Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-12-05
TOWN TRANSFORMED
EXCELLENT WORK Of A VILLAGE
IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY.

How the Association Secured New
street Pavements and Benutihed
Public Buildings and Front and
Back Yards.
A town in Illinois that is the envy
of the county in which it is situated
owing to it's clean streets, beautiful
lawns and well kept public buildings
owes its appearance solely to the eff
forts of village improvement society.
In speaking of the work of this So
ciety its president recently said:
although our town today is one of
the prettiest in the state and many de-
sirable residents are coming here from
other communities, few years ago it
was about the meanest looking place in
the country. Its streets hadn't been
repaired in years, most of the side
walks were rotting with age. few
people gave any attention to their
property, and the back yards were
dumping places for all kinds of refuse.
Add TO this dark streets at night and
public buildings falling to pieces for
want of attention and you have pic
ture of how this town used to look
zone day some of us women who
We're ashamed of the appearance of the
town got together and organized vii
lage improvement society. We first
turned our attention to the streets. 1t
makes me shudder now to think of
them. Most of them were full of holes,
had no drainage and many were lit
tered with waste paper, garbage, etc.
We aSitated the matter morning, noon
and night, and finally had the salts
faction of seeing new pavements laid
on several of the principal streets and
others nicely repaired, and right there
and then we made it known that it
would be almost hanging offense to
throw waste paper or garbage on the
! streets or sidewalks.
"In the meantime we had taken up
the matter of Identifying yards and
public buildings. With the dues from
our society and money secured by
holding fairs. etc. we purchased flow
err and grass seed. hired n couple of
strong men and one day started out to
work on the grounds around some of
the buildings The result was that in
two or three months handsome lawns
and flower oeds surrounded the town
hall, postotice and several other build
ings, and our citizens had sample of
what could be done in the way of beau
tifying n town at little expense.
"The following spring we made a
house to house canvass with our
schemes to beautify. When met with
a refusal to take up the matter or with
an excuse of being too poor to do any
thing in that direction we stood the
expense ourselves and transformed
grassless plots into beautiful lawns,
made back yards that were disgrace
to civilization look clean and neat and
had trees trimmed that were spelling
the beauty of our streets. Two sum
mers ago the town went crazy over
beautifying lawns and yards, painting
houses and repairing sidewalks. There
was more of that kind of work done
here than in any town in the state.
The schools took up the work, too and
the pupils were taught great deal
about planting flowers and trees and
identifying their homes.
"It was hard work for our society
and at times very unpleasant, but you
can see what the result has been. We
have grown considerably in the last
few years, but it is only since the
town began to improve that new resi-
dents have come here. Nothing at
tracts home seekers like n beautiful
town. AS a matter of fact, however
we did not start the crusade to in
crease our population. We wanted q
clean town for our own sakes. AS q
result of our work the value of rea
estate has advanced, and, what is more
important the death rate is much low
er. This is owing to cleanliness, ant
while we are proud of the fact that VT
have a beautiful town we take more
pride in knowing we live in one of the
cleanest places in the country.
n "As | stated before. the streets uset
to be dimly lighted, but that was sooi
changed after we got to work. Ou
street lamps now are more numerous
than they were, and instead of spoil
ing the beauty of the town they add t.
1t. For collecting waste paper we hav'
placed baskets on the principal street
and in the public buildings, and mos
of our citizens will 20 block out o
their way to use them rather than lit
ter the walks"