Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-03-13
A Brief History of the st. Agnes Hall
Property.

The purchase of the st. Agnes property
for High school building leads to little
Renaissance regarding its past history.
The original lot running from School street
back to the north line of the building was
bought about 30 years ago by Jas. FL. Will
liams, ST., and Wyman Flint for the pur-
pose of renting it for young ladies board
ing school. The building then on the lot
was a double tenement house, which com
prised about two-thirds the present build
ing. This was built about 1888 by Mel
lish & Kellum. One of the tenants for a
number of years just previous to its sale
was George Miner, well-known passen-
ger conductor, who is now running on the
Delaware & Hudson railroad. The price
paid for this part by Messrs. Williams
and Flint was $4,000. To the north end
they added about one-third its size, and
the small L, renting it to Miss Jane Hap
good for 20 years. About five years later
Mr.. Williams and Edmund Blake bought
of S. r. Wales his fathers old homestead,
the land of which lay next north, running
to S. G. Jennings present land, and east
to the Episcopal church, or nearly to it..
For this they paid $1,000, including the
old Wales dwelling, which they rented for
private school purposes and as a dwelling,
the last person living in it being Mrs. Julia
Elliott, now Mrs. Joseph Wilson. The
dwelling stood just north of the boarding
school, where the old cellar walls are still
seen, the dwelling having been torn down
about six years ago. Later Mrs. G. f.
Eddy kept private school there, and many
of the young men and women of today re-
member pleasant school hours there.
The owners of this property sold por-
tions of the land north and east for Gene
terry and church purposes, leaving at the
present time but small part of the origi-
nal purchase of Mr.. Wales. Both Mr.
Flint and Mr.. Blake sold their interests
later to Mr.. Williams, and it has remained
as the property of his estate until the
present time. The past week n. S. Brock
way has surveyed the property and finds
the line upon School street to 154 feet, and
PSI feet on Cherry street, the east line be-
ing irregular. The purchase by the town
comprises all that remains of the Wales
purchase, as well as that originally bought
for the st. Agnes school. But few years
previous to 1888 that whole tract of land
down to School street was covered by a
thick growth of scrub pines, not over six
or eight feet tall, extending to the north
end of Pine hill, the tall pines now stand
ing on the hill having grown to their size
since then, and within the memory of a
number of our old residents. A person
can hardly realize that in 1925 there were
but four dwellings between Mr.. Morgan's
at the extreme north end of the village,
and the Westminster town line, at the ex-
treme south end, except such as clustered
around the canal locks and in the locality
now known as "the Square" Where
Green and School streets are now SO
thickly populated was pine underbrush,
and west of that, where now are hundreds
of dwellings on Atkinson and cross streets
was COW pasture, the main road through
the village running through Rockingham
and Canal streets, none west of that. The
first church in the village was small,
frame Episcopal church, located between
the present church and the rector's house,
remaining there until the present church
edifice was occupied in 1866. The first
paper mill in town was built about 1900,
and stood just east of the grist mill, the
paper being made by hand. That
mill was built by man named "Bilr'
Blake, and was burned in few years. A
similar mill was built later by Green &
Fleming, which was burned in 1916, which
ended the paper manufacture here until
about 1866, since which time it has made
immense advances.