Walpole Academy (Pictures from Web)

While not exactly a tourist mecca, Walpole, our final New Hampshire destination, does have a few claims to fame:

• First bridge across Connecticut River (1795)
• Master builder Aaron Prentiss Howland’s Walpole Academy (1831)
• Plethora of lilacs here prompt Louisa May Alcott’s Under the Lilacs (1878)
• Documentary film-maker Ken Burns lives here.
• Burdick’s chocolates & restaurant

Lucia, one of the innkeepers at Meadowlark Inn, told us about Burdick’s and were we glad we followed up on her enthusiastic recommendation. Absolutely everything about our lunch was superb from beginning to end. It easy to understand why people, like the woman sitting next to us, drive for an hour or more to dine here regularly.

When we left the restaurant, it was raining again, and I didn’t get any more pictures.  I regret that now, as there were some old homes and other buildings we found interesting and it turns out there are few photos of the town available on the web.

Burdick’s Chocolates & Restaurant occupy much of the ground floor of this building, also owned by Larry Burdick & Ken Burns. It still needs some work done on it.

We later found out that this is Hastings Memorial Parish House

(Click here for a great set of interior views of this house & a bit of Walpole)

Our visit was somewhat hampered by on-and-off rain, wind, and the chill factor. Other than the small gift shop, the indoor spaces felt unheated. Touring the house was not offered as an option, possibly because of a group of elementary school students on a field trip. Listening to kids individually react to the sculptures and overhearing a couple of docent-led discussions with the group was the best part.

(Photos of some of Saint-Gauden’s work on display below the fold)

Theodore Roosevelt asked Saint-Gaudens to re-design American coins for the new century. His double-eagle ($20) gold coin is widely considered the most beautiful American coin ever produced.  Only Saint-Gauden’s gold-piece designs were ultimately minted.

The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial was especially moving. The original work, located on the edge of Boston Commons, took 13 years to complete. A number of the studies used to create the piece were on display in the studio. (Click on link for excellent close-ups of the work, at bottom of that page)

Shaw, who led the the otherwise all-black Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War, was killed during a failed Union effort to take Ft. Wagner in South Carolina. While it was customary at that time to return the remains of officers killed in action, the Confederates threw Shaw’s stripped and robbed body into a mass grave, and then piled dead black soldiers on top of it. They intended it as an insult. Instead, his family considered it an honor:

We would not have his body removed from where it lies surrounded by his brave and devoted soldiers….We can imagine no holier place than that in which he lies, among his brave and devoted followers, nor wish for him better company – what a body-guard he has!

The 1989 film Glory was based on the story of the 54th Regiment.

The Farragut Memorial, erected in New York’s Madison Square Park in 1881, was the first major commission for Saint-Gaudens. “[I]ts naturalism, its lack of bombast and its siting combined to make it a tremendous success, and Saint-Gaudens’ reputation was established.”

Author Henry Adams (grandson of John Quincy Adams) commissioned this memorial after his wife, Marian Hooper Adams, committed suicide at age 42. It was erected over her grave in Rock Creek Cemetary in Washington, D.C. in 1891. Adams himself was later buried here as well.

Studio Courtyard

Studio

As Wikipedia reports, the museum is “in a building which was once home to the Robbins & Lawrence Armory company. The museum is home to the largest collection of historically significant machine tools in the United States. The Robbins & Lawrence building itself is an outstanding example of New England mid-19th-century mill architecture and in 1966 was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also on the ASME list of historic mechanical engineering landmarks.

The museum shows old machines typical of the American civil war. Among the excellent collection of pieces found numerous guns and rifles of the time. Among other machines can find all sorts of gadgets whose purpose is to create metal parts and gear for other machines.”

The pulleys were once powered by the nearby stream

Some of the rifles produced here. Many on display exceedingly rare

According to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers:

In fulfilling a contract for 25,000 U.S. Army rifles (Model 1841) and a like quantity for the British government, Robbins and Lawrence were the first to achieve interchangeability of parts on a fully practical level, contributing greatly to all subsequent mass production of machine products. This was made possible by the systematic improvement and refinement of existing standard and special-purpose machine tools, enabling them to perform with the close-limit precision essential for “repeatability” and thus interchangeability (see the American Precision Museum). Simultaneously the firm introduced the milling machine and the turret lathe into routine commercial usage for production manufacturing. The social implications of this technological revolution have been universal.

These 1/16 scale working models of various shop machines were amazing. All of them ran, and all were built from scratch by master machinist John Aschauer. Aschauer relied on his memory, not plans, to create the models. His first working model, of a steam plant, built when we as age 14,  is also here. Aschauer is said to have spent over 40,000 hours creating these miniature masterpieces.

Unfortunately, most of my pictures from here came out unfocused, so I don’t have a good shot of  the first Bridgeport vertical milling machine (serial #001)  produced in 1938. Today, almost any milling machine of any size or type is referred to as a “Bridgeport,” just as a copier machine is usually called a “Xerox.” For some good close-ups of various equipment on display in the museum, click on this Shop Stuff post. While looking around for better photos, I ran across this one of the giant Columbia high-wheel bike on display:

Until completion of Ohio’s Smolen-Gulf Bridge in 2008, the 449′-long Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge spanning the Connecticut River since 1866 was the longest such bridge in the United States. Despite being widely referred to as a Vermont covered bridge due to it’s proximity to Windsor, it is actually entirely within the state of New Hampshire.

The Vermont Republic was created at the Old Constitution House on July 8, 1777. Vermont’s constitution was the first in the Americas to ban slavery and indentured servitude, provide universal suffrage for adult men, and require free public education for all citizens, both male and female.

Undergoing renovation, this house will soon become the Snapdragon Inn

This private home on a hill looked like an even better site for a B&B

This apartment building under construction caught our eye as it was one of the largest we’d seen on our trip and appeared to fit right into the surrounding area.

Although severely damaged by fire in 1990,  traces of the 100-year-old building’s can be seen inside.

The owner told me there 3 chefs created all of the tempting baked goods daily beginning at 2 A.M.

About 2 dozen employees make fresh salads, side dishes, main dishes as well as hot and cold sandwiches to order. The pulled pork in maple barbeque sauce sandwich was magnificent. The sauce wasn’t too heavy, as I often find barbeque sauce to be.

Like our hostesses at Meadowlark Inn, the deli served great coffee roasted locally by Mocha Joe’s. Almost all of the products not created in the store, such as jams and preserves, are made inVermont or other New England states.

I ended up making a right turn and then turned turning left into Creamery Bridge in order to turn around:

While filling up at the gas station, I heard the sound of falling water nearby and decided to investigate by peering over the railing alongside this not-pedestrian friendly road:

What I found was a well-hidden and unmarked waterfall along Whetstone Brook:

I also noticed that deli marooned on a triangular island bounded by streets, but that’s another story, not this one.

Whetstone Brook flows by the south edge of downtown Brattleboro. The falls there were harnessed to power a paper mill. This 1907 postcard captures the falls with the dam extant:

Here’s what Whetstone Brook Falls look like these days:

(Photo from web – it was raining too hard to get a picture)

(Middle photo from Web)

Brattleboro is the oldest town in Vermont and, with 12,000 residents, currently its 7th largest by population. (Montpelier, the state capital has about 8,000 residents, making it #13 in the state and the smallest in the United States.) Brattleboro is noted for its large arts community and was rated #9 in John Villani’s book The 100 Best Small Art Towns in America. Brattleboro’s other claim to fame is that Ida May Fuller, the nation’s very first Social Security recipient (#000-000-001), died here at age 100.

We especially liked wandering around the heights just above Main Street. Along High Street and side roads from there, we found many interesting and well-maintained early 20th-century houses. Someone built quite a few Dutch Colonials which reminded me of my house in Portland.

It seems a lot of people only stop for 1 night (a big mistake IMO), so we were able to peek into all of the rooms when empty. A lot of thought went into their decoration and furnishing. Someone did a fine job of  creating individual baths for each in what had been a one-bath home. My mom had a ground floor room in the converted coach house while I was upstairs in the main house.

Rainbow was nice touch but it was a bit cold for an overnight in the tee-pee.

Rhuby gave us a friendly welcome

Traded stories with a nice couple from Bath, UK here one evening

The coach house had its own cozy living room w/ fireplace

(Photos from Web)

Many Vermonters told us that they think Newfane has the nicest village green in the state. Someone said it looks like one of those classic miniature Christmas villages sold by Lemax or Dept. 51, with the courthouse, church, meeting hall and a bed & breakfast neatly arranged around a green. The weather wasn’t cooperative while we were there, and I thought I’d find better photos on the web than I could take myself. I did, but not one showing the whole effect. Perhaps the many trees got in the way. The local market was neat, too. It’s been operating in that location since 1825.

The Old Tavern is one of the oldest continuously operating inns in the U.S.

About half of the buildings in town are owned by the Windham Foundation

Like many houses seen on trip, wings added here ramble & vary greatly

I would have loved going inside this house undergoing renovation

The local store was less tourist-oriented than most. Note the deli in back.

The viburnum bush in front of the church was even more brilliant red in person

The historical society building was tiny but packed with interesting exhibits