Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-12-02

iiCi biOou . JUL Oiuc hilI IOu'
The fact that Windsor village, or
windsor street" as It Is generally spo-
ken Of by the natives thereabout, is grow
Ing faster than roofs can be raised to
cover the new population; that bona fide
citizens and voters have been forced to
adopt the California method" OF con-
struction. and are building themselves
houses OF boards. with mud stills, on
the Connecticut river flats. and that
hotels and clubs are being used as tene-
ments and lodging places until better
are provided, shows that this old and
aristocratic town has had a new birth
Of freedom and one thing and another,
and is prepared to continue to run its
remarkable village race.
And to see what Windsor must do in
the future to remain in the distinguished
class. let us look for a minute at what
1t has done and has been in the past.
First. OF course. We come UP plumply
against the constitution Of the State Of
Vermont-a solid thing, indeed. and one
that will hold any town or village for
some time while 1t Is ~excavating and
bringing to light a thing of equal i'm
| portance. The constitution was adopted
at Windsor on the Sth day OF July, III,
during, as we all know. a terrific thun-
derstOrm. A section would be read and
put upon its passage. and as soon as the
vote of approval was announced, there
would follow a crack of thunder more
loud, as 1t seemed, than the previous
one.
Considering the primitive surroundings
OF the convention and the great instru-
ment being struck off to the accompani-
ment OF lurid skies and falling thunder
bolts, we fancy hat il Victor Hugo were
alive and writing Of the occasion, he
would be tempted to say again, as he
said of another place. that it was Sinai;
for here amidst elemental commotion was
being erected the first State that ever
declared In it's fundamental law against
human slavery. The house where all this
happened still stands and Is now. thanks
to the second-thought gratefulness of the
last Vermont Legislature, having a full
thousand dollars worth of restoration
put all over It.
OTHER COLONIAL HOUSES.
And there are other old houses, though
no other Old Constitution House. in
Windsor-so many and so good that no
other Vermont town or city can touch
them in point OF number or elegance.
Even Old Deerfield. Mass. heaves a long.
implanted, genealogical sigh to hear Of
them. Let us name a few: the Lane. the
Curtis. the Johonott, the Fullerton, the
Forbes. the Congressman Everett and
the Governor Coolidge houses. Four of
the Evarts row were built between 1895
and 1890. that Is. In the eighteenth CEN
fury. and beginning with the Tuxbury
CCurrier) house on North Main street
and ending with the Windsor House,
there lands a row Of eleven colonial
residences. all on the west side of the
street. the equal of which in fine con-
struction, not to mention number, would
give any two other Vermont communities
an architectural pain to produce. Five Of
these houses are with tri-
glyphs and metopes. and three Of them
have other "proportioned" Greek work
and ornamentation.
Now. when it came to designing and
carving triglyphs and metopes in Yer
mont more than a hundred years ago,
we can see that there was something do
ing not only with the saw. but with the
cerebellum; not In gingerbread but in
wood and stone. The facade Of the old
Windsor House should also be noticed, a
pure Doric front. the Fittings Of whose
columns run right straight down to the
ground as they should do This Windsor
House facade. considering its size. looks
as we'll as that of the State House at
Montpelier. and better than the lower
story OF the new Western Union build
ing on broadway. also supposed to be
In the same early Greek.
But in those far days Windsor was
building other things than buildings, for
here before the railroad came, came Ken
dali and Lawrence. custom gun max
ers" and machlnists. and opened a shop.
of which Professor Roe Of Yale said only
last year in the American Machinist:
Few plants have had so great an in
fluence on American manufacturing"
MOTHER OF MACHINE SHOPS.
Here in the country. Robbins and Law
renee. their successors, invented or per-
fected such modern machine tools as
the miller. the profiler and the vertical
lathe turret used in interchangeable
manufactures; in short. a long line OF
machine tools. Three men of the rarest
inventive genius We're connected with the
Robbins & Lawrence shop in the early
SOS. says Professor Roe. viz: Mr.. Law
renee. who later removed to Hartford,
F. W. Howe. who later removed to
Providence, and Henry d. Stone. who
stayed in Windsor; and It is almost pas
belief that the great shops named be-
low all sprung directly or indirectly from
the Robbins & Lawrence shop. The d.
rect line OF descent from Robbins &
Lawrence. that Is, the machine shops
which have stayed In Windsor or Spring.
field up to the present time. is as fol-
lows: Lamson. Goodnow & Yale, T.. G.
l-amson & Co. L.amson & Goodnow
Manufacturing Co.. j.. D. Alvord. later
of the Hartford & Sharps Works and
who built the Wheeler & Wilson shop at
Bridgeport, and about 1861 sold the sew
Ing machine part of his business to one
White; the Windsor Manufacturing Co.,
Jones. Lamson & Co.. Jones & Lamson
Machine Co.. Hartness Flat Turret Lathe
Works. James HARNESS., L. r. Fellows.
George o. Gridley and William Bryant.
From these different Winds shops
ave sprung since 1856 the following shops
known the round world over: Enfield
Gun Works. of Enfield. England: Sharp's
Rifle Works of Hartford. for which Mr..
Lawrence was largely responsible: the
Providence Tool Works. for which Mr..
Howe was largely responsible. and the
Rhode Island Tool Co. Also the Weed
Sewing Machine Co. and the Pope Manu-
featuring Co., OF Hartford. the White
Sewing Machine Co. OF Cleveland, the
Sullivan Machine Ca. OF ClaremOnt. "