page_title: White River Junction, Vermont
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: White River Junction, Vermont / Culture
caption_attribution_description: White River Junction, Vermont, with its large railroad crossing at the right part of the picture.
context_page_description: White River Junction is an unincorporated village and census-designated place in the town of Hartford in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,286 at the 2010 census, making it the largest community within the town of Hartford.
  The village includes the White River Junction Historic District, a historic district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and whose boundaries were increased in 2002. The historic district reflects urban architecture of the area from the late 19th century and early 20th century. The district is bounded by the Central Vermont railroad tracks, Gates Street, and South Main Street. It includes at least 29 contributing and non-contributing buildings. Notable buildings include the Coolidge Hotel, the First National Bank building, a U.S. Post Office building, and the White River Junction Fire House, showing examples of Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, Richardsonian Romanesque, Italianate and Romanesque architecture.
context_section_description: White River Junction served as the location for the filming of director D.W. Griffith's film Way Down East, in part filmed on the ice floes of the Connecticut and White rivers, starring Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess. While filming, both cast and crew lodged at the Hotel Coolidge (then the Junction House). After 1950, important murals were painted on the walls of this hotel by Peter Gish. One of these, saying simply "ROOM WITH BATH" and a large arrow, has become a bit of a landmark. S. Douglas Crockwell painted a mural, Vermont Industries, in the post office in 1937. Federally commissioned murals were produced from 1934 to 1943 in the United States through the Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts, of the Treasury Department.
  Hotel Coolidge, renovated in 1997, now operates as a 30-room hotel and a 26-bed youth hostel by Hostelling International USA.  The 1920s structure once served as a railway hotel. The hotel is said to be haunted by the ghost of Ezra "Wrench" Magoon, a farmer and known bootlegger who died in the Hotel Coolidge in the summer of 1918.
  White River Junction is home to the Center for Cartoon Studies, a 2-year art school focusing on sequential art.
  It is also home to the Tip Top Building, a renovated 45,000-square-foot (4,200 m²) bakery that houses artists, creative businesses and a cafe. The renovation was orchestrated by Matt Bucy, a Yale-trained architect who formerly wrote software for New England Digital.
  The Main Street Museum, described by the Washington Post as "quirky and avant garde", is an eclectic display space for material culture and an experiment in a new taxonomy. It makes its home in White River Junction's former fire station on Bridge Street, next to the underpass.
  White River Junction is home to Northern Stage, a professional regional theatre. It is also home to The Writers' Center, which offers classes and workshops to the local writing community.
caption: White River Junction in 1915
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