The Brattleboro Historical Society Podcast

Here's the story of how Dr. Frank O'Connor brought the Valley Fair back from bankruptcy and set it on a path for success in the 20th Century...

Dr. O'Connor played major league baseball for a short time but achieved two distinct statistics that will keep him in the record books for a long time. This is part 1 of a two part story explaining how he lived in Brattleboro for less than a decade but had a lasting impact on the community...

Holton Home has served the elderly in Brattleboro for 125 years. The facility closed this summer. Here is the story...

West Brattleboro’s Arthur H. Goodenough passed away on September 18, 1936. He was a full-time hill farmer and an amateur poet. Upon his passing he left over 3,000 poems. Here's a story about his poems...

Twenty years ago two high school students, Ben Tucker and Mike Cohen, began the first iteration of the Brattleboro Historical Society website. This recording shares how things have changed for us in the world of social media since then.

Tom Finnell was a volunteer assistant of BUHS sports teams for two decades. He represented Brattleboro at many athletic venues around the state and was respected throughout Vermont. Here's his story...

This week we share the story of local radio station WTSA and hear anecdotes from John Clark and Ian Kelly, two people who have served in the DJ seat at WTSA

Rob Farnham and Joe Juscen were two local football linemen who went on to play college football. Here's their stories...

Next Saturday, August 6, the park east of the railroad station with be transformed into “RiverFest Village”. It will be part of a broad offering of free family-friendly activities that will take place on both sides of the river. The historical society will be there to celebrate the history of the Connecticut River. An overview of the day and a little history is included in this recording.

It is golfing season and recently at the Brattleboro Country Club two tournaments were held, the Vermont Amateur and the BCC championship. The local championship has some history, and it is fitting that we take a look back at two premier golfers, Shawn Baker and Hugh Barber...

In 1949 the Brattleboro Maples semi-pro baseball team won the Northern League pennant. It was a team made up of major league "has-beens" and "never-weres". On the last day of the 70 game season they won the league by a few percentage points over the rival Montpelier team. Here's the story...

In 1918 the US was dealing with staggering inflation and food shortages as a result of World War I The government recruited school children to grow food during the summer months and women were asked to work on the farms...here's the story...

A local company adopted the slogan “the Best Seat in the House” to promote its most popular product. The business was named after its founder, C.F. Church. The most popular product of the Church Manufacturing Company was a toilet seat. Here's the story...

In 1920 a large portion of the Bradley farm north of the West River was purchased by the Windham County Cooperative Milk Producers Association. The Milk Producers Association purchased the 75 acre property and planned to build a milk plant on the sight. The milk plant was a cooperative effort of the dairy farmers in the area. Originally, 115 farmers joined together in the cooperative and within a...

In 2020 three middle school activists visited with the Town Manager to discuss the Civil War Soldiers' Monument. In 2022 a corrective bronze tablet will be added to the site to present a more comprehensive representation of those who fought and died for Brattleboro during the Civil War. Here's the story...

Henry and Janet Schroeder moved to Ginseng Hill in West Brattleboro in the 1950’s. He was an accomplished scientific researcher and she was an accomplished sculptor. By happenstance a litter of rats at the Schroeder laboratory would help change the world of science. Here's the story...

BAMS Local History students read Richard Hamilton's Memorial Day speech he delivered on May 27, 2022. More than 400 students, staff and community members were in attendance.

Charles Alvah Smith built over 600 wooden clocks that included wooden internal movements to keep time. In 1944 he was featured in the Saturday Evening Post. He was a self taught artisan who spent much of his life in his woodworking shop on Canal Street...

Richard Hamilton, World War II veteran, is scheduled to speak during this week's Memorial Day Remembrance at Brattleboro Union High School. BHS Alumni who died while serving during World War I will be honored.

In 1936 the Massachusetts State Police reported that the Vernon Dam had burst. Radio stations broadcast the news and phone lines were jammed with frantic callers. Turner's Falls began evacuating the local hospital. Here's the story...

1900 Valley Fair in Brattleboro...30 year old Jessie Tarbox Beals took photos for the Vermont Phoenix and the Windham County Reformer. The Reformer published her name with the photos and, according to photography historian Alexander Alland, Sr., Beals became the first recognized female photojournalist in the United States. This is the story...

250 years ago the Greenleaf's built a home and business on a road that would become Main Street. At the time there were about 20 families living in Brattleboro. They were the first family to settle on the stretch of the Great River Road that would later become Main Street...

In 1955 the Clark Farm was purchased in order to secure a spot for the Living Memorial Park. A plan for the development of the 53 acre recreation area off Guilford Street progressed through the year. The Recreation Board stressed the need for a swimming pool as soon as possible, as “the present facility at the West River is unreliable, uneconomical and dangerous.” Here's the story...

The first town beach was established on the north end of Island Park in 1922. In 1934 the second town beach started on the West River. Here is the origin story of both...

How does a Russian astronomer name an asteroid after a Brattleboro native? Why is a crater on the far side of the moon named after the same man? Listen to the story of how Edwin B Frost became a leading astrophysicist in the last century...