A Brief Exploration of Middlebury Vermont

…continuing with our discoveries during our trip in August 2018.

Following lunch at The Storm Café, we decided to wander around downtown Middlebury.  I took photos and Laurie did a little shopping.

The Star Grist Mill was built in 1837 as a woolen mill, with impressive stone foundations set against the steep slope of Frog Hollow and a 2-story frame structure above.  In 1869, new owners built a grist and grain business on the lower level of the mill, with the woolen mill continuing on the upper level.  

The building was damaged by fire in 1875.  Subsequently, using the original timbers, it was rebuilt as Star Grist Mill.  Water from a branch of the huge penstock serving the Old Frog Hollow Stone Mill turned the turbines in the basement of this mill.  I noted that General Mills bought this mill in 1937 but I don’t know how long they owned and operated it.

The Mill is located a 2 Mill Street.  Current occupants include an attorney’s office, a psychoanalyst and the Riverside Natural Health Center. 

Another retailer from days gone by… Note the going out of business signs on this Ben Franklin Store.  This building at 63 Main Street was built in 1909.  The Ben Franklin Store occupied this site since 1943…serving the community for 75 years!  The owner closed the store due to declining sales.  I found a real estate listing from May of 2018 that showed that the building offered 10,366 sq. ft. of space, including 2 apartments on the second floor.  The asking price was $850,000!

  

So why did I even look at an old retail store?  At one point in my career, I was responsible for security, safety and loss prevention for stores owned by Household Merchandising, a division of Household International.  Ben Franklin was one of eight retail chains I was charged to assist and oversee. 

Ben Franklin originated in Boston in 1877 as Butler Brothers.  Butler Brothers founded Ben Franklin in 1927.  At the company’s peak, they had 2,500 owned and franchised stores nationwide. 

Notes:

·       Walmart founder Sam Walton started in retail by operating a Ben Franklin Store.  The story goes that when Ben Franklin management wouldn’t listen to Walton, he decided to start his own store…and the rest is history.

·       Sam Walton wasn’t the only major retailer who started a retail chain via a Ben Franklin Store.  In 1973, Michael J. Dupey converted a closed Ben Franklin Store in Texas to start the Michaels stores.

I threw in this photo of the Marquis Theater because there are so few small town downtown movie theaters remaining in the USA.  The Marquis Theater and the Southwest Café at 65 Main Street features current movies, food and live entertainment.  On one on-line site, I read that this used to be the Campus Theater.  Phone: 802-388-4841.  The theater’s website is at: http://www.middleburymarquis.com/.

This is the Battell Block, now known as the Battell Block Residences.  This building is located at 10 Merchants Row.  This building was constructed by Joseph Battell following a major fire in Middlebury in 1891.  Battell was the largest landowner in Vermont.  This building set a high bar for future construction in the rest of town.  It wasn’t completed until 1898.

This building is a dominant structure in the center of town.  I noted that only 1 or 2 units were available for lease.  That makes sense since the building is in the middle of Middlebury’s shopping and dining venues.  Interested?  Check out the apartments at http://www.battellblock.com/.

If you’ve been following my blog narrative about our summertime adventures, you have heard the name Battell before.  He was a publisher, conservationist, newspaper editor and author.  One of his books was the “American Morgan Horse Registry”.  He donated his horse farm to the Federal Morgan Horse Breeding Program.

Joseph Battell owned thousands of acres near Middlebury, adjacent to Bread Loaf Mountain.  On his death, the property and buildings were bequeathed to Middlebury College.  Since 1926, the college has held the Bread Loaf School of English and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences at that location…but that’s another story.

This isn’t just an impressive old bank building that has changed hands many times or is being used for another purpose.  The locally owned National Bank of Middlebury was founded in 1831 and 188 years later they’re still in business.  This ‘new” bank building at 30 Main Street was built in 1910 and it’s adjacent to the main offices of the National Bank of Middlebury.

   

There have only been 11 bank presidents in the history of this bank.  On March 3, 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the closing of all banks in the nation.  Only 12 days later, the National Bank of Middlebury was declared sound and was allowed to reopen.  It was declared to be “one of the most stable in the nation”.

This beautiful Queen Anne style 3-story red brick structure with lots of ornamentation is right next door to the previous bank building. (Note the single story tan brick at the left of the photo) This is the Beckwith Block at 22 – 26 Main Street but it’s now named after a former President of the bank, Robert Duclos.

This building is the sole survivor north of the bridge from the Middlebury fire of 1891.  With its multi-colored brick, stone and terracotta insets, windows and decorative cornice line, it was intended to impress!  Erected by Smith Beckwith in 1883, it originally served as the Beckwith and Company Mercantile.  At one point in the 1970s it was occupied by a United 5 to $1 Dime Store and a Bike and Ski Touring Center.  However, in 1996, it was purchased by the National Bank of Middlebury as its headquarters and it was connected to the bank next door.   

Sorry for the tangle of wires in the photo but that's the way it is… This attractive building is the Inn on the Green.  This Federal style house at 71 South Pleasant Street was built in 1803.  It was meticulously renovated in 1995 – 1997 in order to create this inn that overlooks the Middlebury village green and the center of town…

Over the years, this home had gone through several major style modifications.  In the 1900s the home passed through the hands of several owners…but by the 1960s it had been converted into an undistinguished apartment building.  More recently, it was abandoned and beginning to fall apart.  The current owners of the Inn on the Green purchased the building in 1995 and they restored it to its former glory.

To learn more about the Inn on the Green and its available accommodations, their website is found at: https://innonthegreen.com/.

This is one view from the stone bridge that was built in 1893 following a major fire in Middlebury that destroyed the old wooden bridge over Otter Creek.  Want to guess who built the new bridge?  The answer is Joseph Battell. (Yet another creek side dining opportunity!)

The Hollow (Frog Hollow) was originally the center of industry for Middlebury.  Beginning ca. 1794, there were forges and gunsmiths.  A nail factory opened in 1796.  In one shop, between 1821 and 1825, a young man named John Deere served his apprenticeship before moving west to Illinois.  There was marble quarrying and milling here too.  A local named Eben Judd developed a machine for sawing the marble.  In 1806 this mill operated 60 soft iron saws.  Much of the marble processed here was quarried in the Hollow and from the bed of Otter Creek above the falls.

Between 1808 and 1837, Judd’s mill sawed between 5,000 and 10,000 feet of marble slab a year.  It was made into tombstones, carrier’s tables, jambs, mantles, hearths, door caps, sills, sideboards, tables and more… When Judd died in 1837, the operation ceased.  In 1851, a wooden pail factory was opened in the Judd building.  It turned out up to 600 pails, butter tubs and other products every day. 

At the left is the Ross Block.  It was built at 64 Main Street in 1903.  In the 1970s, retailers included The Kitchen Shop and Middlebury Darkroom.  Since 1986, this retail space has been operated by Vermont’s Own Products.  Former dairy farmers decided to try something different.  They offer maple syrup, gourmet foods, chocolates and a variety of other Vermont specialties.  You can check out their selection online at https://vermontsownproducts.com/.

The second ‘new’ building in the photo has been known by several names… It’s been the Hanks Block, the Calhoun Block and the Atwood Block. (1903) As the Atwood Block, it burned down in 1909.  Subsequently rebuilt, the most recent occupant was Clay’s, billed as a Unique Women’s Clothing Store. 

Unfortunately, Clay’s closed in June of 2018 after 25 years in this location.  It had been a men’s store in the 1970s.  FYI, Clay’s is still in business with 7 stores in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  Website: https://www.claysclothing.com/.   

This big gray 3-story frame was originally built as a 2-story home in 1801.  The third floor was added and the building was remodeled in 1881, subsequently opening as the Logan House Hotel.   These days it seems to be referred to as the “Leatherworks Building”.  The upper floors provide apartments, apparently appealing to the students from Middlebury College.  As of the day I wrote this post, 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments were available.  Rent ranged from $1,000 to $1,800 a month.

The lower level houses an attorney’s office and Dan Freeman’s Leatherworks. (Hence the nickname for the building) Freeman has been making custom shoes and boots here since 1986… As per comments I read, the shoes are quite expensive but they are also excellent and comfortable footwear.  Freeman is a craftsman by all accounts.  He learned the trade in New Orleans from an old Jamaican shoemaker who taught Dan everything he knew, and he “didn’t charge Dan a penny” for the training.  I feel fortunate that Laurie didn’t spot this shop as she has an affinity for fine leather products.  In Freeman’s small retail shop, he sells top quality belts, sandals, wallets and purses.

 

Dan Freeman doesn’t have a website.  Customers come to him from all over the country.  To learn more about this craftsman and his business (with a video), go to http://www.addisonindependent.com/201007freeman-steps-shoemaking-niche.  

The Kitchel House is located at 152 College Street in Middlebury.  A Middlebury College President named Harvey Kitchel built this imposing Italianate style home in 1867.  In 1891, it was renamed Battell Hall and it served at the College’s first women’s dormitory.  Subsequently it was used as a nursing home for many years.  In 2011, Middlebury College purchased the building and restored it.  Today it serves as the home of College Communications.

   

Middlebury College was chartered in November 1800.  Its first President was Jeremiah Atwater.  Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont.  This liberal arts college has about 2,500 students from all 50 states and 74 countries.  It offers 44 different majors.  To learn more about Middlebury College, just go to http://www.middlebury.edu/#story612467.

This is Alexander Twilight Hall.  This 3-story brick structure with Italianate details was constructed in 1867 and it’s located across the street from the Kitchel House.  Over the years, this location has been occupied by a grammar school, college classrooms, college dorms…and then again as a grammar school for the Addison County School District.

   

Middlebury College purchased the building from the school district in 1984 and, after restoring it, in 1986 the College rededicated it and named it Alexander Twilight Hall.  Appropriately, Education Studies occupies a portion of the building…

So who was Alexander Lucius Twilight?  He was an educator, minister and politician.  He is the first African-American man known to have earned a bachelor’s degree from an American College or University, graduating from Middlebury College in 1823.  Twilight worked in education and ministry all his career…  He designed and built the first granite public building in the state.  He also was the first African-American elected as a state legislator, serving in the Vermont House of Representatives.  As such, he was the only African-American ever elected to a state legislature prior to the Civil War.

That’s about it for now… Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave