Oak 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 […]

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. […]