Putney Road - Brattleboro Historical Society

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 Shiminski and the MacArthurs (1974)

As the MacArthur family song says, in the summer of 1974 someone painted “Mary Shiminsky I Love You!” on the railroad overpass off from Putney Road heading to Chesterfield. The graffiti on the Boston and Maine railroad bridge inspired this song, a book of poetry, a postcard and newspaper articles across the country wondering about Mary Shiminski and the declaration of love. It turns out 29 year old Mary Shiminski was from Long Island and had had a disagreement with her boyfriend. As a result of the fight she had come north to Putney, Vt. to stay with her parents for a few weeks. They owned a trailer in the woods near the Westminster/Putney line and summered there. Mary’s boyfriend, Bert Salva, followed in the tractor trailer truck he owned and attempted to contact her. Bert would park his truck in Putney and walk the three miles to the Shiminski’s trailer, where he’d call to […]

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. […]

Carrie Hamilton, Crystal Ice and Women’s Suffrage (1890’s -1930’s)

On August 18, 1920 the Tennessee state government voted in favor of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This caused the ratification of the amendment and meant that female citizens could now vote in U.S. and state elections. The leader of the local chapter of the Women’s Suffrage Association was Carrie L. Hamilton. She was a very active community member involved in much of the social life of the town. Mrs. Hamilton was a leader of the local Eastern Star organization, often serving in state-wide office. She also belonged to the Grange, Brattleboro’s Woman’s Club and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Carrie Hamilton moved to town in 1894 with her husband, Dr. Fremont Hamilton, and her two year old son. They purchased the former Carpenter Mansion on the point of land between Linden Street and Putney Road. A few years earlier the Carpenter’s had donated the southernmost section of their property to the […]