st. albans history

History of St. Albans, Vermont By Ryan Gaudette

The original railroad station in St. Albans

Town History • St. Albans was chartered by Colonial Governor Benning Wentworth on August 17, 1763 to Stephen Pomeroy and 63 other people. • It was a grant from New Hampshire • First Settled by Jesse Weldon during the Revolution • They settled there because of the rich farming land. • Eventually it became known for its repair shops, railroads and its’ iron foundry. • People are still there today because of the jobs, the people, the culture and how close it is to lake Champlain. • St. Albans is also called the maple syrup capital of the world. • St. Albans is the northernmost engagement of the civil war. It was know as the St. Albans Raid.

Locations of Buildings

City Hall Congregational Church Holy Angels Church Bellows Free Academy

Bellows Free Academy

Bellows Free Academy Exterior

Shown in the picture above is the schools clock on the front of the buildings. You can also notice the capitals at the top of the pillars.

Exterior

Photo above is of one of the beams in the front of the building next to the main door. It has Corinthian capitals and also notice the details on the ceiling.

Interior The picture to the right shows a Greek statue in front of a partially stained window. This is in the main hallway in the front of the building.

To the right is the boarder that goes around the part of the hallway that the statue above is in. Notice the attention to detail with everything in this room

Bellows Free Academy B.F.A. St. Albans was first built because of a man by the name of Hiram Bellows. He left his stock of the of the New York Central Railroad and Hudson River railroad to the city of St. Albans to be sold to build a free high school. They built B.F.A. with the $270,000 they got from the stock, it was the first and only free high school that St. Albans has ever had. He left them the stock because he wanted to allow St. Albans to have a free high school. It was also built on the same spot his house was on. It was built by modern standards back then in 1930. It was equipped with science offices and laboratories. It also had a basketball court in the gym and a nice auditorium with base floor seats and balcony seats. The auditorium hasn’t been changed since it was built and can seat up to 715 people. They still use this school today. The building has expanded lately adding a tech center and turned the old hospital building next to it into class rooms and science labs (Haynes, St. Albans).

Bellows Free Academy This building played a big role in my life and many others. I graduated from this school in 2009 and it has helped me get to where I am today. This is a great school. And although you might not notice it as much when you are attending the school, it has a lot of history to it and is beautifully designed for a school. Most schools these days don’t have the history and architectural look ours has. This building is also built very strong and should last a very long time. The outside is constructed of bricks, and as you can see from the pictures has big columns that support the front balcony, but is mostly still for look purposes. The inside is built strong too. Its constructed of mostly tile floors and solid walls. It has three floors with some of the floors all original tiles and wood. And everything seems to balance the look of the building. Today these might make it seem like it looks old but that’s what gives the building its character. And it adds this character to the look of the city (Haynes, St. Albans).

City Hall

Exterior

The photo above is of the top left of the building.

The photo to the right is the tower on the right side of the building. This building has a unique style.

Exterior

Above is the main entrance to the building. As u can see it is an arch.

Interior

City Halls basketball court

City Hall The actual City Hall that is in St. Albans today was built around 1895. The original building was building was built earlier in the 1800’s and was burnt down in a fire in the 1890’s. It was formally known as the Tremont House before it was burnt down. City Hall was built by Arthur H. Smith and the town offices were and still are located in the building. The building has a Romanesque style look to it (nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com). It is built with brick on just about all of it, with the roofing and some detailing made from copper. It hard to notice in the pictures but they replaced the copper roofing a couple of years ago with new copper. The main entrance has a roman arch that’s detailed with stone blocks around the edge of it. It also has old style window in it. The part that sticks out the most on it is the offset tower on the right side of it. It makes the building stand out more than it would without it. Another neat detail it has on it besides the stone edging is the way the bricks are assembled on the parts of the building that are rounded. They leave a little gap in-between the bricks and creates a nice look to the building. I grew up not to far from this building and played sports in it when I was a kid. I have always loved the design of this building and look at it every time I enter it. This building will be around for a very long time as long as there isn’t another fire. This is another building that adds good character to the city with it’s old brick looks (Haynes, St. Albans).

Congregational Church

Exterior

This photo above shows and old archway with a door you can not see from the picture. The photo on the right is of the tall tower of the left side of the building.

Exterior The photo below is of the right side of the building.

This photo above is another photo of the front.

Congregational Church This church that is in the pictures is not the original building. It was burned down in 1891 by a fire. For the three years that the building was not in service do to the fire, they held their services at the courthouse that was located and is still there today which is next door. It rebuilt in 1894 on Church Street. It looks a lot like a gothic revival piece of architecture to me. It is constructed of bricks like many churches. The church has a door on the left side that is constructed of roman arches. It has a complex look to it. It doesn’t look like the average church design. The church also has stained window that add a nice look to it. The Congregational Church has a very dark look to it, but overall is a beautifully designed church. I like the old style look of it so much that I took some of my senior pictures around it. It also looks like it is structurally sound for the most part. There has been very little renovations to it in the past 100 years. One of them including the sanctuary's’ center aisle (Haynes, St. Albans)

Holy Angels Church

(cardcow.com/261608/holy-guardian-angels-church-st-albans-vermont/)

Exterior

Side view of the church from parking lot

Exterior

Side view of the church with Steeple

Exterior Below is the front view below the steeple

Above is the front of the steeple

Interior

This is a picture taken from up on the balcony in the back of the church where the organ and more seats are (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69087264@N00/350546 4245/).

Interior

Another picture from the balcony decorated for Christmas. This picture also has a better view of the dome in the back (flickr.com/photos/69087264@N00/4208546217/).

Interior

Picture above is taken from floor level looking at the alter (picasaweb.google.com).

Holy Angels Parish Holy Angels Church was made by the order of Bishop DeGoesbriand as a French national church. It was to serve everyone of French descent. The church was built in 1887 and stayed unchanged until about 1985 when they preserved the art and features of the original church. It has an organ that is one of only three of its’ kind in New England. As you can see in the first picture, it has no steeple. This is because it burned down in 1918. It wasn’t replaced until 2000. Today Holy Angels has over 1300 families, and do to the development in St. Albans it is constantly growing in numbers. It looks to be a roman style church. It is made from bricks, and has beautiful stained glass windows. I wish I had more pictures to show how wonderfully decorated the inside ceilings are. They are covered in painting and designs completely.

Holy Angels Parish The have arches that run the entire length of the church on the inside which are also very well decorated. In the very back of the church above the alter there is a nice small dome. And above the center aisle is rounded ceiling. The ceiling is very high and amazing to look at. Although it was not the first church in St. Albans, in my mind it is the best designed church. The attention to detail when building it was magnificent. Every part of the church is detailed very well. I also grew up going to this church and loved to look at all the decorative features in it. It adds character to the city just like the other three buildings because of its history and old style look. This church is very well maintained and seems to have a sturdy structure. I think it will also be around for a lot longer (myfairpoint.net).

Citations • Images of America – St. Albans, 1996., By: Louise Haynes • St. Albans Town Hall (City Hall) – National Register of Historic Places Nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com • “Holy Angels Parish” myfairpoint.net. History, n.d. n.p. 8 Dec. 2010 myfairpoint.net/holyangels/history.htm • “Holy Angels Church” flickr.com. Picture, 5 may 2009. n.p. 8 Dec. 2010 flickr.com/photos/69087264@N00/3505464245/

Citations • “Holy Angels Church, St. Albans VT” google.com. Picture, n.d. n.p. 8 Dec. 2010 picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Xgj8OGwLZbMnOjOR0hkcTA • “Holy Angels” flickr.com. Picture, 1 Dec. 2009. n.p. 8 Dec. 2010 flickr.com/photos/69087264@N00/4208546217/ • “Holy Guardian Angels Church” cardcow.com. Picture, n.d. C. W. Hughes and Co. 8 Dec. 2010 cardcow.com/261608/holy-guardian-angels-church-st-albansvermont/