The great-great-grandson of a Vermont governor gives antique cartography a new twist

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Urban Woodbury was a former mayor of Burlington who went on to become the 45th governor of Vermont. He grew up in Wolcott, near Lake Elmore, at the intersection of two country roads that no longer exist. The exact spot, now thoroughly overgrown, is currently uncharted.

The end is near for the crumbling ruins of a historic Sudbury resort

It's too late to save Hyde Manor. For more than 150 years, the distinguished Sudbury establishment catered to tourists, first as a tavern, then as a seasonal summertime resort. But it closed for good in the 1970s, and today Hyde Manor's signature four-story hotel building looks more like a haunted house than an erstwhile B&B.

Kerstin Lange finds history in your own back yard

Like many Vermonters, Kerstin Lange has had to cobble together a variety of jobs in order to earn a living in a state not known for its career opportunities. But she has taken moonlighting in Vermont a step further: She's invented a profession all her own.

Lange has worked the past three years as a landscape analyst. As far as she's aware, no one in North America -- and maybe not in the entire world -- shares this job title.

Burlington's not the only Queen City on the Map

(3.19.03)

While New York City tempts comers with the Big Apple and Boston gasses off about being Beantown, Burlington promises visitors the royal treatment by calling itself the Queen City. The name is designed to suggest that we're better than the rest, but it runs the risk of confusing Vermont's largest city with a score of other places, from Galveston, Texas, to Spearfish, South Dakota.

Recalling a bloddy chapter in Barre's radical past

by ROBIN RAY
(10.29.03)

On October 3 a centenary passed in Barre without fanfare, though not for lack of remembering. In the Granite City's Italian-American community, the same date in 1903 has the resonance of, say, Pearl Harbor Day, or Pres. Kennedy's assassination. That was the day the tragic murder of stonecarver Elia Corti disturbed the quiet, industrious self-regard of the city.

Can the home of Vermont's foremost Civil War hero be saved?

(1.7.04)

A steady, freezing rain falls through the charred rafters of an old brick house on South Main Street in downtown Waterbury. What was once an elegant front door now hangs ajar, revealing the extensive internal damage caused by an electrical fire more than a year ago. Inside, water trickles down an oak banister and pools in the front foyer.

A book about Barre revisits Vermont's Stone Age

(5.19.04)Death was a part of everyday life for Barre's stonecutters; after all, they made a lot of tombstones. The town's granite industry -- which peaked in the early 20th century -- attracted immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Spain and Italy with its promise of high wages and a decent living. But the men who cut the stone in the granite sheds were forced to inhale deadly silica dust.

Vermont homebuyers find segregation is still in fine print.

(09.01.04)While house hunting last March, Sarah Judd made an unpleasant discovery. It happened after she bid on a cute yellow Cape on Birchwood Court, just off of Shelburne Road in South Burlington. When her realtor brought over the paperwork for her to sign, the attorney and Vermont Public Interest Research Group development director read it carefully.