Newbury

JACOB BAYLEY
U.S. ROUTE 5, ON THE COMMON
Founder of Newbury and Revolutionary General Veteran of the Indian Wars, Bayley led a migration of settlers from Newbury Mass. to the rich land of the Coos, here at the Great Ox-Bow. A staunch patriot, he bitterly opposed the ‘Haldimand Negotiations’ carried on with Canada by Ethan & Ira Allen during the Revolution.

Northfield

NORWICH UNIVERSITY
NORWICH UNIVERSITY
The Nation’s Oldest Private Military College Founded by Captain Alden Partridge in 1819 as the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy at Norwich, Vermont, Norwich University was relocated to Northfield, Vermont in 1866. Partridge’s innovative curriculum combined military, practical, scientific and liberal instruction. Guided by his educational principles, Norwich University pioneered in offering civil engineering, physical education and experiential learning and was one of the first institutions to offer instruction in agriculture, modern languages and political-economy. The Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 and the 1916 legislation which created the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps are extensions of Partridge’s theories of education.

Norwich

THETA CHI FRATERNITY
U.S. ROUTE. 5 NEAR ST. BARNABAS ESPICOPAL CHURCH
Near this spot stood the Old South Barracks of Norwich University where, at 9:00 pm on April 10, 1856, Theta Chi Fraternity was founded by Frederick Norton Freeman and Arthur Chase.

ALDEN PARTRIDGE, 1784-1854
ON THE GREEN IN FRONT OF BANDSTAND
A native of Norwich, Vermont, Alden Partridge was a pioneer in American military education. Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1815 to 1817, he returned here in 1819 to found the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy, which, in 1834, became Norwich University, now located in Northfield, VT. Partridge’s innovative curriculum, called the ‘American System of Education’, combined military, practical, scientific and liberal instruction. The educational system established here served as a model for eighteen military academies and colleges founded throughout the United States. The Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 and the 1916 legislation which created the Reserve Officers Training Corps are extension of Partridge’s theories of education.

FIRST PUBLIC GRAMMAR SCHOOL
U.S. ROUTE 5, IN THE VILLAGE ON THE LAWN NEAR THE CONGRESSIONAL CHURCH
Located on this site. On June 17, 1785, the Vermont General Assembly enacted a law which designated "the place for keeping a County Grammar School in and for Windsor County, shall be at the house commonly known by the name the Red Schoolhouse in Norwich," thus initiating the provision of Vermont’s First Constitution for schools of secondary learning.

EARLY SETTLERS & ALLEN R. FOLEY
U.S. ROUTE 10A EAST, NEAR LEDYARD BRIDGE
Site of a log hut where the Hutchinson and Messenger Families were the first to winter in Norwich in 1765. Erected by the Norwich Historical Society in memory of Professor Allen Rich Foley, Vermont Legislator and Historian 1898-1978.

Orwell

MT. INDEPENDENCE MILITARY ROAD
ROUTE 22A, SOUTH VILLAGE
Route to Hubbardton, 1777 After Ethan Allen seized Fort Ticonderoga, the Americans built Fort Mt. Independence, northwest from here on the Lake. Following Burgoyne’s invasion, Gen. St. Clair evacuated the Forts, retreating across these hills to Hubbardton.

Peacham

CALEDONIA COUNTY GRAMMAR SCHOOL
ON THE BAYLEY-HAZEN ROAD, AT ITS INTERSECTION WITH CHURCH STREET & CEMETERY ROAD, IN PEACHAM CORNER
Caledonia County was set out from Orange County in 1792. Peacham chose to provide a County grammar school rather than a courthouse. The Caledonia County Grammar School (Peacham Academy) was chartered in 1795, the third County grammar school in Vermont. Classes commenced in 1797. Thaddeus Stevens, abolitionist and Pennsylvania Representative to the US Congress, and George B.M. Harvey, Ambassador to Great Britain, were among the notable persons educated here. Over 3000 students from Peacham and other towns, states and countries attended Peacham Academy. The school closed in 1971. The Academy building burned in 1976. Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2005

Pittsford

HAMMOND COVERED BRIDGE
WEST OFF U.S. ROUTE 7, ROAD TO FLORENCE
One of four covered bridges in the town of Pittsford, this 139’ Town lattice truss bridge was built in 1842 by Asa Nourse. During the 1927 Flood the bridge floated off its abutments and ended up intact in a field about one and a half miles downstream. After the uaters subsided it was towed back upstream and raised upon its old abutments.

THE VERMONT SANATORIUM
AT THE ENTRANCE TO 317 ACADEMY ROAD
The Colonial revival building, designed by Scopes & Feustmann of Saranac Lake, Ny, was constructed and endowed by Redfield Proctor and his family as a private pay institution for the treatment of Tuberculosis. Completed in 1907, the center building was for Administration with an infirmary, staff quarters, and public areas. To the southwest connected by a glass enclosed loggia, was the West Cottage for men. To the southeast, also connected by a glass enclosed loggia, was the East Cottage for women. A northwest wing for additional patients was added in 1930.
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Early 20th century treatment for Tuberculosis was bed rest, fresh air, outdoor sleeping, a good diet, sunshine and ultra-violet lamps. Some patients had surgical procedures. The building capacity was 44 patients but often housed more. In 1921 the Board of Trustees donated the Sanatorium, its endowment and all property to the State of Vermont. Medical Directors of the Sanatorium were: Dr. H.D. Chadwick 1907-13; Dr. Edw. J. Rogers 1913-47; Dr. Louis Benson 1947-1966. The Sanatorium closed in 1966 and the building reopened in 1971 as the Vermont Police Academy.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2007


Plymouth

CALVIN COOLIDGE 1872-1933
OFF ROUTE 100-A, AT PLYMOUTH NOTCH
Born July 4, 1872, in a house back of store, Calvin Coolidge from 4 years of age lived in the Homestead across the road, now owned by the State of Vermont. Here on Aug. 3, 1923, he was inaugurated President and here he spent many vacations. In the Notch Cemetery he rests beside his wife and son and 4 generations of forebears.

Poultney

POULTNEY VILLAGE
Horace Greeley, George Jones Noted journalists served apprenticeship near here. At the original settlement in East Poultney. Horace Greeley founder of the New York Tribune, worked on the Northern Spectator, 1826-1830. George Jones, co-founder of the N.Y. Times, also came from here.

Pownal

VERMONT SOUTHWEST GATEWAY
U.S. ROUTE 7, AT MASS. STATE LINE
US. ROUTE 7 follows Historic Route
Pownal was the site of one of the state’s oldest white settlements when Dutch settlers lived here for a short time after 1724. Up this valley came the pioneers from Connecticut, including Ethan Allen, who let the dauntless Green Mountain Boys, and Thomas Chittenden, the first Governor of Vermont.

TWO PRESIDENTS TAUGHT HERE
ON ROUTE 346
Here two Presidents taught school at the beginning of their careers. Chester A. Arthur, a graduate of Union College, educated Pownal youth in 1851. Later while an undergraduate at Williams College, James A. Garfield did likewise. When Garfield was assassinated in 1881, Arthur succeeded him as President.

Proctor

OTTER CREEK
4 MAIN STREET
Otter Creek was a passageway for Native Americans traveling across what is now Vermont from the Connecticut River to Lake Champlain. They called the falls here “The Great Falls” which at 123’ are the highest in Vermont. John Sutherland, the first settler in Proctor, came in 1767 and built his mill at the falls and his house on the SW bank. The foundation still exists in the house now standing. There were three wooden covered bridges: 1794, 1811, & 1839. The Marble Arch Bridge replaced the last in 1915 and was given as a memorial to Fletcher D. Proctor by his mother Emily Dutton Proctor. It was restored in 2002.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2007

VERMONT MARBLE COMPANY
The largest marble company in the world
52 MAIN STREET
The earliest marble was quarried by the Humphrey brothers in 1836. They were followed by successive marble companies. In 1870 Redfield Proctor took over in receivership and brought the Vermont Marble Company to world prominence. Building contracts and work done in the Proctor shops include the US Supreme Court, Jefferson Memorial and the rotunda columns in the National Gallery of Art. The Company employee program established the first Industrial Nurses in 1895. Between 1890-1915 workers came from 23 countries and lived in many boarding houses and later in houses rented from the Company. Nationalities had social groups and aid societies.  There were two Lutheran Churches, one Roman Catholic, one Greek Catholic and the Union Protestant Church.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2007

Putney

FAMILY HOME OF JOHN HUMPHREY NOYES 1822-1847
KIMBALL HILL
Eldest son of a Putney family, John Noyes (1811-1886) became deeply religious after a revival meeting in 1831. Convinced that Christ's Second Coming had occurred in 70 A.D. and that all people could now be free of sin, he became a "Perfectionist." Under Noyes' leadership, a small group of followers came together as the Putney Perfectionists. They lived communally, practiced "Bible Communism", ran a press and published a paper called "The Witness". When they extended the sharing of their financial resources and labor to the sharing of themselves in "Complex Marriage", villagers pressured them to leave. Fearing legal action, they left Putney for Oneida, New York, in 1848. There in the Oneida Community they practiced their beliefs for the next 32 years.

Randolph

HOME OF JUSTIN MORGAN
RANDOLPH CENTER, ON THE GREEN
In 1791, Schoolmaster Justin Morgan brought into Vermont the colt that was to bear his name and to make them both famous. This Morgan horse which Justin Morgan took as payment of a debt, became the ancestor of one of the greatest breeds of horses ever established in America.

RANDOLPH STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, 1867-1911
RANDOLPH CENTER
Near this site stood the first Public School in Vermont for special training of teachers. It burned in 1893; rebuilt at a cost of $12,000 in 1894. Many of the 1623 graduates had long and distinguished careers in the educational professions. Four Principals served: Edward W. Conant, ‘Father of Vermont Normal Schools’, Abel E. Leavenworth, Andrew W. Edson, and Charles H. Morrill. Presented by the R.S.N.S. Alumni Assoc. Erected by the Board of Historic Sites. Dedicated in August. A.D. 1965.

Reading

INDIAN STONES
ROUTE 106
Commemorate event in early history of Vermont. Captured by Abnakis for ransom at Fort No. 4, Johnson Family, Miriam Willard, Peter Labaree, and Ebenezer Farnsworth camped here 30 August 1754 enroute to Montreal. The next day a daughter was born to Mrs. Johnson in a shelter made by the Indians about one-half mile up Knapp Brook. Enduring many hardships the party went on with their captors to Montreal where the captives were turned over to the French for ransom or sold. After six years the Johnson Family was, by various means, reunited in Charlestown. The other captives had been freed as well. Designated an Historic Site on the National Register - 1974. Reading Bicentennial Committee

Richmond

EDMUND’S BIRTHPLACE
U.S. ROUTE 2, EAST OF VILLAGE
Site of Homestead of Lawyer and Statesman George F. Edmunds, one of this nation’s foremost legislators, was born on this farm, Feb. 1, 1828. After serving at Montpelier as Speaker, he represented Vermont in Washington as Senator for 25 years and presided over the Senate when Arthur was President.

HUNTINGTON GORGE
HUNTINGTON GORGE
Site of Richmond’s first grist mill, electric generating plant By 1802, John Preston had built a grist mill here at Richmond’s best water-power site. It was operated continuously for a century, last of all by the Robinson family. The Richmond Light and Power Co. converted the mill in 1903 to generate the village’s first electricity. Other 19th-Century mills here included cider, wool carding and cloth dressing, woodturning, and underclothing. Deaths at the Huntington Gorge: Eighteen people drowned here between 1950 and 1994. Most were swimmers caught by treacherous and deceptive currents that pulled them over the falls or sucked them down to the bottom of pools. Among those who drowned: Marjorie, age 21, 1950; Michael, age 21, 1976; William, 16, 1961; Carol, 21, 1976; Brian, 20, 1969; Charles, 24, 1976; Robert, 19, 1969; Carathray, 24, 1976; Daniel, 19, 1969; Scott, 18, 1985; Robert, 21, 1971; Kevin, 21, 1992; Robert, 25, 1972; Gary, 35, 1992; Dennis, 19, 1973; Cathy, 36, 1994; Rosemary, 22, 1975; Peter, 32, 1994

THE ROUND CHURCH
BRIDGE STREET, RICHMOND

This 16-sided church, Richmond's first meeting house, was built by a group led by William Rhodes in 1812-13 on land donated by Issac Gleason & Thomas Whitcomb.

The first Proprietors were members of five denominations: Baptist, Christian, Congregational, Methodist, & Universalist.

Richmond Town Meetings were held here for 160 years, until 1973, when it was closed due to structural problems and for restoration.

Maintained by the Richmond Historical Society, and staffed by volunteers, this National Historic Landmark is used for tours, meetings, ecumenical services, weddings, and concerts.

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RICHMOND, VERMONT

Richmond sits along a natural east-west corridor, the Winooski River. The Abenaki used this corridor for 10,000 to 12,000 years. Archaeologists have established a fall hunting site used around 1500 AD at the mouth of the Huntington River.

Richmond was created by an Act of the Vermont Legislature on October 27, 1794 from parts of the towns of New Huntington, Williston & Jericho. A small section of Bolton was annexed on October 25, 1804. The first businesses in town were located near this church. Richmond was also a stopping point for early travelers on the Winooski Turnpike (US Route 2) between Burlington and Montpelier. After the railroad was completed in 1849, the town center shifted to the north.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2003

Ripton

Robert Frost, 1874-1963
ON ROUTE 125, THREE MILES EAST OF RIPTON VILLAGE
A distinguished American Poet by recognition and a Vermonter by preference, Robert Frost was Poet Laureate of Vermont and for many years ‘First Citizen’ of the Town of Ripton. He was long associated with the Middlebury College School of English and its Writers’ Conference.

‘Breathes there are a bard who isn’t moved
When he finds his verse is understood
And not entirely disapproved
By his Country and his Neighborhood?’
- Robert Frost

Rockingham

ROCKINGHAM MEETING HOUSE
ROUTE 103 IN VILLAGE
Built in 1787, the second on this site, this simple but beautifully proportioned structure served the town as a house of public worship and town meetings for nearly a century. The church was restored in 1907, with its old box pews, high pulpit, and sounding board.

Royalton

JOSEPH SMITH MONUMENT
ROUTE 14, EAST OF VILLAGE
Mormon Prophet’s Birthplace Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was born near here on December 23, 1805. A visitor's center and a 38 1/2 foot tall monument, considered the world's largest polished granite shaft, commemorates his life and is located at the birthplace 2 1/2 miles up Dairy Hill Road. The site is open year round.

THE ROYALTON RAID
ROUTE 14 IN VILLAGE
October 16, 1780 To terrorize the valley from Tunbridge to Royalton, nearly 300 Indians led by a British officer fell on these defenseless frontier settlements, killing 4, taking 26 prisoners and reducing Royalton to ashes. The captives hauled back to Canada were sold for $8.00 a head. This was the most calamitous of Vermont’s many Indian raids.

JESSIE LaFOUNTAIN BIGWOOD
First Woman Admitted to the Bar
VERMONT LAW SCHOOL CAMPUS
Born in 1874, Jessie LaFountain attended Burlington Business College and worked as a government reporter at Fort Ethan Allen in Colchester/Essex, Vermont. In 1898 she married Frederick H. Bigwood and shortly thereafter entered the office of V. A. Bullard, a Burlington attorney. In 1900 she took a special law course at Boston University and, after completing the Vermont Bar examination, was successfully admitted in October 1902. It would be 10 more years before another woman was admitted to the VT Bar and 18 years before the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. Mrs. Bigwood died in 1953.

Rupert

LT. COL. ROBERT COCHRAN
WEST OF VILLAGE
Revolutionary hero settle here, condemned to death by the N.Y. Assembly, Col. Cochran fought the Yorkers for Vermont Land Grants. Joining the Green Mountain Boys, he was with Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga and Seth Warner at Crown Point. Later he commanded Continental forces in the Mohawk Valley Campaigns and undertook dangerous espionage duties in Canada for the American cause.

HARMON’S MINT
ROUTE 30, WEST OF VILLAGE
On the site at Hagar Brook stood the small clapboarded mint-house in which Reuben Harmon, Jr. coined copper for the Republic of Vermont, 1785-1788. When the Federal government was instituted in 1789, Vermont abandoned minting. These rare coins of the Republic of Vermont (known as the Harmon Cent) may be seen in museums today.

Rutland

OLD STATE HOUSE
WEST STREET, NEAR ARMORY
When Rutland became the shire town in 1784, the old gambrel roofed tavern on this site served as Court House and State House for the Legislatures of 1784 and 1786 and the first session of the U.S. District Court of 1791. Nearby stood a whipping post, log jail, and stocks.

MARTIN HENRY FREEMAN, 1826-1889
46 NORTH MAIN STREET
Martin Freeman, born in Rutland, became the first black college president in the United States and was a member of the second East Parish Congregational Church which stood on this site. He was prepared by Pastor William Mitchell for Middlebury College, graduating in 1849 as salutatorian. In 1850 Freeman was appointed professor at Allegheny Institute (later Avery College) near Pittsburgh, PA. Here he gained renown in the fields of science and mathematics. In 1856 Freeman advanced to the office of college president, the first black in the country to achieve this position. Freeman became active in the American emigration movement and moved his family to Africa in 1864. For many years he was professor at Liberia College and became its president shortly before his death in 1889. Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 1998

MEAD’S FALLS
ROUTE 4 CENTER RUTLAND
James Mead, Rutland’s first settler, arrived at these falls on the Otter Creek in 1769. The next year he and his family were given shelter by members of the Caughnawaga tribe while they finished their log cabin. Mead built saw and grist mills on the falls and ran a ferry on the Otter Creek. He was an ardent defender of the New Hampshire Grants and served as a colonel in the militia. Mead’s Falls was an important military site: the 1759 Crown Point Military Road ran by here, General Arthur St. Clair wrote his report after the Battle of Hubbardton in 1777 at Mead’s home on the West Proctor Road, and Fort Ranger was built in 1778 on the bluff northeast of the falls. Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 1999

JULIA C. R. DORR
GRACE CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, COURT STREET
1825-1913 Julia Dorr, who lived in Rutland during childhood and from 1857 until her death, was one of Vermont's most famous and best loved poets. She published hundreds of popular poems, sonnets, and prose works, which reflect a keen sense of observation and love of nature and history. Guests at her Dorr Drive home included Ralph Waldo Emerson and others of the famed "Concord Group". She was a member of the influential Ripley family and wife of Judge Seneca M. Dorr. Active in community affairs, Mrs. Dorr led the Fortnightly, woman's cultural group of the congregational Church, for 33 years. She was a founder and president of the Rutland Free Library. Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 1999

Ryegate

JAMES WHITEHILL STONE HOUSE 1808
78 STONE HOUSE ROAD
In the style of a Scottish stone croft (farmhouse), this house was erected by James Whitehill, a prosperous farmer and one of a large number of immigrants from Inchinnan Parish, Scotland, who settled Ryegate under the sponsorship of the Scotch American Company of Farmers. He purchased 600 acres, known as the Witherspoon Tract, from James Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who owned the entire township. Whitehill was a founder of the Ryegate Reformed Presbyterian Church. This is one of the oldest surviving houses in Ryegate and was the first library in town. The house and surrounding acreage is still owned by the Whitehill family. Vermont Division for Historic Preservation - 2007