USA > Vermont > Addison County > Bristol > History of Bristol, Vermont (1762-1980), Third Edition > Part 8
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Main Street - looking east - before 1898 fire
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Main Street - after 1898 fire
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South side of Main Street - after 1924 fire
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1947 fire that destroyed the Bristol Manufacturing Company - South Street (compliments of Frank James)
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March 29, 1974 fire - north side of Main Street (compliments of Frank James)
rebuilt. These included Quinlan and Wright's grocery, the Rexall Drug Store, the bank, E. W. Varney's funeral parlor, and Palmer and Day's store. The records of the G.A.R., the Women's Relief Corps, and Business Men's Association were destroyed.
The O'Neill Block, a very old landmark, was destroyed by fire in 1929. It was first used as a hotel with Daniel Willard as the last landlord. Patrick O'Neill remodeled it into a business block about 1850. At the time it burned, Dewey Kemp's restaurant and Dan Thomas' store were located there. The site is that of Mckinnon's filling station.
In 1947, the Bristol Manufactur- ing Company was destroyed by fire. A few years later, the remaining buildings on the site were leveled by a fire.
In 1953, fire ruined two ware- houses of Chester Way's and did heavy damage to Shadrick's Garage and Kilbourn's storehouse.
In 1969, a fire destroyed Kimball's Gulf Station. It was located on West Street, next to the Post Office. Park Filling Station had a major fire in their office and newsstand, in November 1970. Ezra Dike's barn, in back of the Palmer Block on the north side of Main Street, was leveled in 1971. Half a business block on the north side of Main Street, including the Addison County Buyer's Club and the Kountry Kupboard Restaurant, were severely damaged by a fire in March 1974. The A. Johnson Company has had two ma- jor fires; a sawdust shed was leveled in November 1975, and a sawmill was destroyed in a fire in July 1976.
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X Utilities
The demand for expanded utilities in Bristol has increased greatly since the late 1950's. There has been in- creased street development which in turn has brought more housing needs for water, electricity, telephone, and cable TV services. In the mid-1940's, building expansion began on the upper end of North Street. During the 1950's, Crescent Street and Mountain Terrace were opened up for housing. During the forties and fifties, the Kilbourn Trailer Park off Liberty Street and the trailer park area on the corner of Maple and Pine Streets were devel- oped. During the 1960's, Mountain Street Extension and Adirondack View were opened. The 1970's brought in- creased housing along the Lower and Upper Notch Roads, and building is still continuing in the Notch. Also in the seventies, Devino Lane, Meadow Drive, and Meadow Lane areas were developed. Most recently, an elderly housing unit has been built on Moun- tain Street Extension and a small group of homes is being built on Lovers Lane. Thus, the need for increasing utility services in Bristol is evident. The population of the Town of Bristol is a little over three thousand currently and appears to be ever growing.
Cable Television
In 1969, a little over three acres of land in Bristol were bought by the Con- tinental Transmission Corporation from the John Kilbourn Estate, James and Dorothea Burpee, and Lester and Sylvia Coffin to erect a cable television tower. Several areas around Bristol were checked with ground antennas, but this particular spot was both high enough and accessible. By the fall, the three-hundred-foot tower was in place. It is the tallest cable tower in New England. In 1972, Warner Cable of Bristol bought the cable television equipment.
In 1978, the complete system in- cluding the electronics and cable were rebuilt and upgraded. There are
presently five-hundred-sixty-seven subscribers within the town and village of Bristol. The cable carries nine televi- sion channels and a broad band FM signal. Terry Gould is the present Manager/Technician for the Bristol cable system.
An offshoot of this cable service is the Bristol Broadcasting Club (BBC) at Mount Abraham Union High School. Started in the fall of 1979, the students are videotaping items of community and school interest which are then broadcast to cable viewers on Channel 2.
Material compiled by Terry Gould.
Electricity
The 1890's proved a successful decade for Bristol. The first train ran from Bristol to New Haven Junction in January 1892. On the evening of De- cember 23, that same year, the switch was thrown providing the stores and hotels of Bristol with their first electric lights. Four days later, a 1,200 candle power arc light was installed between the Bristol House and Holley Hall.
The first hydroelectric plant was located about thirty feet north of the second Rockydale bridge and had a fall of only twenty-five feet. The station was equipped with the latest model ap- paratus by the General Electric Com- pany of Boston and was considered one of the best plants in the state at the time. The dam was built by E. B. Palmer and the penstock constructed by E. M. Smith who also installed the wheels. The plant was owned by Mr. Barrett of Rutland and T. S. Drake of Bristol and operated for nearly five years by George Randall. The life of the plant was short for it burned in 1897.
The second plant was built adja- cent to the highway near the upper bridge on Route 116 heading east out of the Village and was built by W. N. Hughes and he operated it from May 1897, to 1912. Mr. Hughes also built a third plant near the lower bridge and
supervised the building of the tube. The lower bridge plant, known as the Rockydale plant, had a fall of one- hundred feet. In 1905, the Hortonia Power Company of Lake Dunmore bought the plant from Barrett and Drake and later Edward Blackwell became manager. The Bristol line became connected with the Hortonia lines and remained thus until the plant was sold to the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation, with head- quarters in Rutland, in 1926.
The plant had several improve- ments made and was eventually run semi-automatically. During the hur- ricane of September 1938, the dam was almost entirely washed away. In order to repair the damage, land was pur- chased by the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation and the water gate was changed to the highway side of the river.
The 1950's brought remarkable progress in the use of electricity in this area, according to Central Vermont Public Service Corporation which has supplied power to this section since 1929. Besides its distribution lines, the utility owned a company merchandise store on Main Street, a hydro-genera- tion station, and two substations here.
In 1949, the Bristol Village substa- tion's capacity was stepped up from 400 KVA (Kilowatt Volt Amperes) to 1,000 KVA and the ground surface was tarred at the location on Main Street. The substation's increased capacity was made because of the addition in power load and to insure continuity of service to the area's customers. Another plant improvement was the voltage step-up to 4,200 volts from 2,300 volts on Bristol Village's distribution lines. This took place dur- ing the late 1950's.
Thirteen new street lights in the business section of Bristol Village were installed in 1954. These lights were modern mercury vapor types especially designed for safe and attractive street lighting and are in use currently.
Obviously, domestic and farm
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customers have increased their kilowatt-hour use of electricity greatly in the last two decades. The number of customers using power from Central Vermont Public Service lines has also increased significantly.
In 1967, in preparation for the construction of Mount Abraham Union High School, great im- provements were made in the electrical service in Bristol. Before this time, Bristol was dependent on a substation in Weybridge. If that substation went out, Bristol went without electricity because the generator at Rockydale could not alone handle the electrical demand. In 1967, a new substation was built on Hewitt Road and a new 44,000 volt line was run between this substa- tion and a new 115,000 volt substation east of New Haven Junction. The old line had two branches, one to supply power to New Haven and one to supply power to Bristol. Also previous to the union high school opening, the elec- trical power lines from River Street to West Street to the high school were rebuilt. Improvement of equipment continued as new poles and new wire were installed throughout the side streets. At present, approximately one- quarter of the Bristol Village electrical power supply comes from the Main Street substation and three-quarters of it comes from the Hewitt Road substa- tion.
Updated information compiled by William James.
Telephones
About 1895, the public telephone system was installed in Bristol. One switchboard was at the home of Daniel Monroe at 25 Church Street. This was known as the Addison County Tele- phone Company with Allen Calhoun of Middlebury as its president. Daniel Monroe's daughter, Mrs. Vernon (Josephine) Pecor was the operator. This system handled only county calls. The rental charge was one dollar per month for subscribers and they had free service for nearby calls.
The Bristol Telephone Exchange was first known as the Hanks and Gillette line, from the names of its builders. Then it became known as the Western Telephone and Telegraph Company. The Western Telephone and
Telegraph Company was owned in- dependently, but it connected with the New England Telephone and Tele- graph Company.
The October 17, 1895, issue of the Bristol Herald had a write-up on the Bristol Telephone Exchange. It read as follows: "We wish to call your atten- tion to an enterprise that is having a healthy growth in Bristol and vicinity, namely the Bristol Telephone Ex- change. The central is at Dr. Bisbee's Drug Store. The Doctor and his effi- cient clerk, Mr. Kingman, are very painstaking and render the best of ser- vice." There were twenty-six subscribers listed. In November 1905, the Addison County Telephone Com- pany switchboard at the Monroe's was moved to the Village Drug Store owned by Dr. D. A. Bisbee, located on the north side of Main Street.
The telephone exchange at Dr. Bisbee's was later moved to the second floor of the South Side Drug Store. For many years the telephone office stayed at the South Side Drug Store location. From 1924 to 1951, the office was located on the second floor of the Lathrop Block, which would be the second floor of the King's Barn Annex today.
Western Telephone and Telegraph Company was at one time managed by F. H. Chessmore of Richmond. In 1950, M. J. Mack of Richmond became manager. On August 13, 1952, the dial system was installed. A building to house the dial equipment was built on Mill Hill behind 13 South Street. After this, the Bristol telephone office and operators were no longer needed. On January 1, 1959, the Western Telephone and Telegraph Company had eight-hundred-fifty- eight subscribers.
The early sixties saw normal growth additions made to the tele- phone equipment to service Bristol. In April 1967, Continental Telephone of Vermont bought the Western Tele- phone and Telegraph Company. A larger telephone equipment building replaced the first Mill Hill building at the same location. This was in prepara- tion for the change from ten-party ser- vice outside of the Village to four-party service. This improvement was com- pleted by 1972.
In 1970, direct distance dialing, with operators cutting in to identify the calling number, was put into effect. By 1977, direct distance dialing with automatic caller identification for private lines was completed. In 1979, the Middlebury operators were no longer used. All former Vermont operator-assisted calls are now han- dled through out-of-state operators and computerized equipment. Another improvement is that currently Con- tinental Telephone of Vermont is in- stalling its own generators in the Mill Hill building. There is a small storage building owned by the company on Munsill Avenue, in addition to the Mill Hill building.
The telephone service represen- tatives in Bristol are Gerald Guthrie and Robert O'Bryan. John Brassard handles maintenance of all equipment at the Mill Hill central office. As of February 1, 1980, there were two-thou- sand-one-hundred-ninety-five subscribers in the "453" Bristol ex- change.
Information compiled by Dickerman Orvis, Chief Switchman, Continental Telephone of Vermont.
Water
The history of a water supply in Bristol Village begins in 1811 when, in the fall, a company was incorporated to supply the residents of the Village with water. In the principal aqueduct, the water was brought first in hollow logs, then in lead pipes, which proved so unsatisfactory that the logs were used again. In 1841, pipes were made from water, cement, lime, and river sand. These pipes proved succesful and were probably used until the Munsill system was established. In the smaller aqueducts, wood logs were used ex- clusively.
On November 25, 1883, the fol- lowing residents of Garfield Street met and formed the Garfield Aqueduct Company: C. E. Smith, J. J. Dumas, M. P. Varney, S. D. Farr, E. G. Prime, Clark Huntington, and Frank Greenough. At this meeting, it was voted to assess each shareholder twenty dollars to meet the expense of buying the pipe. A meeting was held April 26, 1884, at which the constitution and
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bylaws of the company were adopted and officers elected. The supply of water was confined to the residents of Garfield Street and to S. D. Farr of North Street and to T. S. Drake on East Street who owned the spring from . which the water was taken. Mr. Drake leased this spring to the company on January 3, 1885. The company was of short duration, the last recorded meeting being held April 10, 1889.
During the decade 1880-90, the Rock Spring Water Company was established. This system, better known as the Munsill system because N. H. Munsill was the leading stockholder, took its first supply of water from a spring on Hogback Mountain. Later the Rock Spring company laid a line from a spring back of Bristol Pond to the Village and still later supplemented this by obtaining water from the spring in the Basin. At first this water was piped into tubs near the street, one tub serving two families.
In 1903, Bristol Village was incor- porated and the Rock Spring system could not supply the needs of the whole Village. At one time, a huge ram was brought to Bristol via the railroad with the thought that it would be able to push water from the New Haven River up the hill into the Village. The ram operated but it would not push one drop of water up into the Village water mains. After two months of trying to
make the ram work as it should, it was shipped back by rail to the manufac- turer.
By 1905, plans were underway to bring water from springs at the base of Mount Abraham in Lincoln to a reser- voir on Hogback Mountain and the present gravity system was thus established. In the spring of 1906, it is said Bristol "was sure a sick-looking Village" as every man that could be hired was put to work with pick and shovel to dig ditches for water pipes through the streets and into house cellars. Meanwhile, the reservoir was being built on Hogback.
Some time after this, the Munsill system ceased to operate. The spring in the Basin came into use again in the winter of 1933-34 when parts of the water mains in the Village froze. A pump was installed there to pump water into the mains which were not frozen and to prevent a water famine. At a Village meeting in 1934, it was voted to buy the pump and equipment and install it permanently to be ready for emergencies.
In 1973, another water pump was installed along the New Haven River at the base of South Street. Originally this pump and the Basin Street pump were to be backup systems to the gravity system. Currently all three systems are used daily to feed water into the Village reservoir.
In 1964, there was much talk about chlorinating the water in Bristol. Finally the vote for chlorination was approved. In July 1964, a building to house a chlorinator was constructed on Briggs Hill where part of the water sup- ply pipes are laid. Currently chlorina- tion is mechanized at three locations, the Briggs Hill station, the Basin Street pump, and the South Street pump.
Water samples are sent to the Ver- mont State Health Department generally three times a month for testing. Daily it is tested at varying locations for turbidity.
The reservoir has a six-hundred- fifty-thousand gallon capacity. It is en- circled by an eight-foot high fence and the brush around it is kept down. It is cleaned by hand at least twice a year and any cracks are sealed. There is a diversion pipe at the mouth of the reservoir so that the water supply can flow directly into the Village line when the reservoir is emptied for mainte- nance purposes. The Village Water Department serves five-hundred-fifty households. Bristol residents often say the cool, clear mountain spring water is the best water in the state.
Much of this information was compiled by Water Foreman John C. Smith.
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XI Transportation
Bristol Airport
At a special Town Meeting held in Bristol, January 25, 1934, the voters appropriated a sum of money for the construction of an airport, and authorized the Selectmen to purchase a tract of land for same. Nine landown- ers sold a total of 45.68 acres to the Town for $2,673.41. The acreage was located at the western edge of the Village on a very flat, open area just off West Street.
The construction of the airport was also funded by Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) monies from the federal government. George N. Lathrop invited the Vermont W.P.A. supervisor to come to Bristol to authorize the appropriation of funds for the airport. Lathrop became Chair- man of the first Airport Commission appointed by the Selectmen to super- vise the operation of the field. Other members of that first commission who were responsible for getting the project underway were Lyle C. Churchill, Wallace M. De Coursey, Arthur F. Gove, Leland H. Landon, Ridley J. Norton, George G. Smith, and Foster G. Whitcomb. The airport opened in 1936.
The airport was to have four run- ways, but only one north and south runway of two-thousand-two-hundred feet was ever completed. Eventually there were five buildings connected with the airport including various hangars and the Administration Building built in 1941.
Pilot Joseph W. Rock came to Bristol Airport in July 1936 to manage the field and operate a private flying course there. Initially he offered train- ing to college students. In 1939, the Private Flying Division of the U. S. Civil Aeronautics Authority (C.A.A.) granted a quota of twenty Middlebury College students to train for private flying. This program continued for a few more years. The last C.A.A. pro- gram included ten college students and a select group of ten high school seniors. Included in the latter group
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Bristol Airport - Airport Drive - aerial view (compliments of Cora Rock)
were James Bouvier, Lawrence Bouvier, John Cragen, Thomas Cushman, Frederick LaParl Eddy, John C. Smith, and Robert Willey from Bristol.
In 1941, Bristol Airport started training enlisted Navy men in conjunc- tion with Middlebury College. Even- tually hundreds of pilots were trained in Bristol for participation in World War II. The number of planes grew to five to accommodate the increase in students. The airport was maintained by rent received from flying activities on the field.
Joseph Rock died in a plane crash October 22, 1960, at the age of sixty- one, while working for a private com- pany. He had been an aviator for more than thirty-five years. Before coming to Bristol, he had flown with the Navy during World War I, done acrobatic flying, and had been associated with other Vermont airports.
After the death of Mr. Rock, ac- tivity at the Bristol Airport gradually declined.
The former Administration Build- ing was used for a teen center for a short time and the other buildings were used for town storage. In 1966, the air-
port was sold to the Union High School District #28 School Board. It is now the location of Mount Abraham Union High School. The former Ad- ministration Building is now the District Superintendent's office.
For information on the Bristol Airport, we are much indebeted to a manuscript called "A History of the Short Life of Bristol Airport, 1936-1960" written by Cora S. Rock.
Bristol Railroad
The Bristol Railroad was initially a dream of two local men, Myron F. Wilson and J. J. Ridley. Mr. Wilson, who started the Bristol Herald, saw a railroad as the local means for trans- porting to market the products manu- factered in Bristol, such as coffins, wooden boxes, and butter tubs. Mr. Ridley envisioned increased business for his Bristol House. The two men joined forces. Mr. Wilson wielded the mighty pen and Mr. Ridley started his campaign to convince the townfolk, the Selectmen, and the state legislature. Several meetings were held in the early 1880's to discuss the subject, after which J. J. Ridley introduced a bill in
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the legislature incorporating the Bristol Railroad Company. In 1890, a survey was made of the route and on November 11, 1890, a special Town Meeting was held and six men were authorized to issue $15,000 worth of . bonds to aid in the construction of the roadbed. Work was begun on the road- bed in 1890, but much trouble was ex- perienced with those in charge of the work and for a few months all activity ceased.
For months it looked as if the project was doomed, but it was taken up again by Percival W. Clement of Rutland. He became president of the Bristol Railroad Company and pur- sued the roadbed construction. The project was completed in January 1892. The first train ran from Bristol to New Haven Junction to connect with the Rutland Railroad on January 5, 1892. The line was just over six miles long. Richard S. Smith, superintendent and conductor, was in charge of the first run. Two stops were made be- tween Bristol and New Haven Junc- tion, at Tucker's Crossing and New Haven Street, where simple shelters were erected. A third shelter was later erected at Hubbard's Crossing where stops were made.
One amusing incident is gleaned from the Bristol Herald's account of the first trip, which records the fact that it took only twenty-five minutes to make the trip to the Junction, but it re- quired thirty minutes to return because the upgrade at Tucker's Crossing was too much for the original engine which was rented from another railroad.
The first engine was replaced in February 1892 by a new and more powerful one from the Rhode Island Locomotive Works. The new engine, gilt trimmed, bore the inscription "Bristol Railroad, No. 1" in bold let- ters and was a unique two-way one with a cow catcher at each end. The engine was just run in reverse for the return trip. Initially there were two daily round trips on the regular schedule which ran six days a week. Early time tables allowed twenty-five minutes for the run. Fare was twenty- five cents to New Haven or thirty-five cents to the Junction. Round-trip fare was sixty cents. In April 1892, a com-
bination coach was added permanently to the line.
In August 1892, a depot was built at Bristol and like everything con- nected with the railroad, no expense was spared in its construction, for the railroad was built for permanency. The former depot is currently a private residence at 83 North Street.
Among the variety of items car- ried by the railroad were potatoes from Lincoln and Starksboro, milk, maple syrup and sugar, Christmas trees, coal, and carloads of horses. Special excur- sions were arranged for passengers to attend events outside of town such as concerts, plays, and baseball games.
Other attractions came into Bristol because of the railroad, including the circus, minstrel shows, and the Chautauqua Courses.
For several years, the Bristol Railroad was very successful; but its passenger service declined as the use of automobiles increased. In its last years, the railroad depended almost entirely on its freight service. When manufac- turing in Bristol began to decline, the railroad became a liability and was discontinued in 1930 after running for thirty-eight years.
Bristol resident Peveril Peake, who was three years old at the time, rode out on the last run to New Haven
Old Railroad Station - North Street - present residence of Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell Lathrop
Old Railroad Station - North Street
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1
1, a
S
e
er in
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Junction on April 12, 1930. He tells the following story about that run in an in- terview with him in February 1979: "I was going to ride back on it . . . but the safety valve let go . . . and I didn't want any fire-breathing, smoke- belching monster like that to ride on!" One can imagine the awesome sight as viewed by a three year old.
The end of the Bristol Railroad af- fected the transportation of two vital necessities, coal and milk. The railroad was the medium through which P. W. Clement had furnished coal to Bristol. After the railroad was discontinued, the coal business was purchased by Clarence E. Lathrop and Glenn E. Jackman and is currently known as Jackman's Inc., owned by Glenn E. Jackman's son, Frederick Jackman. The Whiting Milk Company continued to operate for a short time after the railroad stopped running by sending the milk to Rutland by truck. Soon, however, the Bristol plant closed.
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