The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-03-31
THE OLDER MONTPELIER
Interesting "reminiscences OF Life in
the State Capital Before the Civil
War-Location of Various Public
BUILDINGS

To the Editor of the Journal
When l way boy Montpelier had a
population of less than $500 persons,
they were plain everyday people, God
fearing and industrious, there was no
drones, each one had some work to
do, and was expected to do it. and did
it, A boy then knew every person
where they lived, when their cooking
day was, for he expected to sample
their doughnuts and cookies, if he
should be that way on that day, and
were they ever sent empty way. Not
much.
Many changes have been made since
l was a boy fifty odo years ago. The
last house on State street was just
below George Roberts 1t was occu-
pied by W. o. Smith The John
Spaulding residence was where Col.
Il. p. Jewetts barn now stands. Two
houses that were on the vacant lot
west of Mrs Alice Phillips home have
disappeared, while across the street.
near the river bank, was a large two
story house occupied by a deaf and
dumb family. Where B. B. Bailey now
lives was a vacant lot; house stood
west of George Briggs residence;
a small cottage stood where j A. De-
Beers house now stands. The Episco-
pal church occupied the land where
now stands the Riverside" Next
to it was Horatio n. Taplin's, wheel
wright and paint shop (This was a
rendezvous for the State street boys.J
Gen. Levi S. Humphreys home was
where the National Life Insurance
/, Company building stands. J. p. Dew
leys store stood where the east half of
the Vermont Mutual Fire Insurance
Company offices now stand. A Lib
erty' flag pole stood on the Common
1t was over 200 feet in height, sur
mounted by ball and weather vane.
The latter is now on the Vermont Mu-
tual offices. On Middlesex street (now
Bailey Avenue), near Henry Hollis
residence, was a dwelling house, the
ildoC Ohe Oh Tic ollttt' ANCdl Ny Mcl
the bricks of the old distillery.
Nicholas Meadow on the Berlin side
of the river, had been nicely plotted
for building purposes. 1t had two
imaginary streets, namely Langdon
avenue and James street. Taylor
street was Bridge street, Baldwin
street was High street. Barre street
was Hubbard street, while Hubbard
Terrace, Hopkins, East State, East
Liberty and many others had not been
named Summer and Spring street
had been laid out, but there had been
no buildings erected on them.
School street was then Union street
and from the corner of Main and
Union streets with the exception OF
Hill (then called the race track was
owned by Samuel Prentiss. Eras-
tus Hubbard, George W. Collamer
Col. Jonathan p. Miller and Danie
Baldwin owned all the land on the
hills from the Worcester road to anG
including what is the Willard C. Walk
er farm on upper Terrace street.
For churches, we had the Congre-
gational, which occupied part of the
same lot that Bethany church occu-
pies. The balance of the lot was
was his bakery, overhead of which
owned by Charles II. Cross and on il
was the Masonic Hall. The Second
Congregational or Free Church haC
become our Village Hall. This wa:
ciety.
The Protestant Episcopal cnurcf
was situated on the ground now oc
, cupied by the Riverside" The Meth
: odist Episcopal church was on Cour
. street. M. E. SMILES block now oc
cupies the land. st. Augustine:
Roman Catholic church was built in
1859, and the day it vas opened fol-
services was great event for a boy
The hill east of the church was cover
ed by a large number of persons il
The Unitarian church was of 1ateI
date and stands where the first hote
was built in 1893.
For school houses we were wei
supplied, possibly better than toda,
in some respects. The number O
scholars was about 400, and we hat
the Academy near the triangle plot il
: front of J. M. Boutwell's. The Bel
school house where Il. D. Fields resi-
dence now stands on East Liberty
the Brick school house, now a dwellin,
house, just east of the old Catholi,
church; small school house where
T. r. Merrill now lives Another small
t school house. on what is now Hubbard
street, and at least two privat,
schools. In the summer of 1859 tn,
new Union School was completed
with NJ. NJ Marsh for principal NJ,
memory goes back to the days tha
were spent in asserting the scholar
to the different grades. Some of u
were placed in as many as three d
ferent grades the first year, before "
were finally located. The school ha
eight grades.