Exhibits
PlacesA History of Brattleboro’s Libraries
Brattleboro'sLibraries1842 to Present1842 Brattleboro Library AssociationSince 1842 Brattleboro readers have been privileged to borrow books: first, from its early Brattleboro Library Association and 40 years later, when the shareholders offered the books to the town,...
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...
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...
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...
West River Confluence
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.
Wesselhoeft Water Cure
Dr. WesselhoeftIn the 1840’s one in five children born alive did not live to see their 1st birthday. The average life expectancy was less than 40 years. Many doctors bled their patients when they didn’t feel well and prescribed medicines that contained mercury and...
Island Park
In the Connecticut River there used to be a pretty bigThe island between Brattleboro and Hinsdale. In the 1800’s it wasHinsdale was over 22 acres.[diti_timeline horizontal_line_color="rgba(0,0,0,0.37)" horizontal_line_focus_color="#E09900"...
Harris Hill
In the beginning, the hill was 740 feet long. The landing space was 250 feet with a drop from the top to bottom of 284 feet. It was a big hill and it would get bigger.
The Brattleboro Retreat
THE BRATTLEBORO RETREATThe Brattleboro Retreat The Brattleboro Retreat in 1844. Courtesy of the Brattleboro Historical Society.[/caption] Go north on Main Street through downtown Brattleboro, past the library and bubbling Wells Fountain, and you’ll crest the hill onto...
The Latchis Hotel & Theater
THE LATCHIS HOTEL & THEATREThe Latchis Hotel & Theatre: Downtown Brattleboro The Hotel The Latchis Hotel Theatre first opened in 1938, when the “Greco Deco” vision of the Latchis family was finally realized. Built by four brothers in honor of their...
Wells Fountain
The IconWells Fountain, one of Brattleboro’s best-loved landmarks, stand proudly on the northern edge of its downtown shopping district. Designed in 1890 by Brattleboro architect William Rutherford Mead (cousin to President Rutherford B. Hayes) and funded by William...
Indigenous Sites
Since long before the advent of writing, right here in the Connecticut River Valley there have lived a people known as the Sokoki Abenaki (or, translated into English from the original Sokwakiak, “The People Who Separated”).
They are the original people of this place, and they are still here. Their native tongue, Aln8ba8dwaw8gan—the Western Abenaki language—is still extant, but greatly endangered.
Mount Wantastiquet
Foremost among Brattleboro’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...
Construction of BUHS
This week in Brattleboro History we are traveling back seventy years, to June 21, 1949. It was on this date that Brattleboro voted to build a new high school on the fairgrounds. The old high school was on Main Street and many thought it was inadequate. There was no...
Membership
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Brattleboro Historical Society was founded in 1982 as a non-profit organization by a group of local historians and civic leaders interested in Brattleboro’s past. The Society’s mission is the telling of Brattleboro's story. Join us!