The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1921-11-01
HISTORIC TOWN
THAT CONTINUES
To MAKE HISTORY
Bennington Is Town Of Many
Advantages
HAS BEAUTY AND UTILITY
lndustrialism Has Not Changed
It's Character or Injured
Its Natural Beauty
HAS BEAUTY AND UTILITY

Situated in a broad valley, as val
leys go in Vermont, between two dis.
tinct and Enthusiastically different
ranges the Green and the Taconic
mountains, Bennington possesses a
natural setting that makes it one of
the scenic communities of Vermont
Mountains or rolling hills meet the
eye in every direction, vivid green
during the season of leaf, scarlet and
gold during the weeks of autumn
foliage and white and green when
winter has robbed all but spruce and
pine, hemlock and balsam of brighter
color
Civilization here has wrought its
changes, as in all habitable sections
of the world, but the changes have
been gradual and nature mas been
given time to heal the scars. The
forests OF big spruce that gave name
to the mountains and to the state and
the towering hemlocks that created
almost perpetual shade along the
streams disappeared years ago, to be
| followed bysa deciduons growth reach.
ing up from the lowland to the high
| err slopes where the original ever
green has partially regained its
| dominion
! The face of nature has been radi-
cally changed since the days Of the
early settlers, but it has been a soft
ening and not a hardening change,
and outside of the area cleared for
/ cultivation or occupied by human be-
ings for habitation and occupation
the country cound about the three VIII
lagos, two Of them predominatingly
industrial and commercial and the
third developed in recent years into
one of the best known summer resi-
dent communities in New England,
presents panorama IN which the
presence Of man is subordinate to the
great outdoors as nature created and
is ever endeavoring to reconstruct.
To be sure. prosperous farms, with
well-kept buildings and fences, en-
circle the villages, but the mountains
crowd too closely to permit any such
agricultural expansion as can be
found in the immediate vicinity Of
nearly every other large town in Yer
mont, and, while this circumstance
may be regretted, it is undoubtedly
true that 1t is material factor in the
scenic charm which appeals to every
visitor and is the loadstone which
draws back to the community hearth
stone many sons and daughters oil
Bennington who have wandered tc
distant states and to the more popui
Gus centers of civilization. Strang
ers inform us that they find much to
admire in Bennington, North Benning
ton and Old Bennington, triangle OF
communities each radically different
in its material aspect, but if they
were to go into detail in describing
their impressions, and in so doing dis
down deep into their inner conscious
nesses, they would undoubtedly tel
us that it was the mountain setting
that held Cor them the more lasting
, memory.
Bennington is an old town and II
has grown old gracefully. particularly
the village on the hill which retains
many characteristics Of colonial days
The larger village, v.aich has become
the Industrial and commercial center
of the town, has undoubtedly been in
huenced, in large measure, by the
spirit that has preserved the substan
tial and somewhat sedate atmosphere
of the original community External
: ly. that is bizarre in Bennington. II
, has its beautiful homes, many o
them. but none of them appear t.
Ifaunt the possessions of their owners
There is abundant evidence Of goot
taste, which. by the way is not con
! fined to the most pretentious, and O
desire for the enjoyment Of those
things that are beautiful and pleas
ing to the eye, but the disposition t