of the State House. And it's filled with, I think, lobbyists now because of its proximity to the State House. But yeah, guess who was in town? Admiral Dewey. And you can see the words underneath his portrait. Went to school here. Consequently, it's the Dewey Schoolhouse forever and ever. And they, you know, look at this. Look at all those Montpelier people who are so excited that Admiral Dewey is coming back. And some really great shots. This is Court Street, by the way. There was a church on Court Street in the earlier decades of the 19th century. And we're up the hill looking down on Court Street. And you can see the spires of other churches. It's a great shot, actually, to see all of the historic structures beyond, including what we call College Hall now on the campus of Vermont College, which at that time was the Montpelier Seminary, a Methodist Seminary on the top of that hill. And the spires of Bethany Congregational Church, the Unitarian Church, which was designed by the same architect who designed the State House in the 1850s, Thomas Sillaway, and the Methodist Church and the Baptist Church. And just beyond that, the very tall Union Elementary School, which was at that time a 19th century building rather than the 20th century classical revival building that we have today. All kinds of Greek revival structures, including this house, Timothy Redfield's house. Timothy Redfield was a very prominent jurist, ended up on the Vermont Supreme Court. This was his home on State Street at the far end of State Street going out of town. It too is filled with offices today, but look at that Doric portico, and probably other additions that have been added in subsequent years. Greek revival style is the largest category in the Montpelier Historic District. Okay, that's pretty amazing, because those are among the oldest structures in the city, and they are to this day the largest category of architectural styles. That is astonishing. 1890, I think you know Redstone, many of you. The prominent building perched up on Terrace Street as a summer home for the Burgesses. And the Burgesses, of course, were a family that was very instrumental, I believe, in the construction of the Kellogg Hubbard Library. Mrs. Burgess was a Jewett. She grew up in Montpelier. Her father owned the land, so they built this palatial, baronial, castle, Romanesque revival Victorian mansion as a summer place. Why do we say Romanesque revival? Because you could say all kinds of things. The Victorian period is filled with the eclectic bringing together of styles from all kinds of different inspirations. And this is certainly a good example of that. But what's unusual about it are the arches. And whenever you see prominent big arches, you know that they're going for the Romanesque. Richard Sonian Romanesque because of Henry Hobbs Richardson who popularized the style during the Victorian period. Mr. Burgess, by the way, was a professor of political science at Columbia University. So they lived in New York during the winters, and he is considered to this day to be the father of political science. The Columbia was the first place to teach politics as an academic subject. And then further down State Street is the Chester Wright building, which is among the oldest structures still in Montpelier, built in the early 1800s by Chester Wright, who was the first minister of what is today Bethany Congregational Church. It was not Bethany at that time, but it was the Congregational Church of Montpelier and dates way back. He went to Yale and was, according to one biography, a little horrified at the moral deficiencies that he found in the community of Montpelier. He had a lot of work to do. And he did it. I assume he did it, don't you? A little toward the coming the other direction on State Street, this early gas station. This dates back to 1940. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. Yes, we've lived to see the day that gas stations are now heralded as historic structures. But I think we can all agree this is not your standard anymore of a gas station. So definitely it's a very interesting building with the little parapet up at the top and the stucco-like finish of its concrete walls. It's all so charming all of a sudden. Across the road, before I actually moved into the Capitol Apartments, by the way, I took a room in this rooming house, the OM Fisher House, which is right across from that gas station on State Street. It was a rooming house back in the 70s when I came and I loved it. And I had to live here on the basis of these early experiences. That's why I'm dragging you through this. I'm sorry. A little further on is a structure that is definitely near and dear to my heart since it's a building that I now curate. All of the buildings around the State House, of course, that are in the Capitol Complex that are historic are part of my charge as curator. And happily, we led this building through a multi-million dollar redo that recaptured its interior glories as well, happily. But this building was built as the headquarters of the National Life Insurance Company after they had outgrown their original home office further down the street. So this was built in 1921 and National Life was here until it moved up the hill to its present location in 1960. It's in the Beaux's Art style. In other words, this would be a building that you could find possibly in Paris. And it would look very comfortable with that mid-19th century redo of Paris that made it so harmonious, so beautiful, so classically chased. It was designed by a prominent architectural firm outside of Montpelier and they built it. Look off to the left and you'll see the yellow brick that we still see on that western facade, right? And it guesses as to why that's not clad in granite. Like, yeah, you got it. They were going to add on to this building when they needed to and instead they moved up the hill to a brand new 1960 office building. So it was left unfinished and this would have had another whole pavilion. This is what we would call a central pavilion. There would have been another one over here and then another whole wing going off that way. Anyway, it never happened. And have you ever been inside? So this is the main lobby. What do you think? Yeah. Byzantium! Byzantium! This is all plaster work, by the way. Incredible plaster work and it's all in excellent condition. Happily marble plaster work, a grand entry for the corporate headquarters of Montpelier, right? Right across the street from that structure. Anybody remember this? Any of you go back to the 60s? This was still standing where today I'm sorry to say there's a parking lot. The riverside was a well-known, rooming house and inn. And it's the reason why the Dewey house, where the Secretary of State currently is located, is awfully close to the Victorian house that it stands next to, right next to the DMV. So if you know where I am, that's the side of State Street that we're on. And this still stood. So in the late 1940s when they moved the Dewey house away from directly opposite the State House so they could build the DMV in the late 40s, they moved it and squeezed it between this building and the building next to it. They thought there was enough room. Today, since there's a parking lot there, the two look as though they are crammed together, I'm sorry to say. But that's history. Up Governor Aiken Avenue, or what at that time was called Western Avenue, is this structure which we call today the Pink Lady. Everybody know where I am? So we're just to the west of the State House. And in fact, this is the State House fence that is in the foreground because the grounds were originally fenced until the 1920s. The Pink Lady was built by the Baldwin's of Baldwin Street. It was their house throughout until Marcus Gilman, a very wealthy Montpelierite who made his fortune in Chicago, decided to return to his native Montpelier. And he bought the Baldwin house and redid it. Today there's a fancy veranda on the front of the building. And in back of the building he added a servant's wing and other touches that have really embellished the house. But it became a boarding house for legislators since it was right next door and they dubbed it the Pink Lady. When I came everybody was calling it the Pink Lady in 1979 and it was painted white. So I asked, why is everybody calling this house the Pink Lady? Anyway, happily today it's its original colors from the earlier 20th century just as Montpelier itself all over the place has transformed what in 1979 were pretty much all white houses to much more colorful 19th century colors again. And that's what makes this city sing in my humble opinion. Further down Baldwin Street is this shingle style house with a very prominent turret on the back and a slate roof. It's a wonderful structure that we hope to restain some day so that it's all nice and dark brown. But that shingle style was one of the numerous styles in the late 19th century that were Victorian. We're going to zip past that. This is an Italian house. These are all occupied by state government now. So these are houses that are in our care. The house next to that is not a state house. That's currently on the market, the Gibson's house, Justice Gibson. And the tan house, a little deeper gold, is also a state structure. And they're all Victorian on Baldwin. Until you get to the end, you see the state house. This is a magnificent mansard roofed house with an incredible port-co-sher off to the left. And it's original shutters. It's got a lot of original integrity. This is the kind of house throughout Montpelier that we celebrate in the Second French Empire style. So they're imitating. The Victorians really loved to imitate all these different architectural styles from places throughout the world, bring them to their houses and do their own thing with that style. There's the Dewey House. So this is the brick structure on its original site directly opposite the state house. So everybody know where I am? This is where the DMV currently sits on the site of all three of those houses. So notice how palatial the grounds are around that house. It was built by the Dewey family in 1890. As you may know, Admiral Dewey's father, Julius Dewey, was the founder of the National Life Insurance Company in the 1850s. And his brother Edward became the president of the company by 1890. Consequently he moved the original Dewey house further down State Street, a little Gothic revival cottage that eventually was demolished in the 1960s. It was replaced with this magnificent brick house with all kinds of fancy things on the inside. Clearly the Deweys had arrived by 1890. And in fact the Admiral's brother greeted Admiral Dewey on the steps of this house when he came back in 1899 for his return visit. There's the DMV. So I know it's not the most popular building in Montpelier and I'm not referring to who lives within it. But this building actually has grown on me. It was not my favorite building in Montpelier, definitely. But if you look closely, you'll see that the Art Deco is coming out in this building in big ways. And we have some pretty extraordinary Art Deco in Montpelier that one would be a little surprised to find in a town of this size. And especially a place that is still in love with the Greek revival. So up there we have a recessed top floor with a frieze that goes all the way around the building. And that frieze looks as though it was created during the WPA with all these magnificent bar reliefs that are in the marble. And of course it's built of marble and steel. Freeman French Freeman. This was their building. So this was one of their buildings in the 40s. But it was designed before World War II. World War II got in the way of building it. So they revisited the project as soon as the war was over and it was finished in 1948. So it's a little late for Art Deco. But consider that they were looking at plans that were drawn 10 years earlier and it makes a little more sense. And across from it of course the Supreme Court building built in 1918 and 1919. This is its 100th birthday this year. We had a little celebration for the Supreme Court building last summer when we celebrated this magnificent building. Again the classical revival style. And right across from it National Life's first home office built in 1890. The same year that the Dewey family upgraded further down the street. Now this is not the kind of corporate headquarters that we build anymore. I think we can all agree. Sir Edwin Tobi was the architect who created this magnificent structure in what we actually call Dutch Romanesque. Because it has elements of Amsterdam in its style. Coupled with this little turret that terminates right there. It doesn't go all the way down to the ground. It's just kind of an outgrowth of the building. I mean that's magnificent and it's on the rear. You don't even see it on State Street. You have to go around to take a look. It's a building that is magnificent all the way around. And the details on this building are totally extraordinary. I invite you all to come on our tour and we'll explore all of those little details. And so I'm going to zip through here. So any guesses as to what this is? Where are we? Anybody know? We're still on State Street. Do you know what this is? Okay. Do you want to come up and help me? So this is the old railroad station. The original railroad station. And this is a beautiful Greek revival building that would unfortunately be torn down. Just as the train station was torn down. And they both within a decade or two looked like that. So this is Vermont Mutual Insurance Company. Vermont Mutual Fire Insurance Company. We're looking at the side of it. This is the front. And the train station is over here. So this took the place in 1870 of that Greek revival structure. And this is still here. The only difference is instead of the brownstone on the cast iron lentils and pediments and the mansard roof. All of that is painted white now. With the exception of the portico. Have any of you noticed that the portico is brown? Again, that's the beginning of our restoration of the building. We didn't have the money to do anything other than the portico. So this is brown again. And eventually all of the details on this incredible building are going to be restored to their original brownstone look. It was a faux finish that was applied to cast iron elements on the exterior. That's the front portico that I'm talking about. And there's that train station transformed. And some of you may go back far enough to remember the demolition of this train station in the 1960s. It was a very sad day. There's a photograph of a wrecking ball going straight for the clock tower. So the demolition of this train station, directly opposite, I might add, the Pavilion Hotel. So perfectly, this is where everybody came, got off the train, went across State Street and checked into the Pavilion and other hotels in Montpelier. Standard behavior. But the demolition of this, the demolition of the Pavilion and the demolition of the courthouse further down State Street were the three huge losses in terms of historic buildings in the 1960s that started to develop what we might call the historic preservation movement. In Vermont. Yes. That was demolished within just years of one another, the train station, the courthouse and the Pavilion Hotel. All were major losses. There's the rear of this. Do you believe this? I mean the rear of that train station is magnificent. Look at this awning. Look at the barge boards and all of this incredible Victorian filigree. It's all magnificent and I wish it were there. Anyway, it's not. This is a photograph taken from the dome of the State House looking down on the grounds. It's a very early photograph because you still see that flagpole, but off to the left it gives us the opportunity to see the Pavilion Hotel way back in the 1860s and opposite it, that Greek revival building that would succumb. And the old train station is a little further this way. And then look what happened to the Pavilion. In 1876 it was replaced with the Pavilion that you're looking at right there with the magnificent verandas that went around that structure. That was the way the Pavilion looked right up until the day that it was demolished. It would in the 1880s develop a mansard roof that would be on top and that has not happened yet. So this was built in 1870. That happened in 1876. So this has to be before the mid 1880s. And the Catholic Church a little closer up with those magnificent twin spires. There it is in the rear with the old Pavilion Hotel, the Greek revival version of the Pavilion Hotel. Under that this Pavilion is the original Pavilion that was built in 1808. To go with the first State House that would have been over here. And then it was added onto by Malin Cottrill in the 1830s and it became this beautiful piece. This is, for those of you who know Vermont vernacular architecture, these recessed porches like that. You see in Greek revival pediments often and they're very much a Vermont feature. You do not see those outside of Vermont for the most part. That is considered one of the hallmarks of Vermont's vernacular architecture in the mid 19th century. So there's the Pavilion without its mansard roof. There it is with the mansard roof. It of course, there was a fierce battle in the 1960s to try to save the hotel. They lost the battle but they won the war. Pizza Galley Construction Company came up with a crazy scheme to reconstruct the exterior and build a 1971 office building. And to be true to its period, the East facade was left as, and by the way they did this in part because file cabinets were what you had in state offices back then. So guess where the file cabinets are? Where there are no windows, right? And we're fighting a battle right now over the fate of that wall right here. Little did I know that I would become an exponent of brutalist architecture. Because that's what it is, let's be frank. The brutalist movement in concrete buildings, brick buildings in the late 1960s, early 1970s. Not a fan of it when I was a student. And now I'm fighting to save that on an otherwise Victorian building that tells the story though. And there is a beauty about the combination, don't you agree? I mean we're all used to it, no? Okay. Brutalists. I want to, I just have to know, please, how many brutalists are in the audience? Okay, okay, good. Alright. As long as there are a few of you, I knew it would be too much to ask to go beyond a few. Anyway, here's the really important thing. 50 years has almost gone by since the demolition and the reconstruction of the pavilion. In 2021, it will be the 50th anniversary of this building. So it's not in the National Register yet, but I'm not leaving my post until it is. And it will be, what will it be? A monument to historic preservation. A monument in two ways. It replicated the old pavilion hotel fairly successfully. And by the way, Bob Burley, some of you may know Bob, was the architect who oversaw the reconstruction of the pavilion building. Bob is in his 90s now and I just had a wonderful talk with him not too long ago. And Bob is very much in favor of this being on the National Register. He wants that to happen and he wants it to be the monument to historic preservation. This battle changed everything in Vermont. And it turned the clock back in Montpelier big time so that the people in Montpelier suddenly cared about things like this. And that is huge. Okay, you wondered how the thrush tavern got back where it was, right? Okay, this is it. This is the photograph that shows the building being moved to its site. It was originally lined up with those federal style houses that follow it toward the Capitol Theater, right? And where should it be coming up this year? Thank you. Everybody agree? Because we're going to leave this building today as an organization committed to returning the thrush to its original site. Are you with me? Okay. Tom, could you get everybody's name and address before we leave the building? I want everybody's email address. Give it to Tom, please. Okay, here's the reason that it got moved. Another gas station, right? Okay, this gas station, the golf station, what's truly remarkable to me is this was built in 1940, 1939, 1940. Golf. In today's world, you know, do these things stay golf all the way to the bitter end? It was a golf station for all those decades. That's pretty remarkable. Now, it didn't look like that after a while, but anyway, the golf station eventually got colonial revivalized. And it was not, by the way, on the National Register of Historic Places by the time it was demolished this past year. So there's perhaps one of the last shots taken of that gas station and we're going to move you. 1826, by the way. So this is one of the oldest buildings in the downtown area. 1826, a little further down, this is what was called the Playhouse. A classical revival movie theater that also had live performances, as I understand it as well. And it was where the Capitol Theater is today. It was destroyed by fire. And in 1939, 1940, they built this art modern building very much of its time and its period. This is on the National Register with that incredible marquee that I have to say the Bisharas are magnificent at keeping that marquee in beautiful order so that on weekends, as you noticed, they're very careful about lighting it up only on weekends so that the neon is in great shape and they've taken good care of it. To the left is an historic building supposedly from the 18 teens, although I noticed that that was questioned because it has a lot of Greek revival styling that may have been added at a later time, but they attached that house to the art modern movie theater. Why? I do not know. It was attached to the previous theater so it just simply stayed in place. It's a little far forward, but of course it has plate glass windows where once there were regular windows from the early 19th century. And next to it is the Silas Reed House which was built in 1810 and is literally the oldest house in the historic district on State Street. This is the oldest structure on State Street. The Vermont Mutual Fire Insurance Company eventually left the 1870s building that you saw and put their headquarters in the 1950s behind this historic house which was really a wonderful thing because they're preserving this wonderful piece of history on State Street with all those offices that had to be accommodated somehow further back and they didn't muck it up the way so many businesses can. Here's the much lamented loss of the Romanesque revival courthouse built of granite where the current courthouse stands. Don't boo, don't hiss. This too is now on the National Register. Yeah, I know, I know. Now they didn't call it international style which I thought was interesting because I've always thought, okay, that's Montpelier's cheesy international style. No, they think this is just a typical office building of the 1960s into the 70s. Anyway, enough said. Opposite it is where the capital plaza now stands. This is what at that time was called the Montpelier House. Previous hotels on the site were called the Eagle Inn, the American House, Montpelier House. There were many hotels on the same site of what is today the capital plaza. In 1932, it gave way to this colonial revival brick structure which is still there underneath the capital plaza is this building and the portico is still there. They've just kind of built around the portico, right? So it's a colonial revival, classical revival building of the early 30s and still for the most part is largely there. So there's the Montpelier House looking down State Street, appreciate all the buildings that you see that are no longer there. So this is the same site as the capital plaza, but there's a lot going on there before you even get to what is recognizable on that side of State Street, including a church, a meeting hall that was used by the city for lots of community and civic occasions, and so on. So there's the capital plaza as it looks pretty much today. And now we're looking in the other direction, so in the distance is the Montpelier House. You see what I mean? And those are some of the structures that you were looking at that were further on. So here's State Street. What do you think? Back in the middle of the 19th century, this is what it looked like with lots of buildings that no longer are there. So it's kind of hard to imagine. The courthouse, however, is still there. So this is it. I know it looks a little different. It was built in 1840 in the Greek Revival style with that incredible cupola that Alas gave way to a new cupola when they victorianized the Greek Revival courthouse. So it's still there. The building is still there. The only thing they really changed in a major way was the cupola, which of course turned into the current cupola with the Mansard roof in the 1880s. Up the road from it was the post office. So this was the post, the original post office in the 19th century. This building still stands. Anybody except for you, anybody in the crowd know where this building now stands. It no longer is on State Street. Yes, sir. Exactly. So Pitkin Court, I believe is the street name. Is that correct? Back there. And what was the hecked structure? What did we call it? The perilisk, right? So this was the building that was the perilisk for a while. So it still stands. It doesn't have that fancy little parapet up on the top with the fretwork, which is really quite beautiful. But you can see how vulnerable that would be after a while. But it's basically still there, and happily they moved it, like a lot of buildings in Montpelier. So there's the courthouse with its Mansard roof, new cupola, and the cresting up on top. And that's a magnificent part of our streetscape. Across from it, the Episcopal Church, Christchurch, with that spire. Notice it has a spire on not just the granite, the rusticated stone tower, but it has a spire that vanished in the 20th century. I'm sorry to say. Got a zip here. There's the interior of Christchurch. Looking down Elm Street, you can see the Unitarian Church over to the right with the Methodist Church. The Unitarian Church has painted interesting colors, which would have been the original colors back in the mid 19th century. Lots of structures to look at. The garage, which maybe some of you know is currently being refurbished yet again for a cultural center up on the second floor, and a veterinary clinic on the lower floor, soon to be opened. This week, I believe, with the first exhibition. Is that correct? Across from it, what some of us still call the Chittenden Bank Building, with its interesting roof. Further down from it, this is what State Street as it approached Main Street looked like in the middle of the 19th century. Pretty wonderful structures. Many of which, particularly further down, are still in existence, like that. The Walton Block is still there, with cast iron surrounds, and the Bank Building on the corner, of course. So all of those, so these structures in the 1960s, these two, were completely clad in aluminum. And I'm talking about over the windows, covering the windows. You know that 1960s look, trying to pretend that it was a shopping mall in somewhere, somewhere USA. Well, happily those facades that started popping up in the late 50s and throughout the 60s, gave way to their historic buildings that were still there, thank God, underneath. And there, we're looking down at the 1835 Greek Revival structure that has always been there, happily, at the termination of State Street and Main Street. And this is looking back at State Street one last, not quite last time. This, I had to get in here. Yes, believe it or not, the State of Vermont is now the owner of what we call the Toy Town State House, that is happily ensconced up with Byrne Morse and the Morse Farm, as the people who take care of it for us. But this piece went through many renovations. Paul Guere, in particular, was responsible for saving it the last time, when it ended up in a concrete yard over in Burlington, and he made sure it came back to Montpelier and was restored with the help of the Kiwanis Club, who trotted out regularly in parades as it was originally intended to be, since it was built in 1929 for the opening of the Champlain Bridge with Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York and Governor John Weeks of Vermont, present for that occasion. And this is State Street in the 50s. I'm going to have to zip. Okay, so where did David Sheets live after he moved out of the capital apartments? What did he do? That's the big question, right? And in the early 1980s, I met my wife and she happened to have an apartment on the top floor of this magnificent structure that we call the Blanchard Block. These are my windows. The three windows here, you know, it was like an atrium in my living room. It was pretty wonderful. I didn't feel like I lived in Vermont, but it was wonderful while our romance was in its beginnings. So this was the home of Montpelier's opera house. This generous businessman, Asa Blanchard built this structure for retail purposes, but he also made sure that you had a magnificent opera house. So there is the building today with its extension that was added on. This was built in 1885. The extension was built in 1890. So there it is. The opera house that once was in the middle of that structure. It was destroyed in the early 1900s, around 1910 in order to make it. And today there's a huge open space in the middle of this with the skylight above and plants growing. It's really quite nice if you've ever seen where the opera house used to be. And here is the busy main street looking down the street toward City Hall. I'm going to start zipping. You know all of these buildings on the right. That brick building on the other side of State Street, this one, was built in the 1820s. And some of you may remember the fire that almost destroyed it. Do you know how rare it is in a downtown to have an 1820s commercial block of that vintage? It would have been a huge loss to the downtown. Happily it was saved. And we can be very grateful to the landlord who I believe at that time was David Kelly. And David Kelly worked very hard with the Division for Historic Preservation to try to save the building even though it was very far gone. City Hall, okay? This slide is out of order, I apologize. This stood where the blanchard block now stands. Okay, so before 1885, this was there and it was 100 years old when it was destroyed in 1885. Actually five years short of being 100 years old. It was 95 years old. It was built in 1790. 1790 with that incredible roof, hip roof with the finial on top. This is what is called the Cadwell House. And the Cadwell House was the house in Montpelier where the Marquis de Lafayette visited Montpelier. He was entertained at the Cadwell House. Well remember that Greek Revival building is right over there, right? And that's what you see at the end of State Street. This was right next to it where Bear Pond is. So think Bear Pond Books. That's what we're looking at here with that magnificent Palladian window in the center. The Firehouse, 1925. Next to the City Hall built in 1910, 1911. George G. Adams, a Boston architect, designed it to look like a Renaissance Palazzo with that Renaissance-like tower, clock tower. Very much in the Renaissance Revival style, only 20th century version, not mid 19th century like the State House. And looking down on the rooftops. Okay, what building is this? Any guesses? It was just in the news this past year. What's a heralded building in downtown Montpelier? Yes! The French block. So look at this. Look at the top. We thought we restored the French block. But I beg to differ. We have a little bit of stuff that is up on top that needs to be restored. Do you agree? Alright, so I have a movement here to put all of that back on top of the French block. Okay, thank you. Here's what it looked like of course during Avril Dewey's homecoming. Yeah, oh yeah. Every single building in Montpelier looked like this. And you know, somebody spent a small fortune on bunting. That's all I know. And I've done bunting, I think some of you know I've done it. And I'm not doing it ever again. There's the French block in the 1930s. So by then the parapet up on top and all those fancy chimneys are all gone. Anyway, I'll, you know, I'll have, I have to pick my battles probably, right? So I'll leave the French block alone, don't worry. So let's zip through here. St. Augustine's, the new Catholic Church on Berry Street. Looking very, also gothic, high gothic, very high gothic federal style houses. Berry Street also has some of the oldest houses in Montpelier because it was a major thoroughfare. Gothic revival, Greek revival, Victorian. Now we're back on State Street. Do you know where we are? We're looking at what would become Langdon Street. But you're looking at the beginning of Langdon Street. So on the left is where the bank building stands. And on the right is where down home should be, but isn't yet. Because you're looking at the building where Sweet Melissa's is now located. And they lifted this Greek revival house, this Greek revival structure up and moved it to the other end of Langdon Street. So right now it's right where down home is. And the parapet, notice the brick parapets that look a little like the building directly across State Street that still survives, right? So there were older structures back in the early 19, there it is again. So this is what that beginning of Langdon Street looked like just a few years later. And across from it the Cross Baking Company, which stood right next to Bethany Church. Famous for their crackers and cracker barrels in general stores throughout the nation. The Unitarian Church, interior as well. The Brick Church, this is the original congregational church that stood on the same site as Bethany. And was taken down in the 1870s. And in order to build the current Bethany, then of course Bethany had a catastrophic fire. And the 1960 sanctuary was built to replace the fire-damaged structure at Bethany Church. Okay, let's have a round of applause for Tom's library. And talk about the Renaissance. This is so Renaissance revival. Again in the resticated granite with those beautiful Tuscan columned porches on the front. It's very, very beautiful. I love this. 1895. Right across from it, Mansard Roofed Second French Empire inspired magnificent mansions. Some of the most prominent business people in Montpelier own these structures. The Bear Departments, Greek Revival, Federal, Gothic Revival. You can see I'm coming to an end here. I need to. Am I right? Okay. No, I do. No, I do. I do. The Queen Anne style at the other end of State Street. The Queen Anne style of course was a very popular Victorian style. This Gothic, this Greek Revival portico, guess where that stood? On the roundabout. So you know where the clinic is located? On the roundabout, this house stood there happily. They did not demolish it. They lifted it up and moved it around the corner. It's now on Franklin Street. Right. And it's owned by a wonderful guy, Louis Neal. Louis? Are you here? No. Okay. Louis takes good care of that Greek Revival. And there are lots of them throughout Montpelier still. Federal style. This is on Lubas. This magnificent, the Wing Mansion, which is a great example of the Second French Empire with that mansard roof. And the original colors. Betsy Bowton was a longtime colleague of mine and she made sure that house was painted the correct colors. We're going up East State Street here. Some of this magnificent house owned by, oh shoot. Oh well. Now it looks like this. It's in wonderful shape with that magnificent cupola on top. The East State Street School in the Colonial Revival. There's Huntsman's, which is at the other end of State Street. Commercial blocks further up Elm Street. This is our answer, in my opinion, to the Flatiron building. Have you ever noticed the angle of this photograph fortunately shows that it looks a little like the Flatiron building. In my humble opinion, I may be stretching it a bit. It's the humble laundromat, of course. And magnificent, I'm just going to zip through some of the houses that this is one of my favorite houses. And it is the owner in the audience. Okay, I've always wanted to meet the owner of this house. I love this sweet little house. It's right above Hubbard Street, just above Union Elementary School, perched up on the hillside. And it's a really sweet little house. Queen Anne's are all over Montpelier. Some of the grander examples were designed by people like George Guernsey, who was a mayor of Montpelier and became one of the best known architects in the city, responsible for Redstone, responsible for many of the over-the-top Queen Anne-style houses throughout Montpelier. Italian at, again, looking back at the Italian Renaissance, little Dutch Colonials mixed in with regular Colonials. And colonial, by colonial we simply mean colonial revival, because they're copying what they thought was the architecture of the colonial period. Montpelier has no true colonial structures, because we're just too late for that. And right on Luma Street, the Humanities Council, who's paying for me tonight. Let's give them a round of applause. The Humanities Council redid this magnificent house with that central tower. This is Italian Renaissance gonna muck again. Greek revival, combinations of Greek. You can see Italian at bracketed eaves. And that's a favorite, this is a favorite house of mine in Montpelier, I love that. And, okay, where else did David Sheets live? So before he moved in to the downtown, do you know what this is? Anybody? It's the arsenal, right, arsenal, up on College Street. And there was a catastrophic explosion around World War II, shortly after World War II. And a fire destroyed the structure, and the only remaining portion of it is this little appendage on the right. This, this is all gone. The fence survives. So if you've ever noticed on College Street, we have these granite piers with cast iron rods, bringing them together down, all the way down the street, because they surrounded the arsenal. Which dates back to before the Civil War. So this little appendage is the only surviving part, and I was its house-sitter for two years. While the family tried to decide how they were gonna keep it, and happily they still keep it. Civil War Hospital was also up on that same hilltop. And this is what it looked like when it was the Civil War Hospital, with all of, again, lots of appendages. That was the way hospitals were designed back then, because they wanted all the patients to have access to good ventilation and light. And so it didn't make sense putting them in a big building. Many of these houses were then taken and built as houses throughout the neighborhood. So many of the residents of the College Street area are living in parts of the old Civil War Hospital, which was dismembered and taken to different locations throughout that neighborhood. Fifteen of them. That's great. That's right. I forgot. So that's there. They moved the bar in that way. I love that there's wood. Totally. And look how denuded. So, you're here. I want you to stand up. I want you to applaud the one of the two people who have taken on the resuscitation of Thomas Waterman Wood's magnificent house, Athon Wood, and he happens to be in the audience today. Will you stand? Yes. So, some of us have worried about this house for decades. In fact, I tried to get what used to be known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England, to buy this house as a study property since they own no properties in Vermont. And that is unacceptable if they represent New England, if you know what I mean. However, they did not take it on, and a lot of us have worried about its fate, especially on Northfield Street, which is not the friendliest place. My wife did allow us to look at it when we were in the market for a while, but I was unable to persuade her. And happily, you've taken it on, and see me if you have an interest in communicating with the new owners, because they have a lot of work ahead, but their do-it-yourselfers, at least this guy is, and we look forward to a much healthier future for Athon Wood, which is a gem, a total gem, to say this is Gothic revival is totally inadequate. This is the home of an artist, and that artist went crazy with the Gothic revival at the base of that style. And with the Bordenbatten sheathing and the barge boards, oh my god. Anyway, and inside spectacular with little gargoyles at the ends of ribbed ceilings, it's to die for. And his studio, which is up the hill, is a separate property today. I have no idea who owns it, but it's too long a covered stairway for my wife to carry our groceries. It was decided. It was decided. I tried. I did try. And this is the end. We look out over this incredible community nestled in the heart of the Green Mountains, and we say to ourselves, how lucky we are. Thank you. No questions. Now, I doubt you don't have time for questions. So one of David's wonderful traits is he doesn't know how to tell time. You're very welcome. Alright, thank you for not walking out on me. So, do any of you have questions that you truly want? Yeah, but go right ahead and leave. Now, together. Yes. When? Yeah. So she's asking where all these photographs come from, and thank you. I need to thank, in particular, Paul Carnahan of our own community. Let's give Paul a round of applause. Paul wrote this great book, and I hope it's in bookstores all throughout Vermont. Montpelier Images of Vermont's Capital City. Many of the historic images are right here in this book. I went over to my Vermont Historical Society friends. He gave me all his photographs. But the Historical Society has, by far, the largest collection of Montpelier images anywhere. Anywhere. By far. So that's one place. The other place is, wait for the Division for Historic Preservation to download the whole district, and you'll have access to the contemporary photographs of Montpelier. Okay, yes. Well, that was a huge, there were two fires actually in 1875, and they destroyed much of what is today downtown Montpelier. So you're totally right. It remade the city. The only reason the 1820s structures over on the side of State Street survived is that they weren't near the fire. So there were structures that survived the 1875 fire, but for the most part it leveled what is today, you know, the French block, that whole area of Montpelier was gone. And there were two separate fires that destroyed different parts of downtown. And they rebuilt, and that's the 1870s, 1880s. That's the reason we have predominantly buildings of that period in the downtown. So David has already had a very long day. I think if you have an individual question, you might come up and see in the video a little bit longer. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you.