Enosburg Falls

BIRTHPLACE OF LARRY GARDNER
ON THE TOWN GREEN
Larry Gardner was born in the house at 14 School Street on May 13, 1886. After leading Enosburg Falls High School to the 1905 state baseball championship and starring at the University of Vermont for three seasons, Gardner joined the Boston Red Sox in 1908. One of the premier third baseman of his era, Gardner played seventeen seasons in the major leagues, participating in four World Series before retiring in 1924. In 1973 the Society for American Baseball Research chose Gardner as Vermont’s greatest baseball player.

Fairfield

CHESTER A. ARTHUR
Birthplace of 21st President
FAIRFIELD VILLAGE, ROUTE 36
Although the exact location is debated, Chester A. Arthur was born on
Oct. 5, 1829 in Fairfield. He became a New York lawyer and politician and was elected Vice-President in 1880. Upon the assassination of James Garfield, Arthur became President on Sept. 20, 1881. His administration was distinguished by the creation of the U.S. Civil Service, better relations with Central and South America, and the revival of the U.S. Navy. Arthur died Nov. 18, 1886. The State-Owned Historic Site is 5 miles northwest from here.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2003
[For more information, visit www.HistoricVermont.org/Arthur]

CHESTER A. ARTHUR
21st President of the United States
AT THE CHESTER A. ARTHUR HISTORIC SITE
Research indicates Chester Alan Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, on October 5, 1829. When he was less than a year old his parents moved to a new parsonage built at this site. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Union College, he became a lawyer championing civil rights for blacks. Later, as Quartermaster General, he organized the provision of food & supplies to Union Civil War soldiers. On September 19, 1881, Arthur became president following the assassination of James Garfield. As president he advocated reducing tariffs and backed Civil Service reform, turning away from political patronage. Arthur died in 1886 and is buried in Albany, NY. This replica of the parsonage was built in 1954.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2002
[For more information, visit www.HistoricVermont.org/Arthur]

CONSUELO NORTHROP BAILEY
1st Female Lieutenant Governor
TOWN HIGHWAY #75 IN FRONT OF THE BENT-NORTHROP LIBRARY
Born in Fairfield in 1899 at her family farm, Consuelo Northrop attended grade school in Sheldon and high school in St. Albans. In 1921 she graduated from the University of Vermont. Later she entered Boston University Law School, graduating in 1925. In 1940 she married Henry Albon Bailey. Consuelo Bailey was the “first” in many areas: first woman city prosecutor for Burlington, first woman lawyer in VT to try a murder case, first VT woman to be admitted to practice law before the U. S. Supreme Court, first woman to be elected Speaker of the VT House, and the nation’s first female to be elected lieutenant governor.

Traveling the world and representing the state were important to Consuelo Northrop Bailey but no place was more comforting than Fairfield.

“One of life’s most comforting extras is love of the land…I see here the same land which the Northrop Family knew for nearly two centuries…I feel close to the America I knew in days gone by and because I feel free here… I feel the love of those whom I have known there which today still gives me a feeling of confidence, protection and peace”.

Bailey worked tirelessly for the local and national Republican Party until her death in 1976. She bequeathed the Town of Fairfield monies to build “The Bent Northrop Memorial Library.” The library, opened in 1988, is a constant reminder of Bailey’s never ending love of Fairfield.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2005

Fair Haven

VERMONT WEST GATEWAY:
U.S ROUTE 4, N.Y. STATE LINE
Major Cross-State Route From Whitehall, founded by Philip Skene, U.S. 4 enters Rutland County, with Fair Haven famous for its quarries of unfading slate, and West Rutland-Proctor, world center of marble. Historic Castleton was rendezvous for the Green Mt. Boys, and after the Battle of Hubbardton held by Burgoyne's German Troops.

MATTHEW LYON: Fair Haven’s oldest mills built on falls by founder.
NEAR U.S. ROUTE 4 & ROUTE 22A
Matthew Lyon, Irish-born leading grantee, built grist, saw and paper mills here, 1783, and a forge above. He ran first store, inn, and newspaper. As Congressman from Vermont he was jailed under the Sedition Law and later elected from Kentucky and Arkansas.

1st SLATE QUARRY IN WESTERN VERMONT
SCOTCH HILL ROAD
This area of Vermont is known for its high quality slate; the first quarry was opened on Scotch Hill in 1839 by Alonson Allen & Caleb Ranney. Allen began the first manufacture of roofing slate in Vermont in 1848. By 1869 there were seventeen quarries in Fair haven of which eleven were on Scotch Hill. Quarrying of slate was important to the economy of the area and brought in many skilled Welsh immigrants who were familiar with the quarrying of slate in their native Wales.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 1997

Fairlee

SAMUEL MOREY Pioneer Inventor of Steam and Gas Engines lived here.
U.S. ROUTE 5, IN VILLAGE
Samuel Morey, resident of Orford and later Fairlee, successfully operated a steamboat on the Conn. River in 1793. Making over 4,000 experiments, this early scientist patented an internal combustion engine in 1826 to anticipate the age of the motor car and airplane.

NATHANIEL NILES, 1741 – 1828
WEST FAIRLEE CENTER, AT THE INTERSECTION OF MIDDLEBROOK ROAD AND BEAR NOTCH ROAD
Revolutionary War patriot and author of the popular ode "The American Hero," written in celebration of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Nathaniel Niles was an original settler of Fairlee, then founder of West Fairlee, and first minister of this church.  He came to Fairlee soon after the Revolution from Norwich, Connecticut, where he was active in politics, manufacturing and religion.  During a public career that spanned three decades in Vermont, Niles served on the state Supreme Court, as Speaker of the state House of Representatives, as a trustee of Dartmouth College, and as one of Vermont's first two Congressmen.  A staunch Jeffersonian Democrat, he led his party in Vermont and also published frequent articles on religious topics. Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2007

Ferrisburgh

‘ROKEBY’: Home of Rowland E. Robinson, Writer of Vermont Folklore
U.S. ROUTE 7, NEAR VILLAGE
Here in 1833, Rowland E. Robinson was born of Quaker parentage. He became a popular illustrator and interpreter of nature and Yankee dialect. ‘Rokeby’ was a station on the Underground R.R. Here are the blind author’s memorabilia. Open to the public during summer.

The Great Convention
U.S. ROUTE 7, NEAR THE WESLEYAN CHAPEL
Frederick Douglass delivered a fiery abolitionist speech here in July 1843. Born in slavery in Maryland, Douglass freed himself by escaping to the north, where he became a tireless crusader for African American freedom and equality. He was among the greatest orators and black leaders of the 19th century. The Ferrisburgh meeting, organized by local activist Rowland T. Robinson, was one of the "100 Conventions" sponsored by the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2002.

Grand Isle

HYDE LOG CABIN
U.S. ROUTE 2, NEAR SCHOOLHOUSE
Built circa 1783. This pioneer log cabin was one of the first buildings constructed in the area. Built from cedar logs by Jedediah Hyde, Jr., an engineer and veteran of the Revolutionary War, it was the home of the Hyde family for over 150 years. The cabin has one large room, heated by a stone fireplace, and a loft above. Many believe this to be the oldest log cabin in the United States. The cabin was moved two miles to this location in 1946 by the Vermont Historical Society and restored in 1956 and 1985. The Grand Isle Historical Society owns the collection in the building. Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2001.
[For more information, visit www.HistoricVermont.org/Hyde]

Guildhall

U.S. ROUTE 2 TO LANCASTER, N.H.
Vermont Major Cross-State Route U.S. 2 is the major highway between the Atlantic and Lake Champlain. It leads through St. Johnsbury, the maple sugar center, down the Winooski River to Montpelier, through the tallest mountains of Bolton Gorge to Lake Champlain at Burlington, University center and the state’s largest city.

Guilford

VERMONT SOUTHEAST GATEWAY:
U.S. ROUTE 5, NEAR MASS. STATE LINE
Connecticut Valley Route On this former wilderness trail to Canada, the pioneers built old Fort Dummer in 1724 below Brattleboro, then the frontier’s most advanced outpost. Guilford, then the largest town in Vermont, was the scene of bitter strife between the ‘Yorkers’ and the Green Mountain Boys led by Ethan Allen.

ROYALL TYLER: Early American Playwright
GUILFORD CENTER ROAD, AT THE HISTORICAL MUSEUM
Boston-born Royall Tyler’s play, ‘The Contrast’ was the first American drama to be performed in this country (1787) and his novel, ‘The Algerine Captive’ presented the first Yankee types in our literature. He came to Guilford in 1791 and was Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court for 9 Years.

Hartford

VERMONT-NH GATEWAY:
U.S. ROUTE 4, WEST OF WHITE RIVER JCT.
Gateway to Green Mt. State White River Junction, a natural transportation center, is where highways, rivers and railways converge. In 1759 the rapids at the confluence of the White and Conn. Rivers nearly brought death to Robert Rogers and 3 Rangers. Vermont’s first train ran from the Junction to Bethel in 1848.

THERON BOYD HOUSE
HILLSIDE ROAD

This Federal style house, built in 1786, has undergone little alteration and is one the finest houses from this period in Vermont. It was built by William Burtch, whose father came to Hartford, VT, from Stonington, CT about 1766. Burtch eventually owned some 500 acres. The brick ell, constructed circa 1830 for James Udall, was originally 2-stories; a lightning strike in 1936 burned most of the second story. Theron Boyd, who acquired title to the house and 30 acres from his grandmother, preserved the property and become a ‘Vermont folk hero’ by resisting the mounting pressures of real estate development in Vermont.

Original architectural features of the 1786 main block include 12 light over 12 light sash; a Connecticut River Valley style double leaf frontispiece and multiple panel secondary doors; split pine clapboards, with feathered end joints, retain traces of original ochre paint and are affixed by wrought butterfly head nails; a double denticulated cornice with traces of original white paint; and a massive centrally located brick chimney for fireplaces. The 1830 period brick ell is laid in a common bond pattern with a row of header bricks in the tenth course. The tall brick chimney is for the summer kitchen and the three arched bays for carriages.

Highgate

VERMONT NORTH GATEWAY
U.S. ROUTE 7, AT VERMONT-CANADA LINE
Entering Champlain Valley On the Missisquoi, the legendary sailor-explorer John Graye died in 1564. Here was the old Abenaki Indian village from which the feared Gray Lock swept southward to harass the white settlers. On the shore Roger’s Rangers landed in 1759, and in these waters smugglers were active, 1808-14.

SAXE'S MILLS
INTERSECTION OF ST. ARMAND ROAD (TH #7) AND BALLARD ROAD (TH #10)
Here in 1786 John Saxe, (Johannes Sachse) a Loyalist from Rhinebeck, N.Y, built the area's first gristmill. His sons added a sawmill, potashery, general store, post office, and tavern. They incorporated the town of Highgate in this house 1805, and served in numerous offices; Matthew as Highgate's first elected Town Clerk, Conrad as Captain of the militia during the War of 1812, and Peter as member of the Vermont General Assembly and Franklin County Judge.   Peter's son, John Godfrey Saxe, born here in 1816, ran twice for Governor but is best remembered for his poetry.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2006

Hubbardton

BATTLE OF HUBBARDTON:
OFF U.S. ROUTE 4, NORTH TO E. HUBBARDTON
Only Battlefield on Vermont Soil, July 7, 1777 Here, a successful rear-guard action by Col. Seth Warner’s Vermont, Mass., and NH troops ended British pursuit under Gens. Frazer and Reidesel. Thus, Gen. St. Clair’s American Army safely retreated from Fts. Ticonderoga and Independence to fight again near Bennington and Saratoga. Burgoyne’s plans for British advance, first resisted at Hubbardton, ended in defeat at Saratoga.
[For more information, visit www.HistoricVermont.org/Hubbardton]

Island Pond

ISLAND POND
IN VILLAGE, NEAR RAILROAD STATION
Pioneer Railroad Planner John A. Poor’s dream of an International Railway connecting Montreal, Canada with the Ice-free harbor of Portland, Maine became a reality on July 18, 1853, when the first through trains met at this great halfway point on the Grand Trunk Railway.

Isle LaMotte

SITE OF FRENCH FORT STE. ANNE:
ON WEST SHORE ROAD
Vermont’s Oldest Settlement Was the site of Fort Ste. Anne built in 1666 by Capt. Pierre LaMotte for defense against the Mohawks. Jesuits celebrated the first Mass and erected the first chapel. Though not permanent, this stockade was Vermont’s 1st white settlement.

Isle LaMotte

Theodore Roosevelt's Visit to Isle LaMotte
3849 WEST SHORE ROAD
On this site on September 6, 1901, Vice President Teddy Roosevelt was a guest at the home of Lieut. Gov. Nelson Fisk to be the main speaker at the annual meeting of the Vermont Fish and Game League. Here Roosevelt learned that President McKinley had been shot in Buffalo, NY. McKinley died eight days later and Roosevelt became the 26th US President.

Jericho

"SNOWFLAKE" BENTLEY
Jericho’s World-Famous Snowflake Authority
ROUTE 15, IN VILLAGE
For fifty years Wilson A. Bentley, a farmer and self taught scientist, developed his technique of photomicrography to reveal to the world the grandeur and mystery of the snowflake — its universal hexagonal shape and its infinite number of lovely designs.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2003
[For more information, visit the Snowflake Bentley Museum]

CHITTENDEN MILLS
OLD RED MILL DRIVE
Named for Thomas Chittenden, first governor of Vermont and great-great grandfather of Frank Howe. Frank and his father Lucian rebuilt this mill in 1885 changing from grinding with mill stones to the new gradual reduction roller process. Grain was shipped in on the B&L Railroad from the mid-west and the flour sold over a wide area of northern Vermont. The four Tyler turbines were powered by the Brown’s River. The miller’s house was built in 1859. Until 1929 a Towne Lattice Truss covered bridge spanned the gorge on the site of the present footbridge.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 1997

Johnson

JULIAN SCOTT, 1846 -1901
ROUTE 15 WEST END OF VILLAGE
Julian Scott, Vermont’s most renowned Civil War artist, was born in this Johnson house in 1846. At the start of the Civil War, when only 15, he enlisted as a fifer in the Third Vermont Regiment. Scott was awarded a Medal of Honor for rescuing wounded under enemy fire at the Battle of Lee’s Mills, Virginia. He later studied art under Emanuel Leutze at the National Academy of Design in New York and in1870 was elected an associate member of the Academy. The Battle of Cedar Creek, his monumental 1874 painting, was commissioned as a Civil War memorial for the Vermont State House. Scott’s Civil War and Native American paintings are acclaimed for their authenticity, detail, and democratic viewpoint. He died in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1901.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 1998

Ludlow

ABBY MARIA HEMENWAY
HIGH STREET
Born in Ludlow in 1828, and educated at Black River Academy, Abby Maria Hemenway was the editor of the Vermont Historical Gazetter, a five volume compilation of local history, published between 1860 and 1891. For thirty years, Hemenway managed her own publishing empire, collecting, editing, and printing the history of every town in her state, an achievement matched by no one else in the United States. Floods, fires, and chronic indebtedness delayed the work, but in the end the town histories of every Vermont county but Windsor were published. Hemenway never married, and in 1864 joined the Roman Catholic Church. She died in poverty in Chicago in 1890, having continued working to the very end.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2002

Lyndon

THEODORE N. VAIL
CAMPUS OF LYNDON STATE COLLEGE
Pioneer in Creating the telephone industry bought a farmhouse on this site in 1883. Continually enlarged by Vail, it became his permanent residence and office. Conferences held here culminated in the creation of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company with Vail its president, who proceeded to develop the world’s first mass communication system. Manchester ON GROUNDS OF ESTATE LINCOLN’S ‘HILDENE’: Summer Home of Son of Civil War President Eastward on the hillside can be seen the Manchester estate of Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of President and Mary Lincoln. He became fond of Vermont and for over twenty years made this his summer home. He died here July 25, 1926.

Manchester

SOUTHERN VERMONT ARTS CENTER
ON WEST ROAD AT THE SOUTHERN VERMONT ARTS CENTER
Begun in the 1920s as an informal artists' group for the exhibition of
painting and sculpture, the Southern Vermont Arts Center has grown to
become a leading Vermont institution devoted to performance, exhibition
and studio art. It acquired the current site, the former Gertrude
Divine Webster estate, in 1950. By 2000 a music pavilion, studios and
museum expanded its role in the local and regional community. Hundreds
of artists show and perform annually, and thousands attend programs,
continuing the traditional search for creativity in the inspiring hills
and small villages of southern Vermont.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2002

Mendon

MT. KILLINGTON STATE’S SECOND HIGHEST PEAK
SCENE OF CHRISTENING LEGEND
Southward appears the summit of Mt. Killington, once called Pisgah, on which Rev. Samuel Peters claimed he christened the wilderness with the name ‘Verd-mont’ in 1763. Most historians give credit to Dr. Thomas Young’s letter ‘to the inhabitants of Vermont,’ sent to Windsor in 1777.

JOHN VINCENT
US ROUTE 4 NEAR CREAM HILL ROAD
Near this location lived "Captain John" Vincent, a member of the
Caughnawaga tribe. An admirer of General George Washington, Captain
John became a firm friend of the Colonies. He accompanied Benedict
Arnold and Richard Montgomery to guide American troops from Cambridge,
Massachusetts, to Quebec for the siege on Quebec in 1776. He fought with General Gates at the Battle of Saratoga, where Burgoyne surrendered his British forces. After the Revolutionary War he settled in Mendon. Captain John died on July 3, 1810, at the home of Johnson Richardson, site of the first public house in Mendon, Vermont.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2003

Middlebury

EMMA WILLARD
U.S. ROUTE 7, ON THE COMMON
Pioneer Educator gave Women 1st College Training Here. Emma Hart came to Middlebury in 1807 to take charge of the Femal Academy. After her marriage to Dr. John Willard, the town’s first physician, she gave the earliest collegiate instruction for women in America at a Seminary in her home, during the years 1814-1819.

JOHN DEERE
CANNON PARK
Inventor of the plow that broke the plains John Deere learned the blacksmith trade here as an apprentice in the shop of Capt. Benjamin Lawrence from 1821 to 1825. The shop was located below this spot on Mill Street, in what is known as ‘Frog Hollow’. In 1836 Deere removed to Grand Detour, Illinois where, in 1837, he built the world’s first steel moldboard plow.

BIRTHPLACE OF RAY FISHER
JUNCTION OF ROUTE 7 AND CREEK ROAD
Born in Middlebury on October 4, 1887, Ray Lyle Fisher grew up on farms along Otter Creek and Creek Road. Ray starred in baseball and football at Middlebury High School and Middlebury College before joining the New York Yankees in 1910. He pitched in the major leagues for ten seasons, compiling a 100-94 record and 2.82 ERA. In 1921 Fisher became baseball coach at the University of Michigan, where he coached for 38 seasons and won 15 Big Ten championships. He spent his summers at a camp on Lake Champlain and coached in Vermont’s Northern League. Ray died at the age of 95 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2002.

Middletown Springs

W. GRAY & SONS
ROUTE 133 A.
Near this site Albert W. Gray manufactured his horse power treadmills, which he invented and patented in 1844 and 1856. He also invented a corn sheller, patented in 1836, and a machine for making wrought iron nails. For over 50 years the shop, under the management of A. W. and his sons, Leonidas and Albert Y., employed some 60 workers to produce treadmills, threshers, woodsaws, ensilage cutters and gasoline engines that were sold all over the world. In 1868 A. W. Gray rediscovered Middletown’s mineral springs, which had been lost after the flood of 1811, inspiring a change in the town’s name to Middletown Springs in 1885. The Grays bottled and sold the waters, helped finance construction of the Montvert Hotel resort in 1871, and built their own fashionable homes nearby.

Montpelier

MONTPELIER RECREATION FIELD
ROUTE 12 NORTH
Built in 1940 by the Federal Works Projects Administration and home to the Northern League for the Montpelier Senators and the Twin City Trojans from 1941-1952. Many future Major League baseball players played on this historic field. The biggest star, pitcher Robin Roberts, called this his home field for two seasons. In 1946 he threw a no-hitter and in 1947 the Trojans won the pennant as he compiled an 18-3 record. Robin went on to win 286 Major League games playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, and the Chicago Cubs. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2003.

STATE HOUSE
STATE STREET
Montpelier became the Capital in 1808, when the first State House was built. Ammi B. Young’s 2nd State House, built in 1838 and destroyed by fire in 1857, was similar to this 3rd structure on the site, completed in 1859.

D.P. THOMPSON
U.S. ROUTE 302, MONTPELIER-BARRE ROAD
Author of ‘Green Mountain Boys’ lived on this site. One of the first and most popular of the early American historical novelists was the lawyer, editor, and politician, Daniel Pierce Thompson. His stories of frontier adventure and pioneer heroes of Vermont ran into edition after edition and are still read throughout the country.