USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > St Johnsbury > 150th anniversary of the founding of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, 1937 > Part 6
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When the Museum was completed it ranked as the best equipped in the State; it still holds that rank today. A dedicatory prediction that the Museum would attract students from all sections and become the center of scientific study, has been carried out to the fullest extent. From the lowest grades to those fitting the student for college, periodical classes at the Museum are looked forward to with great anticipation.
Vermonters who are interested in all good learning and all institutions that promote it, give congratulations on the establishment and continuance of this one, of which our state has reason to be proud, and from which we may expect great and lasting benefits to the interests of education, science and religion among our people.
The building has nearly ten thousand square feet of floor space. And while many of its smaller collections already have been noted, there are many larger ones. They include large numbers of quadrumana headed by the bison and the moose, minerals, ores, gems and crystals to the number of several thousand, and the ethnological exhibit of implements of war or domestic life from all parts of the world.
In connection with the Museum, the United States weather bureau maintains a station there. Its rain cups and thermometers of various descrip-
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In festive mood. St. Johns- bury has entertained many large conventions in recent years. Upon these occasions the town bedecks her build- ings with gay decorations as a welcoming gesture and one of genuine community spirit.
ST. JOHNSBURY ATHENAEUM
A present circulation of more than 90,000 volumes attests the popularity of St. Johnsbury's library, another Fairbanks be- nevolence. The art gallery was added two years after the library was completed in 1871. The Fairbanks family wisely made a public library, in a sense, their mausoleum.
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The Armory, home of Company D of the Vermont National Guard.
The Post Office, a modern structure of beautiful, yet simple design.
The St. Johnsbury Hospital (below, left) conducted by the Sisters of Charity of Providence. Brightlook Hospital (below, right) has associated with it a nurses' training school. The nurses' home is shown in the distance.
JOHNSBURY.V
One Hundred 1937 Fifty Years of P
ProA
tions are set up outside and just to the rear of the building. From these in- struments are computed twice daily the official temperature and precipitation in St. Johnsbury. These records are filed monthly with the Federal govern- ment in Washington. This station is the only official weather bureau in Northeastern Vermont. Power companies up and down the Connecticut river find the information invaluable in determining the extent of rainfall in the territory drained by the headwaters of the Connecticut and its tributaries.
The Fairbanks family wisely made a public library, in a sense, their mausoleum. Horace Fairbanks was the donor of the institution which was formally named the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. It was opened to the public on November 27, 1871.
The Athenaeum was a pioneer in its field. It antedated the Carnegie era by about twenty-five years. Nowhere in Vermont was there a public library with a provision for its perpetual maintenance, or with a building so costly and well equipped. It was the first library in this part of the state.
The famous art gallery was not completed until two years later when it was decided to adopt the name Athenaeum. The combination of library and reading room with art gallery and lecture hall rendered appropriate the adoption of the name. It suggested more than a hall of books; it suggested much more appropriately a hall of learning. These lines suggested the name : "To encourage studies in literature and art the Emperor Hadrian founded an institution which he named the Athenaeum."
The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum has entertained men of world fame: Receptions were given in the Art Gallery to Henry M. Stanley after his mem- orable march into the Dark Continent; to George Kennan with Siberian shackles in his hand ; to Commodore Robert E. Peary, discoverer of the North Pole, and his arctic dogs. From the portals of the Athenaeum, President Benjamin Harrison in 1891, and President William Howard Taft in 1912, ad- dressed thousands who stood fronting the building.
About 8000 volumes were installed at the beginning. In due process of time this number more than doubled. At the last annual tabulation the library had on its shelves 26,350 volumes, and circulation during the last tabulated period covering 1936 amounted to 92,110 volumes, over nine books per capita of the population of St. Johnsbury.
The Art Gallery, completed two years after the library was opened, contains Bierstadt's Domes of the Yosemite as its central feature. When the decision was made to install the work in the new library here, New York papers deprecated its consignment "to the obscurity of a remote village in Vermont." Many other fine paintings by recognized artists adorn the Art Gallery and serve as a perpetual attraction to lovers of the art.
Athenaeum Hall, above the library, was intended to be auxiliary to the educational use of the library. The hall is used to serve the public benefit only, and no entertainment for personal profit has ever been admitted. Lecture series of an educational nature were given there for many years.
The first general collection of books in the town that might be called a library was that of Judge Paddock, the early settler so frequently involved in the chapters of this book. The judge was a voluminous reader, showing
FIFTY-SIX
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St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Compliments of ENDICOTT-JOHNSON SHOE STORE COMPLETE LINE OF FOOTWEAR 75 Railroad Street St. Johnsbury, Vt. Reasonable Prices
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Compliments of THE JAMES A. IMPEY INSURANCE AGENCY GENERAL INSURANCE Telephone 736-M
St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Compliments of R. C. HOLLAND FUNERAL HOME
Main Street
St. Johnsbury, Vt.
A. E. Counsell & Son
50 Railroad Street St. Johnsbury, Vt.
FARM EQUIPMENT
Washing Machines, Lighting Plants, Milk Coolers,
Water Outfits, Refrigerators, Radios
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51 Main Street Maker of Distinctive Clothes for Men
Shampooing, Scalp Treatment, Marcelling, Finger and Water Waving, Facial Massage, Manicuring, Curling, Permanent Waving THE HARPER METHOD SHOP BESSIE R. WARNER, Harper Method Graduate St. Johnsbury, Vermont
63 Main Street Telephone 910
Books, Stationery, Periodicals of all kinds and Maple Grove Candies THE DON C. STILES CO. 64 Railroad Street St. Johnsbury, Vermont
CHAS. H. HOWE JEWELER AND OPTOMETRIST St. Johnsbury, Vermont
CAPLAN'S ARMY STORE WORK CLOTHING A SPECIALTY 98 Railroad Street St. Johnsbury, Vermont
JOHNSBURY.)V
One Hundred ndnd Fifty Years of Prog 1937"
favoritism to his beloved law books and works on literature and history. Joseph P. Fairbanks, who as a young man began acquiring the best that could be had, owned a collection at the time of his death in 1855 which was con- sidered the most valuable library collection in the town. He opened the first bookstore on the Plain.
Hiram Hall Ide of the Center Village, who died in 1839, had what is believed to have been the first circulating library in the town. He had a private library which he put into general circulation, the books being num- bered and catalogued in an account book along with the names of the bor- rowers. At that time he was proprietor of a grist mill at the Center.
St. Johnsbury has had many public halls during its history, but many of these have vanished. It still is without a town hall, the National Guard Armory being utilized on town and village meeting days. A town hall was provided in the Court House building, opened in the winter of 1856. In later years it was not adequately large enough to handle the crowds and the meet- ings moved into the Armory after it was constructed in 1916. A few years ago the lower floor of the Court House was reconstructed and the old Town Hall was transformed into an even more dignified court room for the Cale .. donia Municipal Court.
The first public hall in the town wasn't a public hall at all. It was the home of Dr. Jonathan Arnold, the town's founder, who graciously turned over the use of his home on stated occasions for town meeting. For seventeen years all town meetings were held in dwelling houses, barns or taverns. The old Meeting House and Town Hall erected at the Center in 1804 provided a more suitable place for political and patriotic as well as religious assemblies for the next twenty-five years. In 1827 the meeting house on the Plain was built and as many public gatherings as possible were held there for conven- ience.
The first public hall for hire was Union Hall at the corner of Main and Central streets. The building, now occupied by a large grocery store and a few shops, is one of the landmarks of St. Johnsbury Village. The third floor, where the assembly hall once was, now is filled with apartments.
Perhaps the old public hall closest to the hearts of the people of its day was Music Hall. This public gathering place was located on the plot where the Colonial Apartment building now stands. It formerly was the second North Church, moved across Church street for conversion into a public hall. The old church was purchased in 1877 by Horace and Franklin Fairbanks. Some years later, in 1883, $14,000 was raised by public subscription to make the place into a fine hall and on November 20 of the following year Music Hall formally was opened.
Bertrand's Hall, now a hotel, had a colorful early history, although it is by no means old. It was constructed in 1909 by J. E. Bertrand on upper Railroad street to be used as an armory for the National Guard soldiers and a public hall. The place was opened with a colorful ball on January 7, 1910. Gov. Prouty and his staff. and many other state officers were among the distinguished guests.
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The Court House was erected in 1856, the same year that St. Johnsbury became the county seat after Danville had had the distinction for sixty years. Construction was started in May and the work was completed in time for the December term of court to be held within its spacious walls. The cost was $14,200. It previously was planned to spend $13,000 on the structure but even in those days budget limitations were sometimes broken.
The location selected was the site of the old village burial ground, deeded to the community years before by Jonathan Arnold, the town's found- er. The bones of Arnold, his wife, and several children had to be reinterred in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery before construction of the Court House began. Arnold was a man of democratic mien and he arranged to have the body of his faithful negress servant, Ruth, laid to rest in his own family plot.
The removal of those sleeping beneath the sod was not an extensive one, so far as clearing the land for construction purposes, because of the fact that many already had been moved to Mt. Pleasant, a much more beautiful spot, shortly after it was opened in 1852. The village cemetery had become more or less unsightly from over-crowding and neglect. Its tangles of brambles made upkeep impossible. The opening of Mt. Pleasant led many families to remove their dead to that more attractive spot. This practice had been going on for three years before the village took over the property for the Court House and supervised the removal of the remaining dust.
With the ground clear, work on the building got under way in the late spring and was completed in early December. To secure architectural features not possible under the specifications and budget limitations. individ- uals in the town subscribed an additional $1200. The building is of brick with brown stone trimmings in the Italian style.
Thirty-three years after its completion important improvements were made on the interior, and in an annex on the east side a large vault was in- stalled for records and documents of an official nature. This work was com- pleted in 1889.
A few years ago renovation work on the interior architecture wiped away the old town hall and in its place left a Municipal Court room, judge's chamber, state's attorney's office and two jury rooms. Workmen prodding around outside dug up a bone of some early settler, accidentally left behind when the old bones were being removed to their present resting place in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.
MAPLE GROVE INN
Western Avenue St. Johnsbury, Vermont The Old Governor Fairbanks Home Telephone St. Johnsbury 1076
Compliments of JAMES B. CAMPBELL ATTORNEY AT LAW
Merchants Bank Block St. Johnsbury, Vermont Phone: Office 661-M-Residence 661-J
E. W. HAYDEN, INC. Successor to Goodrich Store SPECIALIZING ON WORK DONE RIGHT
Plumbing
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Railroad Street
St. Johnsbury, Vermont
S
t. Johnsbury
The St. Johnsbury Municipal Airport is an immense project covering approximately 150 acres and is owned entirely by the Village. It has two completed runways of considerable length and width, and two more runways which may be quickly developed when demands of air travel require it. It has a modern all-steel hangar of a size suitable to accommodate fourteen average sized planes.
The runways are on a broad plateau some five miles north of St. Johns- bury Village and adjacent to the Lyndon town line. The track was densely wooded when the site was first selected in the early days of 1934. Within a month clearing of the land for construction of the big port had begun. The work has gone along almost continuously ever since with federal relief funds and money from the village treasury voted by its citizens.
The total cost of the airport up to and including the period ended May 4. 1937 was $78,350.61. Of this amount $65,114.21 was provided by the federal government and $13,236.40 by the village. A further break-down of these figures shows that the federal government, under its Civil Works Administra- tion granted $6,277.20; later under the Vermont Emergency Relief Adminis- tration $55,233.66 was spent by the government, to which figure the village added $3,262.67; and under the Works Progress Administration, federal funds of $3,603.35 were expended with $1,239.51 of village money.
The spacious steel hangar was entirely paid for by the village. Its total cost was $8,619.61. The village also paid $114.61 for airmarking on roof- tops at convenient points in the country surrounding St. Johnsbury as an aid to airmen as they approached the town from a distance.
There have been times when nearly 200 relief workers have been em- ployed on this project; at other times the number dwindled as low as ?5. Motor graders, gasoline shovels, tractors and many trucks were engaged in the work.
More than three years' work has produced as fine an airport as can be found in Northern New England. Its runways are conveniently long enough for the biggest planes and they have been thoroughly tried by large passenger ships, heavy U. S. Army planes and a great many private ships. The run- ways have natural draining qualities and in the winter they are kept open by village plows.
Although St. Johnsbury people are reluctant to declare the airport complete, in view of its great development possibilities, for all practical pur- poses and present demands it is in splendid condition for all types of land ships, and therefore its dedication in connection with the town's Sesqui-Cen- tennial celebration was unanimously declared in order.
The first ship to land on this field was owned and operated by Pilot Ralph Stancliff of St. Johnsbury, who now operates a flying school there and makes the port a popular one with his air taxi service. Pilot Stancliff flew in and landed on the North-South runway August 10, 1934. He also made the first take-off from the field on the following day. The first two local passen-
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St. Johnsbury Municipal Airport
Air markers throughout the north country direct flights to this field, one of the largest and best in this section of New England. The port was literally hewn from the forest and represents an outlay to date of about $80,000. There still is work to be done. When it is completed St. Johnsbury will have an airport representing $100,000 and unsurpassed in Northern New England. Its two completed runways can accommodate the largest planes. Two more runways have been plotted and may be quickly developed when de- mands of air travel require it. The all-steel fire-proof hangar houses 14 planes. The port is open twelve months of the year.
ยท
Lieut. Stetson M. Brown, U. S. A. of St. Johnsbury in whose memory the airport is dedicated
To Lieutenant Stetson M. Brown
O Youth! Who late on thundering wing Rode roaring through the sky, Who exuberantly raced the wind And passed the white clouds by; Thou-Youth, with silver wings just won, And future all untried, Whose life was scarcely yet begun- Men say that you have died.
But you -- with now unfatal wing- Speed o'er God's airways far, While we walk weeping here below You rest upon a star.
Forrestine Duke McCormick (Reprinted from Hill Trails)
US.
JOHNSBURY,V
One Hundred
of Progress
"1937" Fifty Years of
gers to take off from the airport were Raymond W. Flint, who was instru- mental in locating the site, and Town Manager Charles S. Sumner.
The first army plane to land at the airport was a huge Keystone bomb- er piloted by a local boy who was Lieut. Stetson M. Brown. The second army plane to land there was piloted by Lieut. Samuel Perham Mills of South Ryegate, but considered somewhat a St. Johnsbury boy by virtue of his years spent at the Academy.
The airport has at the present time two completed runways. There is a North-South runway 2300 feet long by 350 feet wide, and an East-West runway 1750 feet long by 350 feet wide. Both of these when fully completed will be 500 feet wide. There is a staked out and proposed Southwest-North- east runway 3700 feet long by 350 feet wide, and a Southeast-Northwest run- way 1800 feet long by 400 feet wide. By constructing a small dam to the West of the airport runways, a small valley could be filled by water making a hydro- plane base.
Actual work on the airport project began on February 5, 1934, by a survey party headed by John M. Perham and eight men. The field was located on January 12, 1934 by Carl E. Merrill and Raymond W. Flint. It was visited on January 14, 1934 by Capt. Earl Daniels, Mr. Flint and Mr. Perham to give the site a thorough inspection. At a special village meeting on January 26, 1934 the citizens unanimously voted to undertake the airport construction pro- gram.
Official survey work got under way on February 5 of the same year with the snow over the area four feet deep. The plans were presented to the State Committee on February 17 of that year and were immediately approved. Then the gigantic task of clearing the land was begun on March 1. It was considered at the time a remarkable feat that it was possible to land a ship there as early as August 10.
Since that first landing the citizens of St. Johnsbury have grown in airmindedness as few other localities have. They supported the airport prop- osition to keep St. Johnsbury abreast of the times and to always keep it on an equal, commercially and industrially, with metropolitan centers.
DEDICATORY
The St. Johnsbury Airport is dedicated as a memorial to Lieut. Stetson M. Brown, the first St. Johnsbury young man to enter the air service of his country, and who died in a crash while performing the duties of that service.
The Skalds, a literary society to which Lieut. Brown belonged, many of whom were his life long friends, have erected a memorial to the flier at the airport. A bronze tablet in a huge bowlder marker reads as follows :
This field is dedicated as a memorial to Lieut. Stetson M. Brown, U. S. A. who crashed April 5, 1936 Presented by the Skalds
Lieutenant Stetson M. Brown was born in St. Johnsbury on June 20, 1910. He attended the graded schools and was graduated from the St. Johns- bury Academy. At Norwich University, at Northfield, he was a member of
SIXTY-TWO
Sigma Alpha Epsilon and received the degree of Bachelor of Science in Elec- trical Engineering, and his commission, also, of Second Lieutenant in the United States Cavalry Reserves.
In 1933 he was transferred, at his own request, to the Field Artillery. In March, 1934, he was accepted at the United States Air Corps Flying School at Randolph Field, Texas, where he began his training in aviation, progressing to Kelly Field and graduating the following year. At the end of a year's ad- vance training at Langley Field, Virginia, he was commissioned, February 29, 1936, Second Lieutenant in the Air Corps of the United States Army Reserves.
On April 5, 1936, Lieutenant Brown was returning from Cleveland, Ohio, bringing with him his friend Cadet Paul Amespaugh, whose leave of absence had expired, when they and the three men with them were over- taken by that storm which a few hours later took hundreds of lives in its path through Georgia. Their plane crashed in the terrific wind, sleet, fog, and darkness on the side of a mountain at Fredericksburg, Pa.
His commanding officer wrote of him, "I knew Stetson as a cadet and also as an officer. He was an energetic, fearless, and excellent pilot, and had the characteristics of an excellent officer. Not only in our hearts but in the Air Corps does his death leave a gash. We Air Corps men all revere those who have gone before us, especially one who was as well known as Stetson. He died as a true Air Corps officer, in his plane, trying to save the lives of his fellow passengers and the plane itself."
ST. JOHNSBURY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
An organization for the purpose of advancing, by means of definite and sensible programs, the commercial, industrial, civic and general interests of the town of St. Johnsbury, actively supported by the following members:
C. H. Amidon Dr. D. S. Atwood
Harry M. Day E. E. Donaghy A. B. Dow
S. D. Atwood F. E. Bailey
Fairbanks, Morse & Co.
Fred W. Barrows
Dr. F. E. Farmer
Conrad F. Beck Fred C. Beck
First National Stores, Inc.
R. Bennett & Son
Dr. Willis B. Fitch Fred L. Follansbee Flint's Drug Store
The Monogram Shop Moore & Johnson Morrill & Hawkinson Max D. Moulton Thomas F. Murphy New Avenue Hotel
New England Tel & Tel. Co. Nolin Bros. Northern Cadillac Co.
Alvin C. Noyes
A. B. Noyes Agency
Hiram P. Oliver
Star Theatre G. E. Stevens A. B. Sunbury Swift & Company Tempered Maple Prod. Co.
Caldbeck-Cosgrove Corp. C. A. Calderwood, Inc. Caledonian-Record Pub. Co. James A. Cannon A. I. Caplan Cary Maple Sugar Co. Citizens Savings Bank Fred R. Clifford Concord Candy Kitchen
The Great A & P Tea Co. Green Mountain Fruit Co. The Grey Shoppe O. Dean Hale Lyman K. Harvey
P & M Fruit & Produce Co. Palace Theatre Palmer Bros. George H. Palmer Parker Drug Stores, Inc. Passumpsic Savings Bank The Peck Company Tom F. Phillips Porter, Witters & Longmoore Purina Mills, Inc. James A. Ramage
Twin State Gas & Electric Co. Irving H. Ward Z. S. Waterman
The Henault Press Hovey & Chandler
James A. Impey Agency Jackman-Butler Corp. Jenks Studio A. S. Juneau, Inc. L. P. Leach L. E. Leclerc & Son Lurchin & Lurchin
Reliance Electric Co. R. A. Renfrew
Dr. W. G. Ricker William B. Ronan Dr. E. H. Ross Eugene R. Rosselot
St. Johnsbury Academy St. J. Build. & Loan Assn. St. Johnsbury Garage St. Johnsbury Gas Co. St. Johnsbury House Hotel
Berry-Ball, Inc. The Boston Store Charles G. Braley S. K. Brigham H. Stanwood Brooks Jonas H. Brooks Calvin E. Brown Harold P. Brown Burleigh Optical Co.
Carroll H. Fox
French & Bean Co. Edward R. French G. C. Frye Gauthier's Pharmacy
St. Johnsbury Trucking Co. E. H. Schneider B. B. Scribner Searles & Graves Sears, Roebuck & Co.
Arthur E. Smith Homer E. Smith W. W. Sprague & Son
Converse Sales & Service Coombs Vulcanizing Co. A. E. Counsell & Son The Cowles Press, Inc. Craft Transportation Dr. E. A. Cramton C. H. & Geo H. Cross Co.
H. W. Randall
Morton J. Reed
James S. Weeks Weiner's Dept. Store Walter A. Wesley B. A. Wilcox Fred M. Willey Willoughby Diner F. W. Woolworth Co.
Goldberg's Auto Service C. H. Goss Co. L. L. Grant W. T. Grant Co.
Maple Grove, Inc. Donald McGregor Mclellan Stores, Inc. Menut & Parks
Merit Shoe Co. Chas. Millar & Son, Co.
First National Bank
SERVICE PLUS SECURITY
Clay Tablets found in the Mesopotamian desert tell the interesting story of the banks in the city of Babylon-the first in history. Forty centuries ago silver, and later gold, was the medium of exchange, and these ancient banks rendered the same service to the people which banks today perform, though in greater extent and diversity, in every civilized nation on the globe. Centuries of progress attest to the service and safety of their banking institu- tions.
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