How Did Flatboats Work?

How Did Flatboats Work?

This week in Brattleboro history we are going to focus on early trade and transportation.  Before interstate highways and train rails there was the Connecticut River.  The Abenaki used the river to trade tools and goods throughout New England.   When Europeans arrived...

read more
Hinsdale Bridge History – Eight and Counting…

Hinsdale Bridge History – Eight and Counting…

Saturday, March 28, 1920 the Hinsdale Bridge between Brattleboro and Island Park collapsed into the Connecticut River.  The winter had produced a great deal of snow, a warm spell caused a quick melt, and eight to ten inches of ice were still on the river.  The...

read more
Fort Dummer and the Vernon Dam

Fort Dummer and the Vernon Dam

      In 1976 the Brattleboro Reformer reported on the archeological dig that occurred at the Fort Dummer site along the Connecticut River.  The site is about 1 mile south of downtown Brattleboro, along the Connecticut River. Fort Dummer was built on...

read more
Soldiers’ Monument Tablet on Juneteenth

Soldiers’ Monument Tablet on Juneteenth

On June 19, 2022 the town of Brattleboro unveiled a corrective and interpretative tablet that was placed next to the Civil War Soldiers' Monument.  A town committee crafted the text of the tablet and the Select Board approved the new installation and funding for the...

read more
Richard Hamilton Speaks At Memorial Day Remembrance

Richard Hamilton Speaks At Memorial Day Remembrance

On May 27, 2022 Richard Hamilton, a 1940 graduate of Brattleboro High School,  spoke to an audience of more than 400 people on the front lawn of BUHS.  He shared stories of growing up in West Brattleboro and attending public schools.  This was part of a Memorial Day...

read more
The Bradshaw’s

The Bradshaw’s

What was it like to be a young African American family settling into 1820’s Brattleboro?  In 1823 a young couple in their twenties, with a small child, moved to Brattleboro from Massachusetts.   Andrew and Phoebe Bradshaw rented a building on Main Street to begin...

read more
Hinsdale Bridge

Hinsdale Bridge

Saturday, March 28, 1920 the Hinsdale Bridge between Brattleboro and Island Park collapsed into the Connecticut River.  The winter had produced a great deal of snow, a warm spell caused a quick melt, and eight to ten inches of ice were still on the river.  The...

read more
Brattleboro’s burgeoning ski industry

Brattleboro’s burgeoning ski industry

Brattleboro's Burgeoning Ski IndustryIn 1935 Brattleboro was well-known in the burgeoning New England skiing community. The annual Brattleboro Outing Club ski jump attracted thousands of people to the area every year. New Englanders came to Brattleboro all winter to...

read more
Brooks House

Brooks House

In November 1869 the St. Albans Weekly Messenger reported on the status of Brattleboro, a town that was about as far away from St. Albans as you could get and still be in Vermont. The paper was commenting on Brattleboro’s recent hard times. In October, a Whetstone Brook freshet had wiped out many of the businesses along the brook and in early November a fire had destroyed all of the businesses on the west side of Main Street between Elliot and High Streets.

read more
Breweries

Breweries

C2H5OH: BANNED!
Prohibition came to New England much earlier than it did to much of the rest of the country. In 1851 Maine passed a law banning the sale of alcoholic beverages. By 1855 all New England states had adopted a version of the Maine law, including Vermont.

read more