High Street - Brattleboro Historical Society

Ruth Atkinson and the Trees BHS (1950’s)

A little over seventy years ago, UVM Professor Leon Dean offered a course in “Vermont History and Folklore”. The course was designed for local teachers and met for fifteen weeks. It was offered through the University of Vermont Extension Service. Teachers could earn two hours of college credit. People from the community were also able to enroll in the local history class. The course was held in the evenings at the Powers House on Green Street, next to the elementary school. At the time, Powers House also served as the Superintendent’s office. A product of the course was a booklet of articles researched and written by the class attendees. The publication was called “Bridge To Yesteryear: Vermont Folklore Articles” and contained fifty pages of stories by twenty four authors. One of the articles was written by Ruth Atkinson, a local junior high science teacher. Here is her 1951 article, “Brattleboro Trees”. “In the beginning there […]

Mary Wilkins, famous author

In 1867, shortly after the Civil War, Mary Wilkins’ family moved to Brattleboro. She was 15 years old. Her family had left Randolph, Massachusetts because her father was in the building trades and New England was suffering through a recession after the war. Many of New England’s agricultural and factory jobs were moving west with the railroads and people were moving with them. There was no demand for new housing. In fact, many New England communities lost population after the war. Warren Wilkins moved to Brattleboro to start a new profession. With a partner, he opened a dry goods store where the River Garden is presently located. The business was called, “The New York Store” and it focused on dry goods such as cloth and ready-made clothing. Unfortunately for the Wilkins’, many people in Brattleboro still made their own clothes, or had a local seamstress make them, so going to a store and purchasing already […]

Mary Wilkins and Mt. Wantastiquet (1925)

This week in Brattleboro history we will speak about the power of childhood memories and how they can have a lasting impact on people for the rest of their lives. In December, 1925 the famous author Mary Wilkins Freeman wrote to our local newspaper about her memories of growing up in Brattleboro. She was seventy two years old at the time, but she wrote about growing up in Brattleboro as if it were just the other day. Mary had moved away from town almost fifty years earlier but her memories were crisp and clear. She began by writing about the natural beauty of Brattleboro. When she was growing up she lived in the downtown area and the splendor of Mount Wantastiquet stayed with her through the years. Here’s what she wrote to the local paper: “We used to sit in the front room of the old house and watch for the moon, always for me […]

Clara Antonetti, Radio and Welcome Center

In 1950 Brattleboro’s first broadcasting station, WTSA, began. The station appeared at frequency 1,450 kilocycles on your radio dial, (AM 1450). It went on the air April 20th and was the eighth radio station established in Vermont. The 170-foot radio tower was built on a swampy site just north of the Milk Plant on Putney Road and a 20 X 30-foot building housing the transmitting apparatus and broadcasting studio was built up the hill from the tower. A year later, 34-year-old Clara Antonetti began working at the station. She did Christmas programming, played the piano and told children’s stories. She was the only female employee at the time and also handled a lot of the day-to-day office work of the business. Clara had grown up in Barre, Vermont and came to Brattleboro to attend the local branch of Bay Path Institute. She graduated from the stenographic department in 1939 and took a job at Holstein. […]

Gardiner Chandler and the Birth of Vermont.

On March 4, 1791 Vermont officially became the 14th state. How did that happen? There were a few steps involved before Vermont could join the United States. First, New York laid claim to Vermont and opposed Vermont’s petition to join the union. Westminster’s Stephen R. Bradley was one of six negotiators who met with New York’s delegation to resolve conflicts between the two governments. New York demanded compensation for its legal claim on Vermont, and also wanted clear boundaries established between the two states. These negotiations went on for ten months and ended when Vermont agreed to pay New York $30,000 for its land claim. Boundary disputes were also settled and New York negotiators signed a document relinquishing any claim to the lands of Vermont on October 7, 1790. Second, the Congress of the United States met in Philadelphia to consider Vermont’s admission to the union. In order for this to happen, Vermont needed to […]